‘불확실한 정체성’에 대한 불안과 처벌의 욕망: 디킨즈의 『리틀 도릿』과 영국성

Anxiety over 'Uncertain Identities' and the Desire for Punishment: Dickens's Little Dorrit and Englishness

This paper delves into the anxieties surrounding the Crimean War among the English, focusing on the portrayal of ‘uncertain identities’ as absolute evil in Little Dorrit, and Charles Dickens's desire to eradicate this evil to secure a firm sense of Englishness. Dickens presents Blandois, a “cosmopolitan gentleman” who infiltrates and corrupts English society with his ambiguous identity, and Miss Wade, an Englishwoman with Eastern traits whose un-English “unsubduable” anger and defiance incite fears of rebellion, as embodiments of this perceived evil. By ensuring Blandois’s death and condemning Miss Wade to alienation and eventual exile from England, Dickens seeks to punish these evils and soothe the anxieties of the English populace. Moreover, Dickens offers characters like Amy Dorrit, Arthur Clennam, and Daniel Doyce as counterexamples—steadfast individuals who maintain their unwavering Englishness despite their encounters with ‘uncertain identities.’ These characters exhibit “self-subdual” by enduring and persevering without complaint in the face of unjust English realities. In light of these elements, Dickens emerges as a conservative figure who reinforces the existing English social order rather than a reformer aiming to change it. A re-reading of Little Dorrit thus reveals “the other Dickens.”