Mr. Woodcourt Trivia Quiz

Answer: Allan

The etymology and meaning of this name, in its various spellings, is uncertain. According to http://www.behindthename.com it has been used in Britain since the Sixth Century A.D. and may mean either "little rock" or "handsome." Either meaning would be appropriate here. Allan Woodcourt is repeatedly described as handsome. Also, he is a rock of calm and strength.

Answer: Surgeon

Allan is a surgeon; therefore, he is addressed as Mr. Woodcourt. If he were a physician, he would be addressed as Dr. Woodcourt.

Answer: Welsh

The English are famously, or infamously, prejudiced against anyone who is not English, especially Celts such as Irish, Welsh and Scot. So, it's somewhat surprising that Dickens made the romantic hero of Bleak House a Welshman.

Answer: At Mr. Krook's house

Miss Flight fetches Allan together with another, totally uninterested medical man, when Mr. Telkinghorn and Mr. Krook find Krook's lodger, Nemo (Capt. Hawdon) dead in his room. He is referred to not by name but as a dark young man and the young surgeon.

In this scene, his kindness, gentleness, compassion and dedication to the spirit as well as the letter of his profession, his vocation as doctor are amply demonstrated.

Answer: At Mr. Badger's house

Esther gives a full and lively account of the evening with Mr. Badger and his remarkable wife, as well as of the later conversation she has first with Ada alone and then with Ada and Richard concerning their feelings for one another. It is only at the very end of the chapter that she mentions that a handsome young surgeon was also included in the party and that she liked him very much.

She does not mention his name.

Answer: 7 years

As so often when she speaks of Allan, Esther slips this factoid in as if it were an unimportant afterthought. And again, as so often, she draws attention to it by immediately claiming that it is totally unimportant.

Traditionally, for the groom to be seven years older than the bride is considered ideal.

Answer: False

Allan never visits Bleak House either professionally or socially, though his mother makes two protracted stays there. He does, however, visit Mr. Jarndyce's family in their London lodgings.

Answer: For both of these reasons

Mrs. Woodcourt's conversation becomes very trying for Esther. Although she doesn't yet know whether Allan reciprocates her feelings, she knows that she loves him.

Answer: Morgan ap-Kerrig

Owen Glendower, ca 1339-ca 1416, is the national hero of Wales. He was the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales. He waged a heroic but ultimately unsuccessful revolt against English rule of his country. His mythos endures to the present time, and the Welsh people revere him as a hero on a par with King Arthur.

Exalted though her views of her family's heritage may be, Mrs. Woodcourt does not claim that they are descended from Glendower himself.

Answer: Flowers

Caddy teases Esther gently, showing her the flowers and putting them in Esther's hair before finally telling her they were left for her by Allan.

Answer: She treasures it; but, when Mr. Jarndyce proposes and she accepts, she sadly destroys it as belonging to a dream that can never now come true.

Esther accepts Mr. Jarndyce's proposal, not because she is romantically attached to him, but because she believes Allan to be dead and sees marriage to Mr. Jarndyce as representing security and stability.

Answer: China and India

Allan goes for a four-year tour of duty as ship's surgeon on a vessel bound for China and India. This extreme step is necessary because his London practice among the lower middle class, working classes and poor is not exactly lucrative.

Answer: Shipwreck

As one might expect, Allan is very brave during this crisis and comes home something of a hero.

The realization that Allan is alive causes Esther both delight and intense pain because, by the time she finds out, she has become engaged to Mr. Jarndyce.

Answer: At a hotel in Deal

Esther has gone to Deal, a port and garrison town on the English Channel, to try to dissuade Richard from selling his commission in the Army. After a most unsatisfactory interview, she and her maid, Charlie, walk back along the beach to their hotel. They see a number of officers disembarking from an Indiaman and Esther recognizes one of them as Allan.

We have the account of this meeting in Esther's narrative. In her modesty and self-deprecation, she misinterprets or at least radically simplifies Allan's emotions, thinking he is merely sorry for the loss of her looks caused by her having suffered smallpox. The attentive reader, however, divines that he is overjoyed to see her, and that he is deeply distressed to realize how close he had come to losing her to the disease without knowing it.

Esther's narrative does not make this explicit, but Allan may also gather that she no longer cares for him.

Answer: Richard

When he sees Richard at Deal, Allen is immediately concerned.

"It is not," said Mr. Woodcourt, "his being so much younger or older, or thinner or fatter, or paler or ruddier, as there being upon his face such a singular expression. I never saw so remarkable a look in a young person. One cannot say that it is all anxiety or all weariness; yet it is both, and like ungrown despair."

When Esther asks him to be a friend to Richard he replies:

"Miss Summerson," he said, more moved than he had been from the first, "before heaven, I will be a true friend to him! I will accept him as a trust, and it shall be a sacred one!"

Answer: True

Presumably, this is because Mrs. Woodcourt now understands where Allan's heart lies.

Answer: True

Jo dies in Allan's arms. This is a moving scene, not only because Jo is a touching character in his own right, but also because of the compassion shown by both Allan and George.

Answer: Meets Esther Summerson and Mr. Bucket when they return to the neighborhood of Chancery Lane and is with them when they find Esther's mother, Lady Deadlock.

On foot in the mean streets around Chancery Lane, Esther and Mr. Bucket encounter Allan. He gives Esther his cloak, since it is now snowing, and accompanies them to the cemetery gate. Both Allan and Mr. Bucket display great tact and sensitivity at this terrible moment for Esther.

Answer: Esther Summerson marries Mr. Woodcourt and they are very happy

Allan and Esther truly have a happy ending.

Answer: Yorkshire

Allan's practice thrives. Both he and Esther are beloved in the area. And, at Mr. Jarndyce's insistence, their cottage is called Bleak House, though it is a very happy house indeed.