Little Dorrit is a name with a literary burden, and so is
Marshalsea, the old debtors' prison.
She suffers throughout all the years of the
Marshalsea, becoming a "fountain of love and fidelity" to her family and to others about her, like the mentally disabled and penniless Maggy and the destitute old pensioner, Nandy (192).
on the green earth"; (24) in Little Dorrit (1855-1857), the narrator's repeated references to Judgment that accompany Arthur Clennam's penitential growth in the
Marshalsea prison; in Villette (1853), Lucy Snowe's desperate search for consolation that leads her to dabble in Catholic practices like confession and to consider the allure of purgatory.
William Dorrit and his family are on a tour of Europe to forget the many years spent in the debt prison of
Marshalsea, out of which the old gentleman bought his way after discovering he was the lost heir to a large fortune.
When Arthur Clennam, recognizably a gentleman, attempts to discover the nature of the debt that is keeping William Dorrit in
Marshalsea Prison, he is referred to the Circumlocution Office.
A fellmonger was arrested, and under the pretext of attending a play, a group of his fellow fellmongers gathered in order to free him from
Marshalsea Prison.
When Dickens was young, his father and entire family except for himself were thrown into
Marshalsea debtors' prison.
For Charles, this occurred at age 12 when his father was arrested for debt and sentenced to the
Marshalsea, an ancient for-profit prison where debtors were forced to pay for their own stay while gathering resources through day jobs, family, and friends to pay down their debt.
See also The Case of the
Marshalsea (1612) 10 Co Rep 68b, 73a; 77 ER 1027, 1033 (Coke CJ).
(54) Having been born in the
Marshalsea debtors' gaol, in which her father has been imprisoned for two decades, Amy has spent her entire life calling the prison home.
Googling a runner Amy Dorrit 3.25 Salisbury The central character in Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit, Amy Dorrit is brought up in the debtors' prison, the
Marshalsea, until her family is released after inheriting a large estate.