Bleak House

Discuss Mr. Gridley's role in the story, Bleak House. What is his relationship to Miss Flite?

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Gridley, the Man From Shropshire, is a fighter, who was determined to see justice served in the Jarndyce suit. He has been arrested numerous times for his temper and detemination, and because of the protracted lawsuit, has lost everything he owned to the costs of the lawsuit. In the end, subjected to another arrest by Mr. Bucket, Gridley gives up and dies. He is a broken man, a victim of the corrupt and malfunctioning machine of the English legal system. Dickens uses Gridley as an illustration of what happens to those who try to resist the power of the system, or try to fight for justice at all costs. Miss Flite, another person who has followed the lawsuit, is slightly crazy. She and Gridley have spent so many years together in their common cause, that Gridley feels their relationship is the only thing that the lawsuit has not broken, however, they are now separated, as well, by his death.