As usual, Dickens drew upon many real people and places but imaginatively transformed them in his novel (see character list below for the supposed inspiration of individual characters).
Although not a character, the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case is a vital part of the novel. It is believed to have been inspired by a number of real-life Chancery cases involving wills, including those of Charles Day and William Jennens, and of Charlotte Smith's father-in-law Richard Smith.
Major characters
- Esther Summerson is the heroine. She is Dickens's only female narrator. Esther is raised as an orphan by Miss Barbary, (who is in fact her aunt). She does not know her parents' identity. Miss Barbary holds macabre vigils on Esther's birthday each year, telling her that her birth is no cause for celebration, because the girl is her mother's "disgrace." Because of her cruel upbringing she is self-effacing, self-deprecating and grateful for every trifle. The discovery of her true identity provides much of the drama in the book. Finally it is revealed that she is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Dedlock and Nemo (Captain Hawdon).
- Honoria, Lady Dedlock is the haughty mistress of Chesney Wold. The revelation of her past drives much of the plot. Before her marriage, Lady Dedlock had an affair with another man and bore his child. Lady Dedlock discovers the child's identity (Esther Summerson), and because she has revealed that she had a secret predating her marriage, she has attracted the noxious curiosity of Mr. Tulkinghorn, who feels bound by his ties to his client, Sir Leicester, to pry out her secret. At the end of the novel, Lady Dedlock dies, disgraced in her own mind and convinced that her husband can never forgive her moral failings.
- John Jarndyce is an unwilling party in Jarndyce and Jarndyce , guardian of Richard, Ada, and Esther, and owner of Bleak House. Vladimir Nabokov called him "one of the best and kindest human beings ever described in a novel". A wealthy man, he helps most of the other characters, motivated by a combination of goodness and guilt at the mischief and human misery caused by Jarndyce and Jarndyce , which he calls "the family curse." At first, it seems possible that he is Esther's father, but he disavows this shortly after she comes to live under his roof. He falls in love with Esther and wishes to marry her, but gives her up because she is in love with Mr. Woodcourt.
- Richard Carstone is a ward of Chancery in Jarndyce and Jarndyce . Straightforward and likeable but irresponsible and inconstant, Richard falls under the spell of Jarndyce and Jarndyce . At the end of the book, just after Jarndyce and Jarndyce is finally settled, he dies, tormented by his imprudence in trusting to the outcome of a Chancery suit.
- Ada Clare is another young ward of Chancery in Jarndyce and Jarndyce . She falls in love with Richard Carstone, a distant cousin. They later marry in secret and she has Richard's child.
- Harold Skimpole is a friend of Jarndyce "in the habit of sponging his friends" (Nuttall). He is irresponsible, selfish, amoral, and without remorse. He often refers to himself as "a child" and claims not to understand human relationships, circumstances, and society– but actually understands them very well, as he demonstrates when he enlists Richard and Esther to pay off the bailiff who has arrested him on a writ of debt. He believes that Richard and Ada will be able to acquire credit based on their expectations in Jarndyce and Jarndyce and declares his intention to start "honoring" them by letting them pay some of his debts. This character is commonly regarded as a portrait of Leigh Hunt. "Dickens wrote in a letter of 25 September 1853, 'I suppose he is the most exact portrait that was ever painted in words! ... It is an absolute reproduction of a real man.' A contemporary critic commented, 'I recognized Skimpole instantaneously; ... and so did every person whom I talked with about it who had ever had Leigh Hunt's acquaintance.'" G. K. Chesterton suggested that Dickens "may never once have had the unfriendly thought, 'Suppose Hunt behaved like a rascal!'; he may have only had the fanciful thought, 'Suppose a rascal behaved like Hunt!'".
- Lawrence Boythorn is an old friend of John Jarndyce's; a former soldier who always speaks in superlatives; very loud and harsh, but goodhearted. Boythorn was once engaged to (and very much in love with) a woman who later left him without giving him any reason. That woman was in fact, Miss Barbary, who abandoned her former life (including Boythorn) when she took Esther from her sister. Boythorn is also a neighbour of Sir Leicester Dedlock's, with whom he is engaged in an epic tangle of lawsuits over a right-of-way across Boythorn's property that Sir Leicester asserts the legal right to close. He is thought to be based on the writer Walter Savage Landor.
- Sir Leicester Dedlock is a crusty baronet, very much older than his wife. Dedlock is an unthinking conservative who regards the Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit as a mark of distinction worthy of a man of his family lineage. On the other hand, he is shown as a loving and devoted husband towards Lady Dedlock, even after he learns about her secret.
- Mr. Tulkinghorn is Sir Leicester's lawyer. Scheming and manipulative, he seems to defer to his clients but relishes the power his control of their secrets gives him. He learns of Lady Dedlock's past and tries to control her conduct, to preserve the reputation and good name of Sir Leicester. He is murdered, and his murder gives Dickens the chance to weave a detective plot into the closing chapters of the book.
- Mr. Snagsby is the timid and hen-pecked proprietor of a law-stationery business who gets involved with Tulkinghorn and Bucket's secrets. He is Jo's only friend. He tends to give half-crowns to those he feels sorry for.
- Miss Flite is an elderly eccentric. Her family has been destroyed by a long-running Chancery case similar to Jarndyce and Jarndyce , and her obsessive fascination with Chancery veers between comedy and tragedy. She owns a large number of little birds which she says will be released "on the day of judgement."
- Mr. William Guppy is a law clerk at Kenge and Carboy. He becomes smitten with Esther and makes an offer of marriage (which she refuses). Later, after Esther learns that Lady Dedlock is her mother, she asks to meet Mr Guppy to tell him to stop investigating her past. He fears the meeting is to accept his offer of marriage (which he does not want to pursue now she is disfigured). He is so overcome with relief when she explains her true purpose that he agrees to do everything in his power to protect her privacy in the future.
- Inspector Bucket is a detective who undertakes several investigations throughout the novel, most notably the investigation of Mr. Tulkinghorn's murder. He is notable in being one of the first detectives in English fiction. This character is probably based on Inspector Charles Frederick Field of the then recently formed Detective Department at Scotland Yard. Dickens wrote several journalistic pieces about the Inspector and the work of the detectives in Household Words .
- Mr. George is a former soldier (having served under Nemo) who owns a London shooting-gallery and is a trainer in sword and pistol. The prime suspect in the murder of Mr. Tulkinghorn, he is exonerated and his true identity is revealed, against his wishes. He is George Rouncewell, son of the Dedlocks' housekeeper, Mrs. Rouncewell, who welcomes him back to Chesney Wold. He ends the book as body-servant to the stricken Sir Leicester Dedlock.
- Caddy Jellyby is a friend of Esther's, secretary to her mother. Caddy feels ashamed of her own "lack of manners," but Esther's friendship heartens her. Caddy falls in love with Prince Turveydrop, marries him, and has a baby.
- Krook is a rag and bottle merchant and collector of papers. He is the landlord of the house where Nemo and Miss Flite live and where Nemo dies. He seems to subsist on a diet of gin. Krook dies from a case of spontaneous human combustion, something that Dickens believed could happen, but which some critics (such as the English essayist George Henry Lewes) denounced as outlandish. Amongst the stacks of papers obsessively hoarded by the illiterate Krook is the key to resolving the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce .
- Jo is a young boy who lives on the streets and tries to make a living as a crossing sweeper. Jo was the only person with whom Nemo had any real connection. Nemo expressed a paternal sort of interest in Jo, (something that no human had ever done). Nemo would share his meagre money with Jo, and would sometimes remark, "Well, Jo, today I am as poor as you," when he had nothing to share. Jo is called to testify at the inquiry into Nemo's death, but knows nothing of value. Despite this, Mr. Tulkinghorn pays Mr. Bucket to harry Jo and force him to keep "moving along" [leave town] because Tulkinghorn fears Jo might have some knowledge of the connection between Nemo and the Dedlocks. Jo ultimately dies from a disease (pneumonia, a complication from an earlier bout with smallpox which Esther also catches and from which she almost dies).
- Allan Woodcourt is a surgeon and a kind, caring man who loves Esther deeply. She in turn loves him but feels unable to respond, not only because of her prior commitment to John Jarndyce, but also because she fears her illegitimacy will cause his mother to object to their connection.
- Grandfather Smallweed is a moneylender, a mean, bad-tempered man who shows no mercy to people who owe him money and who enjoys inflicting emotional pain on others. He lays claim to the deceased Krook's possessions because Smallweed's wife is Krook's only living relation, and he also drives Mr. George into bankruptcy by calling in debts. It has been suggested that his description (together with his grandchildren) fits that of a person with progeria, although people with progeria only have a life expectancy of 14 years, while Grandfather Smallweed is very old.
- Mr. Vholes is a Chancery lawyer who takes on Richard Carstone as a client, squeezes out of him all the litigation fees he can manage to pay, and then abandons him when Jarndyce and Jarndyce comes to an end.
- Conversation Kenge is a Chancery lawyer who represents John Jarndyce. His chief foible is his love of grand, portentous, and empty rhetoric.
Minor characters
- Mr. Gridley is an involuntary party to a suit in Chancery (based on a real case, according to Dickens's preface), who repeatedly seeks in vain to gain the attention of the Lord Chancellor. He threatens Mr. Tulkinghorn and then is put under arrest by Inspector Bucket, but dies, his health broken by his Chancery ordeal.
- Nemo (Latin for "nobody") is the alias of Captain James Hawdon, a former officer in the British Army under whom Mr. George once served. Nemo is a law-writer who makes fair copies of legal documents for Snagsby and lodges at Krook's rag and bottle shop, eventually dying of an opium overdose. He is later found to be Lady Dedlock's former lover, and the father of Esther Summerson.
- Mrs. Snagsby is Mr. Snagsby's highly suspicious and curious wife, who has a 'vinegary' personality and incorrectly suspects Mr. Snagsby of keeping many secrets from her: she suspects he is Jo's father.
- Guster is the Snagsbys' maidservant, prone to fits.
- Neckett is a debt collector– called "Coavinses" by debtor Harold Skimpole because he works for that business firm.
- Charley is Coavinses' daughter, hired by John Jarndyce to be a maid to Esther. Called "Little Coavinses" by Skimpole.
- Tom is Coavinses' young son.
- Emma is Coavinses' baby daughter.
- Mrs. Jellyby is Caddy's mother, a "telescopic philanthropist" obsessed with an obscure African tribe but having little regard for the notion of charity beginning at home. It's thought Dickens wrote this character as a criticism of female activists like Caroline Chisholm.
- Mr. Jellyby is Mrs. Jellyby's long-suffering husband.
- Peepy Jellyby is the Jellybys' young son.
- Prince Turveydrop is a dancing master and proprietor of a dance studio.
- Old Mr. Turveydrop is a master of deportment who lives off his son's industry.
- Jenny is a brickmaker's wife. She is mistreated by her husband and her baby dies. She then helps her friend look after her own child.
- Rosa is a favourite lady's maid of Lady Dedlock whom Watt Rouncewell wishes to marry. The proposal ends in nothing when Mr. Rouncewell's father asks that Rosa be sent to school to become a lady worthy of his son's station. Lady Dedlock questions the girl closely regarding her wish to leave, and promises to look after her instead. In some way, Rosa is a stand-in for Esther in Lady Dedlock's life.
- Hortense is lady's maid to Lady Dedlock. Her character is based on the Swiss maid and murderer Maria Manning.
- Mrs. Rouncewell is housekeeper to the Dedlocks at Chesney Wold.
- Mr. Robert Rouncewell is the adult son of Mrs. Rouncewell and a prosperous ironmaster.
- Watt Rouncewell is Robert Rouncewell's son.
- Volumnia is a Dedlock cousin, given to screaming.
- Miss Barbary is Esther's godmother and severe childhood guardian.
- Mrs. Rachael Chadband is a former servant of Miss Barbary's.
- Mr. Chadband is an oleaginous preacher, husband of Mrs. Chadband.
- Mrs. Smallweed is the wife of Mr. Smallweed senior and sister to Krook. She is suffering from dementia.
- Young Mr. (Bartholemew) Smallweed is the grandson of the senior Smallweeds and friend of Mr. Guppy.
- Judy Smallweed is the granddaughter of the senior Smallweeds.
- Tony Jobling – aka Mr. Weevle – is a friend of William Guppy.
- Mrs. Guppy is Mr. Guppy's aged mother.
- Phil Squod is Mr. George's assistant.
- Matthew Bagnet is a military friend of Mr. George's and dealer in musical instruments.
- Mrs. Bagnet is the wife of Matthew Bagnet.
- Woolwich is the Bagnets' son.
- Quebec is the Bagnets' elder daughter.
- Malta is the Bagnets' younger daughter.
- Mrs. Woodcourt is Allan Woodcourt's widowed mother.
- Mrs. Pardiggle is a woman who does "good works" for the poor, but cannot see that her efforts are rude and arrogant and do nothing at all to help. She inflicts her activities on her five small sons, who are clearly rebellious.
- Arethusa Skimpole is Mr. Skimpole's "Beauty" daughter.
- Laura Skimpole is Mr. Skimpole's "Sentiment" daughter.
- Kitty Skimpole is Mr. Skimpole's "Comedy" daughter.
- Mrs. Skimpole is Mr. Skimpole's ailing wife, who is weary of her husband and lifestyle.
