Thoughts nearing the end of Little Dorrit

Dickens surprised us in some ways near the end of Little Dorrit. It was obvious from the start this would be a "wheel of fortune " novel, in which the mighty fall and the downtrodden rise. And yes of course the wealthy though enigmatic banked/investor turns out to be a forger and crook - far more culpable than thousands held in the debtors' prison - tho he never gets there, unfortunately, as he offs himself before the collapse of his enterprise. Similarly, mr. Dorrit rises to great wealth and becomes as much of a snob and a sybarite as the other plutocrats of his era - but we don't see him return to prison; rather, he suffers a mental breakdown and a quick death as he believes he's still in the Marshalsea prison. We do expect, however, that his estate will be worthless, leaving his children w nothing. I was surprised to see Clennam imprisoned, however, one of the first victims of Merdles's criminal chicanery. An outstanding question is what to make of Miss Wade and her sponsorship of the former Tattycaron (Harriet). It may be that this whole mostly undeveloped subplot was to show a parallel injustice regarding daughters: both T and the eponymous Little are victims of a father who imagines himself to be doting and loving but who in fact is biased, selfish, and psychologically abusive. These also make an unusual parallel w the fatherless son, Clennam, and his cold and recriminative mother. I do suspect that Dockens started out w bigger plans for Miss Wade and then, though the novel got away from him in some manner, felt he had to return to her story (even to tell it is such a stilted and unrealistic form last a written confession)!as he'd introduced her in the first section - the price an author paid in a serialized novel - no chance to significantly revise.

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