Novel Entry #1: Mrs. Pardiggle's Visit, or How Not to Help the Poor

When writing anything about Mrs. Pardiggle and Mrs. Jellyby, Dickens usually relies on satire to drive his point home about the middle class's futile efforts to help the poor. However, Dickens' narrative takes a serious turn when Mrs. Pardiggle visits Jenny and her family. Dickens reveals Mrs. Pardiggle's condescending judgment of the poor when she disdainfully blames the people's "untidy habits" for their dreadful living conditions. Esther, the paradigm of goodness and compassion, immediately questions Mrs. Pardiggle's critical attitude by thinking, "I doubted if the best of us could have been tidy in such a place." Esther also thinks that Mrs. Pardiggle's manner is "too business-like and systematic" when talking to the family and not appropriate for the circumstances. Indeed, Mrs. Pardiggle seems to be talking at the family instead of to them, and her visit only increases the antagonism and negativity in the room, as seen in the husband's response to Mrs. Pardiggle. His retort is effective because he gives details about his life that prove Mrs. Pardiggle's efforts to put everything in black and white wrong and unfair. For instance, the husband reveals that the family is illiterate, have lost many children, and drink filthy water. Truly, Mrs. Pardiggle's lack of understanding and sympathy directly interfere with her efforts to help the family.
Not only that, but after Mrs. Pardiggle leaves, Esther and Ada discover that Jenny's baby has died. This detail is truly shocking and morbid, especially after imagining Mrs. Pardiggle's coldness to the poor wife. This coupled with the detail of Jenny's "black eye" serve to increase the reader's emotion and sympathy for the poor woman and reveal to the reader the truly heartbreaking conditions in which the poor might live. Dickens then directly contrasts Mrs. Pardiggle's condescending judgment with Esther's kind and compassionate actions, such as when Esther puts her handkerchief over the infant's face. Jenny truly appreciates Esther, as seen how Jenny keeps Esther's handkerchief. Though Dickens does not give a straightforward solution to the problems of the poor, he shows that patronizing judgment is not the correct way to aid the poor effectively.