Summary
Fanny's engagement gives her a rise in social status, and the chance to be snide with Mrs. General. The marriage takes place sooner than anticipated because Sparkler has to return to London to begin his job, and Fanny does not trust him to be there alone. Before the wedding, Fanny warns Amy to try and prevent a marriage between Mrs. General and their father if possible. After an elaborate wedding, Mr. Dorrit hints to Amy that she should also start considering getting married. He then travels back to London with Fanny and Edmund, and meets with Mr. Merdle there. Fanny loves the luxury of the life she is welcomed into, and Mr. Dorrit loves the social recognition of being associated with Merdle. At Merdle's encouragement, he invests large sums of money in the latter's ventures. Right before Mr. Dorrit is to return to Italy, he is surprised by a visit from Flora. After a rambling introduction, she explains that Blandois has vanished, which is a problem because of suspicions being cast on Flintwinch and Mrs. Clennam. Flora hopes that Mr. Dorrit can look for Blandois on his way back to Italy.
When Dorrit recognizes Blandois as Gowan's friend, he agrees to help, and goes to visit Mrs. Clennam, whose house is being watched by the police. Dorrit cannot uncover any information, and leaves alarmed by the nightmarish atmosphere of the house. That night, he is visited by John Chivery, who is seeking news of Amy. Terrified that John will betray the secret of his past, Mr. Dorrit treats him roughly but then seems to be ashamed of himself and gives him money for himself and the other prisoners. On his journey back to Rome, Dorrit stops in Paris and purchases some jewelry as a gift. When he arrives in Rome, he seems to be behaving strangely, but goes to a grand party hosted by Mrs. Merdle. At the party, he has some sort of fit and hallucinates that he is back in prison, embarrassing himself in front of all the fancy guests. Amy rushes him home, but he dies ten days later. Frederick stays to grieve over the body of his brother, and is found dead there the next morning.
Meanwhile, Arthur has pieced together the various clues and arrived in Calais, where he entices Miss Wade to meet with him by giving his name as Blandois. He begs Miss Wade to share any information she may have about Blandois's whereabouts so that he can seek him out to clear his mother's name. Miss Wade offers no information about Blandois but brings up Henry Gowan, explaining that she hates his wife. Arthur watches Tattycoram and Miss Wade squabble, and then leaves with a document in which Miss Wade has written down some of her history. From this document, Arthur learns that Miss Wade has grown up warped with bitterness, jealousy, and possibly a repressed desire for other women. She has run away from every opportunity to connect with other people because she is suspicious and mistrustful. She had an affair with Henry Gowan, whom she liked because he treated her badly, but he abandoned her and then pursued a relationship with Pet. This has made Miss Wade even more angry and bitter.
After Arthur arrives back in England, Doyce sets off for Russia in hopes of patenting his invention there. He leaves Arthur in charge of the business' finances, but makes him promise not to invest in any speculative ventures. As Doyce leaves, Mr. Baptist and Arthur realize that Blandois is actually the man known as Rigaud; when Arthur learns that he is a murderer, he becomes even more anxious, and asks Mr. Baptist to help him try to find this man. Arthur is growing increasingly desperate to understand the connection between his mother and Blandois, so he goes to see her where he finds her being visited by Flora and Mr. Casby. Mrs. Clennam refuses to give him any helpful information, and after he arranges to get Affery alone, she is too scared of her husband to tell him anything.
Analysis
The end of Mr. Dorrit's life concludes a rapid rise and fall, from poverty to wealth to tragic death. On the surface, Fanny's marriage to Edmund symbolizes the completion of the change in the Dorrit family fortunes. After decades of living in prison with seemingly no hope of any other life, Mr. Dorrit is now closely associated with the Merdle family and is lavished with social prestige. Mr. Dorrit signals his confidence both by his decision to invest with Merdle and his gifts for Mrs. General. He is anticipating a bright future for himself, and urges Amy to start thinking about making an equally significant match for herself.
However, Mr. Dorrit's past will not stay hidden. He is practically terrified by the possibility that John Chivery is going to tell people about his history, which reveals that no matter how much money or reputation he acquires, William Dorrit is never going to be able to feel entirely at ease. He will always be haunted by the true story of his background coming to light, and in this, he resembles Mrs. Clennam who is also doomed to perpetually hide a dangerous secret. Mr. Dorrit's cruel treatment of John shows the combination of his fearfulness and guilt. On some level, he feels shame and guilt about having left his previous life and the other prisoners so far behind.
Even as he seems to be planning for the next stage of his life, Mr. Dorrit becomes increasingly haunted before finally lapsing back entirely into his previous identity. His stroke-like symptoms reduce him to revealing the identity he has been trying so hard to hide, and for the remainder of his life, his hallucinations take him back to the Marshalsea. Even though it seems that Mr. Dorrit got to enjoy freedom, he never really dealt with the trauma of his past or accepted where he came from. His final illness functions as a kind of return of the repressed, where all the poverty and social embarrassment he tried so hard to conceal and renounce rises back to the surface.
Some of these same themes also surface in the revelation of Miss Wade's history. She is uncooperative with Arthur in regards to Blandois, but does reveal a bit about her own past and a shocking connection to Henry Gowan. Like Tattycoram and (as readers will eventually see) like Mrs. Clennam, Miss Wade is a prisoner of her anger and bitterness. It's understandable why she hates and resents Henry and Pet, but this incident is part of a longer chain in which Miss Wade has always pushed away anyone who showed her kindness, and instead sought out opportunities to torment herself. She is pathologically incapable of accepting love or affection, and this also explains why her relationship with Tattycoram has deteriorated. The two women are now very unhappy together.
