Dickens' critical response to Carlyle: Work, justice, and judgement in 'Bleak House' and 'Past and Present'

This thesis argues that Dickens' response to Carlyle was a critical one rather than simply that of a disciple to his master. Contrary to a number of critics, I demonstrate the way Dickens' thinking about the nature of work and justice in Bleak House extends and complicates Carlyle's ideas in Past and Present.;In my third chapter, I outline Carlyle's universal conception of justice and the way in which Dickens endorses this universal to a large extent. I then argue that Dickens questions and complicates this conception by dramatizing a wide range of judgements that demonstrate both their necessity and the devastation that can be wrought by them.;In my second chapter, I examine Carlyle's portrayal of work as a universal right and duty. I then consider how Dickens shows both the creative and destructive power of work in the particular stories of Richard, Neckett, Skimpole, and Bucket.