Dickensians! discussion
This topic is about
Little Dorrit
Little Dorrit - Group Read 2
>
Little Dorrit II: Chapters 1 - 11
Jean wrote: Anne -. "I haven't a clue who the person is you mention"Briefly, Bernie Madoff was an investment advisor who is currently serving a federal prison sentence for offenses related to the largest Ponzi scheme in world history. He defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars.
Mod
Bionic Jean wrote: "Thanks Anne - and for the brevity too!"😀
I hope Arthur doesn't end up wasting too much of his life in the circumlocution office with nothing to show for it.
Katy wrote: "I hope Arthur doesn't end up wasting too much of his life in the circumlocution office with nothing to show for it."Isn't the circumlocution office a waste of time by definition? LOL
Mod
message 158:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Nov 05, 2020 01:05PM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
Another longish chapter, entitled “Appearance and Disappearance”. After their violent disagreement with the Dowager Gowan, Mr. and Mrs. Meagles decide that they are are going to ”disappear“ for a while (as the title says). The next evening they tell Arthur that Mr. Meagles is rankled by what he ironically calls that ”affable and condescending ornament of society”, and he and his wife both feel it may be better for them to join their daughter and her husband in Italy. We learned in the previous chapter that Pet is pregnant, which is confirmed by Mr. Meagles saying:
“Then again, here’s Mother foolishly anxious (and yet naturally too) about Pet’s state of health, and that she should not be left to feel lonesome at the present time. It’s undeniably a long way off, Arthur, and a strange place for the poor love under all the circumstances.”
so they are going, as he says:
“among the Allongers and Marshongers once more. I mean, we are very much disposed to be off, strike right through France into Italy, and see our Pet.”
Mr Meagles’ face clouds over as he remembers another reason for their going. Debts have again been run up by Henry Gowan, and they need dealing with. Arthur approves of their decision, and says it might be a good idea if Cavalletto went with them too. But Mr. Meagles declines, as he considers that “Cavallooro”, as he calls him, is indispensable to Arthur.
Mr. Meagles asks Arthur to keep an eye on their home while they are away, and gives a broad hint that he would have liked Arthur to have become their son-in-law:
“You so belong to the spot, and to them, Arthur, and we should every one of us have been so happy if it had fallen out—but,”
and quickly breaks off to talk about a much safer subject, the weather.
“Clennam kept the talk in that safe direction until it had become easy again”. In fact Arthur even goes so far as to compliment Henry Gowan, to cheer his friend before their journey.
Thus Arthur often walks up to the cottage in Twickenham in their absence, at least once a week. One day, he is greeted on the path by Mrs. Tickit, the cook, who has clearly been kept on to watch over the house. She has been dozing, and tells him in a roundabout way of an “appearance” (according to the chapter’s title). She believes she has seen Tattycoram loitering near the house. However:
“She was so plainly at sea on this part of the case, and had so clearly been startled out of slumber, that Clennam was much disposed to regard the appearance as a dream.”
Arthur Clennam might well have remained unsure, except for a curious episode. At the end of the day, he is walking along the Strand, among the hazy lights bursting through the fog, when he happens to catch sight of Tattycoram:
“and a strange man of a remarkable appearance: a swaggering man, with a high nose, and a black moustache as false in its colour as his eyes were false in their expression, who wore his heavy cloak with the air of a foreigner.”
Clennam decides to follow for a while, to see where they go, making sure they do not notice him. The narrator vividly describes the part of London they walk through, down by the wharf, at the side of the river Thames. As they walk along the terrace, Arthur identifies a figure walking towards them as being Miss Wade.
'Arthur Clennam's Meditations' - James Mahoney
Tattycoram hangs back but there seems to have been an assignation between the other two:
“Miss Wade and the man then began to walk up and down; the man having the appearance of being extremely courteous and complimentary in manner; Miss Wade having the appearance of being extremely haughty.”
The meeting ends with Miss Wade saying that this stranger will be paid, but not until the next day. She is contemptuous of his being considered a “gentleman”.
These two part company, and Miss Wade and Tattycoram walk off arm in arm. Arthur is keen to keep them in sight, so he can report back to Mr. Meagles. He follows at a distance, until he sees them turn into the Gray’s Inn Road. Arthur knows this area well; it is where Flora lives. To his immense surprise, he sees them stop at the “Patriarchal door”, and watches as they are admitted.
After considering a while, Arthur also knocks at the door, and is shown up to Flora’s parlour. She gives a start of surprise, and welcomes him cordially. Mr. F.’s Aunt is sitting there, eating buttered slices of toast, and leaving the crusts for Flora.
Mr. F.'s Aunt - Harry Furniss
Flora chatters on in her nonsensical way, and they talk about Little Dorrit being in Italy for a while. Mr. F.’s Aunt eyes Arthur “with an expression of such intense severity” throughout. Arthur is keen to tell Flora the reason for his visit, but knowing that he had not visited for 3 months:
“was put off for the moment, in spite of himself, by what he understood of the reproachful purport of these words, and by the genuine pleasure she testified in seeing him.”
But eventually:
“Arthur’s increasing wish to speak of something very different was by this time so plainly written on his face, that Flora stopped in a tender look, and asked him what it was?”
whereupon he tells Flora that he wishes to see the person who has just entered, and Flora agrees to go downstairs and ask her father for an interview. Arthur Clennam is inevitably left alone with Mr. F.’s Aunt, which provides us with a comic few minutes while we await her return.
Mr F.'s Aunt and Arthur Clennam - Sir John Gilbert
Mr. F’s aunt now wants Arthur to eat the crusts from her toast, and when he declines this, declares:
“He has a proud stomach, this chap!” and “Give him a meal of chaff!”
To his relief, Flora returns:
The Rigour of Mr. F.'s Aunt - Phiz
and Arthur is led in to see the Patriarch. He confirms that Miss Wade and her attendant have been there:
“A fine full-coloured young woman, Mr Clennam, with very dark hair and very dark eyes. If I mistake not, if I mistake not?”
However, the Patriarch is not very forthcoming with information concerning Miss Wade. He just says that from time to time, he has paid Miss Wade some money, but he denies any knowledge of her address.
“His turning of his smooth thumbs over one another as he sat there, was so typical to Clennam of the way in which he would make the subject revolve if it were pursued, never showing any new part of it nor allowing it to make the smallest advance … Mr Casby … knew his strength to lie in silence. So there Casby sat, twirling and twirling, and making his polished head and forehead look largely benevolent in every knob.”
Fortunately for Arthur, Mr. Pancks drops in, and signals secretly and mysteriously to Arthur, to wait for a while outside. It is from Mr. Pancks that Arthur learns a little more information on Miss Wade. Mr. Pancks does not know her address either, although:
“I expect … I know as much about her as she knows about herself. She is somebody’s child—anybody’s, nobody’s. Put her in a room in London here with any six people old enough to be her parents, and her parents may be there for anything she knows … She knows nothing about ‘em. She knows nothing about any relative whatever. Never did. Never will.”
Mr. Pancks is fairly sure that his employer knows more than he says, and is instructed to give her money on a regular basis:
“Sometimes she’s proud and won’t touch it for a length of time; sometimes she’s so poor that she must have it. She writhes under her life. A woman more angry, passionate, reckless, and revengeful never lived. She came for money to-night. Said she had peculiar occasion for it.”
Arthur says he thinks he knows why, implying that it is to pay someone, and Mr. Pancks says that he would not trust Miss Wade. After which, he startles Arthur by referring to his employer and saying that he is “sometimes tempted to do for him myself,” adding that he does not mean he will cut his throat, but that if Mr. Casby goes too far, he will one day cut his hair off.
“Having [issued] this tremendous threat, Mr. Pancks, with a countenance of grave import, snorted several times and steamed away.”
message 159:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Oct 31, 2020 11:45AM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
I was pleased to see Flora again :) I feel quite affectionate towards this character!
message 160:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Oct 31, 2020 11:46AM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
About the illustrations.
We have no less than 4 illustrators for this chapter. One is new to "Dickensians!" I think: Sir John Gilbert. This drawing of the redoubtable old aunt is his frontispiece to the third volume of Little Dorrit, in a New York Edition from 1861. It seems a strange episode to choose, to give so much prominence to. I like the one by Harry Furniss again. It's such a great caricature - and yet I usually associate these with Phiz!
The illustration of the conspiratorial meeting between Miss Wade and Blandois is also effective, I think. James Mahoney has captured the atmosphere quite well, by placing Arthur in the foreground, and those he is watching, having a secret clandestine meeting, in the mist under a distant gas-lamp.
This area is of the Strand is about three-quarters of a mile. It parallels the river Thames between Somerset House and Charing Cross. Arthur then follows them to the Adelphi Terrace. This is a row of townhouses designed by the Adams Brothers in the 18th century (late neoclassical style). The vaulted terrace has wharves beneath, and we can see the river traffic in James Mahoney's illustration. Most of Charles Dickens's contemporary readers would be familiar with this area of London. It was also featured in David Copperfield, also to readers of David Copperfield when (view spoiler).
It is surprising to see so many illustrations focused on the dotty aunt. I felt so sorry for Arthur getting stuck with her. And then Miss Wade has "disappeared" by the time Arthur is free from her. Apt title for this chapter. Several people appear and disappear again.
Yes, I suspected that it was Blandios Miss. Wade had met with! It will be interesting to learn how and why he left the Gowans and what his connection to Miss. Wade is.
Jenny, I also wondered about Blandois’ connection with Ms. Wade. Anne & Jean, I loved the satirical illustrations of the “dotty aunt”. Lots of wonderful Victorian eccentricity in this chapter & its illustrations.
Flora and Mr. F's Aunt are both good for a nice chuckle. I loved Flora making Arthur hold her waist down the steps and then admonishing him not to let her "Papa" know. She is kind of sad, she lives in a dream world. I'm still hoping Dickens will reveal to us why Mr. F's Aunt dislikes Arthur so.I feel as if the stage has been set for something quite important with Miss Wade paying Blandois for something that is sure to be nefarious. Tatty lurking at the cottage would also indicate that she is nostalgic for her "family" or that she is having second thoughts about the life she has assumed with Miss Wade.
This is a chapter that leaves one wondering, and on that would be quite dark without the comic relief at Casby's home.
Sara wrote: "I'm still hoping Dickens will reveal to us why Mr. F's Aunt dislikes Arthur so." I didn't think too much about this since she is so dotty. I just thought that she was behaving badly towards him because of her senility. If not that, perhaps she remembers him (does she remember him?) as the man who left Flora.
Interesting that you thought Tatty was hanging around the cottage for positive reasons. I thought that her reasons might not be so positive, though I don't have any idea why she would be there. So many people lurking or waiting around and snooping or trying to get information.
Mod
Sara - "Flora making Arthur hold her waist down the steps and then admonishing him not to let her "Papa" know" is such a hoot! It's one of my favourite parts of the novel, but yes, it's sad; poignant, and revealing too.
Anne wrote: "Sara wrote: "I'm still hoping Dickens will reveal to us why Mr. F's Aunt dislikes Arthur so." I didn't think too much about this since she is so dotty. I just thought that she was behaving badly ..."
I am hoping that Tatty is hanging around the cottage for positive reasons because I would like to believe there is some hope for her. But she is also hanging around Blandois who is hanging around Minnie and Gowan, and is obviously up to something. So Tatty very well could be hanging around the house of Minnie's parents for some reason that has something to do with Blandois.
Anne - It strikes me that dotty Aunt only seems to rail at Arthur, so she has a particular dislike for him. She was Mr. F's Aunt, so I don't think it would have to do with his leaving Flora, which makes me wonder if she is confusing him with someone else (perhaps his father) and knows something we do not. Maybe I am just grasping though, because Dickens has this marvelous way of making everything count, but this might be, as you say, just she is dotty.Very interesting that you think Tatty might have ulterior motives for hanging about. I cannot think what she would be lurking for at the Meagles, but you could certainly be right, especially since she is now involved with Blandois, and he might want info regarding the Gowans. I do remember the snide remark that Miss Wade made regarding Pet being happy with her new husband, so she knows something of Gowan. You are no doubt right.
Sara, I'm just guessing. It's fun to guess and to see what other people guess is going on. I think Dickens gives hints but also throws us off track on purpose, so who knows?
message 170:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Nov 05, 2020 01:07PM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
A short chapter full of hints and dark forebodings.
Arthur has made several visits to the Circumlocution Office, where others too are treated as if they are:
“troublesome Convicts who were under sentence to be broken alive on that wheel”.
He has had ample time to think about Miss Wade and Tattycoram, but can still make no sense of it. He now decides to visit his mother, and: “that grim home of his youth”
There follows a marvellously atmospheric description of the house as “wrathful, mysterious, and sad”. Arthur thinks of all the sombre places, “the shadow thickening and thickening as he approached its source”. He muses on those places full of secrets, such as the strong rooms of counting houses and banks, church vaults, all full of “plunderers, forgers, and trust-betrayers of many sorts” …
“and then of the secrets of the river, as it rolled its turbid tide between two frowning wildernesses of secrets, extending, thick and dense, for many miles, and warding off the free air and the free country swept by winds and wings of birds.”
As the shadows darken, so Arthur’s dreariness and melancholy increases, as he is weighed down by all the suspicions and secrets. And the worst of them all, he feels, are these in his childhood home:
“Its close air was secret. The gloom, and must, and dust of the whole tenement, were secret. At the heart of it his mother presided, inflexible of face, indomitable of will, firmly holding all the secrets of her own and his father’s life, and austerely opposing herself, front to front, to the great final secret of all life.”
When he turns into the courtyard, his mind is still whirling. A man pushes past him impatiently, and Arthur recognises the very man whom he had seen having the mysterious conversation with Miss Wade, now:
“standing against the iron railings of the little waste enclosure looking up at those windows and laughing to himself. Some of the many vagrant cats who were always prowling about there by night, and who had taken fright at him, appeared to have stopped when he had stopped, and were looking at him with eyes by no means unlike his own from tops of walls and porches, and other safe points of pause.”
Both men wait for the door to be answered, and when Affery opens it, Arthur heartily dislikes the pushiness of this man, who insists:
“Fetch my Flintwinch! Tell him that it is his old Blandois, who comes from arriving in England; tell him that it is his little boy who is here, his cabbage, his well-beloved!”
Arthur asks Affery who this over-confident stranger is, and Blandois mockingly repeats his words. At this point, Mrs. Clennam calls to both of them to go upstairs to her parlour. Blandois then turns his attention to Mrs. Clennam, flattering her ridiculously, and making extravagant chivalrous gestures. Affery disappears to fetch “her lord”, Flintwinch.
There follows an uncomfortable wait, where the tense atmosphere is incomprehensible to Arthur. When he objects to Blandois’ manners, his mother loses no time in pointing out that he is not the master of the house, and that he gave up that right. Mrs. Clennam keeps her eye on Blandois, but says to Arthur:
“You have no right … to speak to the prejudice of any gentleman (least of all a gentleman from another country), because he does not conform to your standard, or square his behaviour by your rules. It is possible that the gentleman may, on similar grounds, object to you … The gentleman … on a former occasion brought a letter of recommendation to us from highly esteemed and responsible correspondents.”
She is ignorant of what he wants, but proposes to wait until Flintwinch is present, and then to discuss the business which has brought Blandois there. When Flintwinch arrives, Blandois assumes the same, grand, impertinent and extravagant manner—while at the same time:
“While heaping these compliments on Mr Flintwinch, he rolled him about with a hand on each of his shoulders, until the staggerings of that gentleman, who under the circumstances was dryer and more twisted than ever, were like those of a teetotum [a child’s spinning top] nearly spent.”
'Flintwinch receives the Embrace of Friendship' - Phiz
Neither Mr. Flintwinch nor Mrs. Clennam betray any emotion in their faces, yet it is obvious that they somehow stand in thrall to this strange visitor, who clings in a most disrespectful way to Flintwinch’s neck and pours down a torrent of familiarities upon him:
'The Plotters' - Harry Furniss
Arthur watches with “amazement, suspicion, resentment, and shame. Mrs. Clennam never for a moment takes her eyes off Blandois, as though he were some dangerous animal, and at the same time, Flintwinch keeps an eye on Arthur, scraping his chin ”as though he were trying to screw his thoughts out of him with an instrument.”.
Eventually Mrs. Clennam breaks the spell, by saying:
“‘Please to leave us to our business, Arthur.’
‘Mother, I do so with reluctance.’“
Blandois, clearly enjoying his sense of power and hidden threats to the full, insolently snaps his fingers when Arthur is “dismissed”. He talks of an unknown “friend” all too obviously meaning Arthur, who was a “poltroon … A cur, sir.”
Arthur can hardly speak, for he is half choking.
“The visitor saluted him with another parting snap, and his nose came down over his moustache and his moustache went up under his nose, in an ominous and ugly smile.”
On his way out, Arthur asks Affery what is going on:
'Arthur and Affery' - James Mahoney
but she begs him not to ask her anything. She says she has been in a dream for so long. And as Arthur looks at the house of secrets, he sees that even the house itself, the:
“windows of his mother’s room, and the dim light, deadened by the yellow blinds, seemed to say a response after Affery, and to mutter, ‘Don’t ask me anything. Go away!’”
Poor Arthur. He's been pondering the secrets of Miss Wade and Tatty for too long and at the Circumlocution Office no less, where nothing is ever revealed. So his mind creates dark secrets out of everything he sees on his way to his mother's house. And then he stumbles upon another secret which will not be revealed to him: what business Blandois has with his mother who. kicks him out of the house because she has secrets of her own which she keeps close to her chest, like the watch:"At the heart of it his mother presided, inflexible of face, indomitable of will, firmly holding all the secrets of her own and his father’s life, and austerely opposing herself, front to front, to the great final secret of all life.”.
Sounds like very important secrets indeed.
What a strange chapter. What is going on here? I find it hard to even speculate. I am still wondering about the meeting between Miss. Wade and Blandois, and now this chapter. ???
Debra wrote: "What a strange chapter. What is going on here? Dickens certainly doesn't write a linear narrative. That wouldn't be much fun. LOL
He is toying with us, his readers, but in a good way, IMO. . He seems to love juggling various characters and story lines and making mysteries out of everything, e.g. by having Blandois show up unexpectedly in so many places and with so many people.. But it feels like he's giving us more and more clues as we move along in the book. I didn't think of this as a mystery novel but it feels like one.
We have to live with uncertainty and wait for the various strands to weave together. Imagine how Dickens' original readers must have felt! They had to wait ages for each new installment.
Yes, Anne. It feels like a mystery novel to me too. Not at all what I expected.
message 175:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Nov 01, 2020 09:31AM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
When reading Charles Dickens's novel in order, it is clear how much more important the mystery element becomes over time. It is increasingly stronger, and central to each novel. Then of course his final unfinished (and unsolved, for us!) one was actually called The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
I have sometimes wondered whether Charles Dickens would have concentrated on mystery novels, had he written later. Inspector Bucket of Bleak House was one of the first detective novels, and his friend Wilkie Collins's writing was much concerned with mysteries.
Charles Dickens's early novels seem to inherit quite a lot from the 18th century books he loved: episodic, and describing a young man's journey - and the humour especially. By now though, writing Little Dorrit in his middle years, Charles Dickens was really writing in his "Inimitable" style :)
Even his non-mystery writings, Like David Copperfield have some mysteries at the heart of them...like what is Uriah up to? He is a natural weaver of mysteries because he needs to keep his audience biting and chaffing for the next installment. The title for this chapter should have been "A Street of Secrets" but it was "The Dreams of Mrs. Flintwinch Thicken". And, indeed they do. Blandois is a bad omen wherever you find him and finding him in your own home would be a frightening situation. I hate the way Mrs. Clemmons is so dismissive of Arthur and his visits. Come back at any other time when you may consider it a duty to bury half an hour wearily here. How unappreciative of his concern for her she is!
Sara wrote, : I hate the way Mrs. Clemmons is so dismissive of Arthur and his visits. Come back at any other time when you may consider it a duty to bury half an hour wearily here. How unappreciative of his concern for her she is!"Agreed!!! What could he have done to deserve her coldness? I don't think he did anything at all wrong. He's too good. like Amy. And despite her treatment he keeps returning to visit her.
Yes, Mrs. Clemmons is awful to Arthur. It makes me think, even more, that she is hiding something.
Mod
But she is embittered by something, and uses guilt as a weapon. She has rebuffed Arthur every time she has seen him, and is always hostile. This sits closely with her religion, but must be from another source. D.N.F.
If Mrs. Clennam lets herself get taken in by Blandois she may wish later that she had listened to Arthur.
Sara wrote: "Anne - It strikes me that dotty Aunt only seems to rail at Arthur, so she has a particular dislike for him. She was Mr. F's Aunt, so I don't think it would have to do with his leaving Flora, which ..."I am also thinking that Mrs. F's aunt knows something that we don't about Arthur's family. Her dislike seems too pointed to be just the ramblings of a crazy woman.
I was really struck by this sentence with the final five words being the most meaningful. "At the heart of it his mother presided, inflexible of face, indomitable of will, firmly holding all the secrets of her own and his father’s life, and austerely opposing herself, front to front, to the great final secret of all life.”
What is the great final secret of all life? birth? family? fate
That plus DO NOT FORGET makes me think there is something about their family and perhaps Arthur's fate/part of the family that is the big secret about which Mrs. C feels so guilty.
I thought the great final secret of life meant death. I'm reading it to mean that she is opposing herself to death, in other words fighting it off. It would go along with the first part of the sentence, which portrays her as someone "indomitable".
Katy wrote: "I thought the great final secret of life meant death. I'm reading it to mean that she is opposing herself to death, in other words fighting it off. It would go along with the first part of the sent..."Katy, you're right. Final as in last would be death. So she's trying to take her secrets with her to her grave, including whatever she is not to forget, ala her husband's watch.
Mod
Yes, definitely. She mentioned death before, sometimes just alluding to it, eg. she once called it "the Great Change". It's all part and parcel of Mrs. Clennam's character. But we are being led further and further into wondering what the big secret is, from the past.
message 186:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Nov 05, 2020 01:08PM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
After the previous chapter, full of mysterious forebodings, we have a short chapter the end this installment. It consist entirely of the second letter from Little Dorrit to Arthur, and updates us on some key points.
Little Dorrit and her family are now in Rome, and she has been to see Minnie Gowan. She and Minnie are now good friends, and she knows that Arthur will be glad to know anything she can tell him about how Mrs. Gowan is.
Even though it is far better than anything she has ever known, she says, Amy describes a “rather bare lodging up a rather dark common staircase … Pray do not be uneasy when I tell you, but it was not quite so airy, nor so bright, nor so cheerful, nor so happy and youthful altogether as I should have liked it to be.”
'Another Glimpse of the Heart' - James Mahoney
Amy has been able to visit Mrs. Gowan, because (as we know) Mr. Gowan is painting her father’s portrait, “(which I am not quite convinced I should have known from the likeness if I had not seen him doing it)”. Amy is happy to be able to visit so often, but says Mrs. Gowan is “very much alone. Very much alone indeed.” We learn that even the old man who brings food in for her feels sorry for her, and tells stories to entertain her.
Little Dorrit, who refers to herself as “your unchanged poor child” says that she knows Mr. Gowan must love and admire his wife, yet he is careless and discontented:
“Owing (as I think, if you think so too) to Mr Gowan’s unsettled and dissatisfied way, he applies himself to his profession very little. He does nothing steadily or patiently; but equally takes things up and throws them down”
and goes out a lot in the best company. Sometimes Minnie goes with him, but Amy has noticed something which puzzles her. Although she can tell that none of these society people would like to have Mr. Gowan as part of their own family, they all believe that he has made some sacrifice in marrying Minnie, even though everyone praises her beauty. Amy also says that Henry Gowan now has a close friend, whom both she and his wife consider “revolting”.
But what she really wants Arthur to know, is how loyal Minnie is to her husband:
“She is so true and so devoted … that you may be certain she will love him, admire him, praise him, and conceal all his faults, until she dies. I believe she conceals them, and always will conceal them, even from herself. She has given him a heart that can never be taken back … and that you can never think too well of her.”
Amy says that the two are such good friends, that she can now use her (first) name, although she does not do so in the letter. And she has told Minnie her own story:
“and that you had always called me Little Dorrit. I told her that the name was much dearer to me than any other, and so she calls me Little Dorrit too.”
Amy tells Arthur that Mr. and Mrs. Meagles are there now, and that Minnie has had a baby son, which makes everyone happy. But she notices that Henry has a “mocking way with them”, which she thinks is very hard, as they are so considerate to him, and that this upsets Mr. Meagles. She also tells Arthur that Fanny has an admirer who has followed them from country to country, and also that Fanny is very kind to her now.
Finally, Amy confesses that although she wonders at all she sees, she is homesick:
“Old as these cities are, their age itself is hardly so curious … as that they should have been in their places all through those days when I did not even know of the existence of more than two or three of them, and when I scarcely knew of anything outside our old walls. There is something melancholy in it … I thought, ‘O how many times when the shadow of the wall was falling on our room, and when that weary tread of feet was going up and down the yard—O how many times this place was just as quiet and lovely as it is to-day!’”
And she goes on to tell Arthur of the strange dreams she has, when she longs to be back in the Marshalsea, and how these get mixed up with her present life. She dreads appearing in company, dressed as she used to, in shabby clothes, because:
“how I should displease and disgrace him and Fanny and Edward by so plainly disclosing what they wished to keep secret.”
Amy says how much she thinks of the Marshalsea, of England and of Arthur Clennam, and asks him not to forget her:
“So dearly do I love the scene of my poverty and your kindness. O so dearly, O so dearly!
Heaven knows when your poor child will see England again.”
And that brings us to the end of installment 13. The next chapter will begin a new thread.
I have to wonder how Arthur is so clueless about Amy loving him... Her leters make it rather obvious, at least in my opinion. They do have a beautiful friendship regardless.
Amy seems much more open with Arthur in this letter than I recall her ever being before. But she tells a white life when she writes , "I stopped at the last full stop to read all this over. It looked at first as if I was taking on myself to understand and explain so much, that I was half inclined not to send it. But when I thought it over a little, I felt more hopeful for your knowing at once that I had only been watchful for you, and had only noticed what I think I have noticed, because I was quickened by your interest in it. Indeed, you may be sure that is the truth."
I think Amy's dream is very interesting. The most interesting passage:
"I have dreamed of going down to Mrs General, with the patches on my clothes in which I can first remember myself. I have over and over again dreamed of taking my place at dinner at Venice when we have had a large company, in the mourning for my poor mother which I wore when I was eight years old, and wore long after it was threadbare and would mend no more. "
Mrs. General is a mother figure (who is bossing Amy around, and may marry her father) and making her feel like a little girl who can't get anything right. But Amy doesn't accept her, In the dream she is mourning her mother who died when she was 8 years old, while she was still wearing shabby clothes. Amy feels like a little girl always in her dreams anyway because she's stuck at age 8, when her mother died. No wonder she likes Arthur calling her "Little Dorrit" in her mind she is still a child and he feels that. She even signs her letter
in all caps: LITTLE DORRIT.
This may be more psychological than Dickens intended. Or Maybe not.
message 189:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Nov 02, 2020 01:10PM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
He doesn't consider Amy in this way, anyway, as she is his "child", his "little Dorrit" whom he wants to protect. Her letter only emphasises that feeling he has, of fond affection. It's a noble intention, at this time, but he's being a bit obtuse! Amy is proud and grateful to have any attention at all, and does not feel worthy to be his sweetheart, as he is on a higher level than she is in society: he is a gentleman. So she fits herself into the role he has cast for her, and speaks to him in those terms.
We talked about Arthur's naivety, and how he probably just worked hard and went home, only ever socialising with other English people when he felt it was necessary. He had little experience of romance in India; his only other relationship of this kind seem to have been with Flora, when he was a very young man.
Mod
I wrote the following comment because I thought your long comment to Jenny was in response to my comment. I'll leave it anyway.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I agree with what you wrote about Arthur except for the fact that he did try to win Minnie. His "I'm an old man" thing is all defensive- he was hurt. And no wonder he has little experience. Look at his mother! Can you imagine his mother was every truly loving and affectionate? So, I don't blame him for giving up so easily.
but the letter and her dreams are so telling about Amy as well. Yes, he's given up thinking of love for now - he's too old. That fits very well with Amy feeling like a child.... and a child who misses Arthur and the people she knows at home. She can't even enjoy the sites for being so homesick.
message 192:
by
Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
(last edited Nov 02, 2020 01:31PM)
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Mod
Arthur loved Minnie, yes, but he believed he never actually showed her his feelings. (Part of his obtuseness!) He never declared his love; he did not try to win her. He protested that he "decided not to love her", because he was too inhibited. There were already signs Minnie was attracted elsewhere, and yes, he was hurt. But when she told him about Henry, Minnie gave him flowers, because she intuitively knew, and did not want to hurt him.
Arthur is 40, so is actually older than Henry Gowan. But the real reason is that Henry is confident, and attractive to women, where Arthur is kind, solicitous, and probably feels old-fashioned to Minnie as he gets on well with her father, so perhaps seems a little bit dull to her.
Jean, true he didn't actually try to win her. He would just quietly come by and hang out with the family. But Minnie knew he had an interest in her. Somehow she felt it. I think Minnie's heart was already won so Arthur never had a chance. Henry and Minnie had known each other for 2 years before getting married and Arthur had just arrived on the scene.
Mod
Bionic Jean wrote: "Yes, Minnie was far more intuitive. Poor Arthur! (And poor Minnie ...)"Yes, poor Arthur and Minnie.
I thought Amy’s letter was a little strange, because after writing about the Gowan’s living quarters and other thoughts about them, in an almost by-the-way, she mentions the baby. A first baby is a momentous event, not an aside or further thought!
Mod
Bionic Jean wrote: "Oh yes, I remember thinking that was odd too, Kathleen! She mentions the Meagles as being happy and proud, but it feels almost like a follow-up - as if we've missed the excitement somehow."So true Kathleen and Jean. Maybe she didn't want to make him too jealous. I wanted to hear more about the baby.
Mod
Another mystery. :))
Dickensians!
Books mentioned in this topic
Pictures from Italy (other topics)To Be Read at Dusk (other topics)
David Copperfield (other topics)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (other topics)
Bleak House (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Charles Dickens (other topics)Charles Dickens (other topics)
Charles Dickens (other topics)
Charles Dickens (other topics)
Charles Dickens (other topics)
More...
"Circumnavigation" - nice, Sara :)
Some great observations here :) Yes, Jenny, that's true, we haven't seen Harriet for a while, nor her "protector". And what about all those in the Marshalsea, and the Casbys. Have we really left them all behind for good, as Charles Dickens takes us touring on the Continent?
By the way, don't forget our side read of Pictures from Italy is up and running, for those who would like to join in :)