The Duality Of Little Dorrit's Image

The thesis explores the duality of the title character's image in Charles Dickens's novel Little Dorrit, namely, her image both as a child and as a mother. Little Dorrit as a child seeks for a sense of security in the prison of the Marshalsea as her home and receives some substitute maternal love from the people there. As a "mother" she herself is an ideal model. It is true that she is not a mother in its literal meaning, but her thoughtful consideration for and care of others conjures up the image of an ideal mother. In creating Little Dorrit's dual identity, Charles Dickens infused his life experiences into the writing. The duality reflects his unconscious search for maternal love, in other words, his dream of an ideal mother.In order to reveal the deep implications of Little Dorrit's dual identity, the thesis will be developed in five parts, including Introduction and Conclusion.Introduction tells the main plot of the novel and talks about the history and present situation of its study. Meanwhile, the thesis statement is also given here.Chapter I is focused on Little Dorrit's image as an innocent child. This point will be illustrated from three aspects: first, her childlike physical image; second, her actual identity as the youngest child in the family; and third, her search for a sense of security in an attachment to the prison of the Marshalsea as her home and in the pleasure of Arthur calling her "my child".Chapter II is focused Little Dorrit's image as an ideal mother. In this part, some attachments, Mr. William Dorrit's and Maggy's to Little Dorrit, will be dealt with respectively in detail. Little Dorrit's relation with her sister fanny and her brother Tip, who also seek parental care from Little Dorrit, will be used to strengthen my argument as an indispensable part. In addition, the negative figure Mrs. Clennam will serve as a foil to Little Dorrit through a detailed contrast in thethesis.Chapter III is the one revealing the substance of the thesis. In this part, the thesis will explore the essential connection between the dual identity of Little Dorrit and the author's contradictory mind. Freud's theory that creative writers' works reflect the fulfillment of the wishes built up during childhood in the form of daydream or fantasy will be introduced in this part and serves as a theoretical support for the whole thesis.In Conclusion, the argument is stressed through a summary of the thesis. In the meantime, it reveals the meaning of Little Dorrit's dual identity to the acknowledged theme of Dickens's satire on the Circumlocution Office.