Little Dorrit

“‘But I bear those monotonous walls no ill-will now,’ said Mr Meagles. ‘One always begins to forgive a place as soon as it’s left behind; I dare say a prisoner begins to relent towards his prison, after he is let out.’”

Mr. Meagles tells Clennam this once they are released from their quarantine on their boat in Marseilles. Imprisonment is a recurring motif throughout Little Dorrit, Meagles’s sentiment foreshadows how Amy will feel about Marshalsea after the Doritts are released.

“It was evident from the general tone of the whole party, that they had come to regard insolvency as the normal state of mankind, and the payment of debts as a disease that occasionally broke out.”

Clennam notices this attitude toward insolvency on his visits to the Marshalsea, specifically when he visits the wealthier side of the prison where the Dorrits live. This quote highlights how different classes have different attitudes toward debt, and it highlights the privilege of the upper class since they consider paying their debts off as optional. Additionally, as the prisoners in the Marshalsea are prohibited from working to repay their debts, this quote also emphasizes how they must resign themselves to insolvency, showing how unfair the prison system is.

“He fancied that although they had before them, every day, the means of comparison between her and one another and themselves, they regarded her as being in her necessary place; as holding a position towards them all which belonged to her, like her name or her age. He fancied that they viewed her, not as having risen away from the prison atmosphere, but as appertaining to it; as being vaguely what they had a right to expect, and nothing more.”

This quote shows that Clennam notices the Dorrits take Amy for granted and treat Amy like just another part of their life at the Marshalsea. Since she was born there, they believe that they are superior to her. They consider Amy’s constant assistance and selflessness something that they deserve rather than something they should be thankful for.