Mrs. Jellyby - A blustery woman who is obsessed with her “mission,” Borrioboola-Gha in Africa. She neglects her family entirely. Spark Notes.
Dickens adored a 'generosity of spirit' and showed it in his characters from: Mr Brownlow in Oliver Twist, to Joe Gargery in Great Expectations to Esther Summerson and John Jarndyce in Bleak House. Countless other examples exist across his novels.
It is rare to get a brace of swipes in a single volume
against do-gooders ie) - those who see themselves as great philanthropists but who, in actual fact, do more harm than good. However, in Mrs Jellyby and Mrs Pardiggle - both seen as contrasts to the other names mentioned above - Dickens' attitudes are abundantly clear.
Dickens too has no truck with social parasites as demonstrated in the odious, manipulative, conscience-free character, Harold Skimpole.
