ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the narratological, nationalist, social and evolutionary issues which cluster around the representation of the past in the family tree or pedigree. If the Victorians partly defined themselves and their age as being in transition, they also defined themselves by their traditions, and particularly by the traditions surrounding ancestry and the family pedigree. The representation of genealogical inheritance and the privileges of long-established family blood-lines imparted, therefore, a sense of security to conservative Victorians. Jarndyce’s attempt to bring competitors together in one happy family is reminiscent of exhibitions of trained animals which were very popular in the Victorian period. Jarndyce’s description of the law suit as imprisoning generational repetition is disturbing not only because it seems inescapable, but because it seems so arbitrary. The case of Jarndyce & Jarndyce creates such discord that even the individual letters of the family name cannot remain together in meaningful relationship to one another, but must be spelt out singly.
