ABSTRACT
The thread that ties together Arthur Clennam’s identity comes from Little Dorrit, who becomes the connecting link between all the people that are part of his life. Little Dorrit has burned—indeed has had him burn—without his knowledge, the codicil revealing the secret of his birth and of her identity as the rightful heir to part of his family fortune. Arthur realizes that thinking of Amy Dorrit as a “fairy,” incapable of common, physical, love isolates her, but Amy herself is more content to be Arthur’s Little Dorrit than the physical being called Amy. The thread that ties together Arthur’s identity comes from Little Dorrit, who becomes the connecting link between all the people that are part of his life. Little Dorrit’s ability to get Arthur to burn the will is troubling, as many critics have pointed out.
