’’I am the only child of parents who weighed, measured, and priced everything: for whom what could not be weighed, measured and priced, had no existence."
When Arthur first describes his parents, he describes them as being very materialistic. For them, an abstract notion like love had no meaning because there was no way they could measure it. Arthur’s parents can be considered as representations of the greedy English society who only cared about material things: this obsession with money, status, and appearance foreshadows the concerns of many other characters including Mr. Casby, Mrs. Gowan, and Mr. Dorrit. Even though Arthur is now a grown man, the lack of family love has left him so emotionally stunted that he has now almost given up on the idea of love altogether.
"You can be, again, a foil to his pretty daughter, a slave to her pleasant willfulness, and a toy in the house showing the goodness of the family. You can have your droll name again, playfully pointing you out and setting you apart, as it is right that you should be pointed out and set apart. You can again be shown to this gentleman's daughter, Harriet, and kept before her, as a living reminder of her own superiority and her gracious condescension."
Miss Wade speaks this quote as Arthur and Mr. Meagles are trying to persuade Tattycoram to come home. Miss Wade shows her ability to be cruel and manipulative, but also perceptive. She knows that Tattycoram feels humiliated because she is not treated the same as Pet, and Miss Wade taunts her by alluding to what her life will be like if she returns to the Meagles family. According to Miss Wade, the Meagles family wants to show how they are better than others because they were willing to raise someone else’s child. The Meagles family uses Tattycoram as a living symbol of how they are better than anyone else. The quote displays Miss Wade's hatefulness and bitterness, and how she wants to make other people bitter as well.
"I find that I think, my dear Frederick, and with mixed emotions in which a softened compassion predominates, What will they do without me!"
Before leaving the debtors’ prison, Mr. Dorrit speaks his quote to his brother, Frederick. His words prove that Mr. Dorrit thinks of himself as being indispensable, someone without whom the prisoners will be lost. Mr. Dorrit considers that his presence is crucial for other people and that he is superior to those around him. It also offers a satirical parody of his sense of paternal responsibility. Mr. Dorrit has been a terrible father to his biological children, and they have taken care of him more than being taken care of. Yet, he feels a sense of fatherly responsibility and concern towards the other prisoners.
"Elsewhere, people are restless, worried, hurried about, anxious respecting one thing, anxious respecting another. Nothing of the kind here, sir. We have done all that—we know the worst of it; we have got to the bottom, we can't fall, and what have we found? Peace."
This quote is spoken by a doctor who is imprisoned in the Marshalsea and who speaks these lines to a newly-imprisoned William Dorrit shortly after delivering baby Amy. It shows the perspective of some prisoners which is also transmitted to Mr. Dorrit and ends up guiding his life for the next twenty years: that life in the Marshalsea can actually be pretty good, and there is no point in struggling or working to get free. Mr. Dorrit learns to like being in prison because it makes things simpler, and allows him to maintain a sense of importance he would not get in the wider world. The doctor's speech also shows how hard life could be in Victorian London, especially for those facing poverty. For some people, life in prison was actually preferable.
"This was Little Dorrit's party. The shame, desertion, wretchedness, and exposure of the great capital; the wet, the cold, the slow hours and the swift clouds of the dismal night."
This quote comes at the end of the description of the night when Little Dorrit and Maggy get locked out of the prison and have to spend the night walking around London waiting for the gates to be opened. In order to protect her father's feelings, Little Dorrit has made up a story that she is going to a party, and her father is too self-absorbed to understand that this could not possibly be true. The idea of a festive and pleasant party, which might be a typical way for a young woman of high social standing to spend a night, is contrasted with the harsh realities of the London underworld. Little Dorrit has been physically uncomfortable and even endangered in her ordeal, and she has done nothing to deserve this fate.
"There was a classical daughter once—perhaps—who ministered to her father in his prison as her mother had ministered to her. Little Dorrit, though of the unheroic modern stock, and mere English, did much more in comforting her father's wasted heart upon her innocent breast."
This quote alludes to a legend in which the daughter of an imprisoned king kept her father alive by nursing him after he was imprisoned. Even though Little Dorrit is contrasted as a modern Englishwoman, she is shown to be extremely nurturing and loving towards her father even though he has just upset her by suggesting she encourage John Chivery to court her. On one hand, the description seems to show how virtuous and patient Amy is, but it also highlights the dysfunctional dynamic within the Dorrit family. No matter how badly she is mistreated, Amy always stands by her family, and takes on the role of nurturing parent even though she is a child who has never had anyone care for her.
"It was not a bosom to repose upon, but it was a capital bosom to hang jewels upon. Mr. Merdle wanted something to hang jewels upon, and he bought it for the purpose."
This quote describes the nature of the Merdle marriage. Mrs. Merdle is not a loving or affectionate woman, and there is no emotional connection between the couple. However, because Mr. Merdle is rich and conscious of his social position, he sees having an attractive wife as a status symbol. Mrs. Merdle is dehumanized into something object-like that can be bought and sold. This description foreshadows the way that Fanny will later marry a man she does not love because she wants the status the marriage can bring her.
"To have no work to do was strange, but not half so strange as having glided into a corner where she had no one to think for, nothing to plan and contrive, no cares of others to load herself with. Stranger as that was, it was far stranger yet to find a space between herself and her father, where others occupied themselves in taking care of him."
This quote shows why Little Dorrit finds it difficult to adjust to a life of wealth and luxury. As a wealthy young woman, she is expected to be idle and preoccupied with enjoying herself, but she is actually accustomed to working hard and taking care of everyone around her. She doesn't know what to do with herself now that no one needs her anymore. The quote shows how much of Amy's identity is rooted in caring for others, and how she does not like to be without something to do and someone to look after. Even though she is childish in appearance, she is very nurturing underneath.
Looking back upon his own poor story, she was its vanishing point. Everything in its perspective led to her innocent figure. He had travelled thousands of miles towards it."
This quote highlights Arthur Clennam's reflections after he finally realizes that he is in love with Amy Dorrit, and that at least for a time, she likely loved him back. Because his fortunes are so low, Arthur is relieved that they never got into a relationship, but he is now able to see how influential she has been in his life. Almost from the time he returned to England, she has been at the center his life, and she is also the first loving and nurturing presence he has experienced in his lonely life.
"Let me never feel, while I am still alive, that I die before his face, and utterly perish away from him, like one consumed by lightning and swallowed by an earthquake."
Mrs. Clennam speaks this quote when she begs Little Dorrit not to reveal the secret to Arthur while she is still alive. Even though Mrs. Clennam is so cold and reserved, she cannot bear to see Arthur hate her for lying and deceiving him. Her deception is the only thing that has given her life meaning, and in this speech, she finally shows herself to be vulnerable and afraid. The quote also gives Amy a chance to be loving and forgiving to someone who has done serious wrong to someone she loves, further establishing her as a very virtuous character.
