In Which a Great Patriotic Conference Is Holden explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Bureaucracy and Institutional Corruption

  The chapter highlights the absurdity of government bureaucracy through the Dorrit case, where the Circumlocution Office creates endless forms and delays to prevent a debtor from paying his debt.

• Wealth and Moral Decline

  Mr. Merdle's immense wealth is used to corrupt the political system, buying influence and seats in Parliament, while the elite guests flatter and manipulate for personal gain.

• Social Class and Hypocrisy

  The dinner party showcases the hypocrisy of the upper classes, who pretend to serve the public good while engaging in jobbery and self-interest, as seen in Bar's flattery and Bishop's sanctimonious speeches.

Characters to notice

• Mr. Merdle

  Hosts a special dinner for the Barnacles and other dignitaries, seeking to cast his wealth into the Barnacle political scale and provide for Edmund Sparkler.

• Lord Decimus Tite Barnacle

  The noble guest at the dinner, who inquires about the Dorrit case and engages in political maneuvering with Mr. Merdle.

• Ferdinand Barnacle

  The engaging young Barnacle who acts as negotiator between Mr. Merdle and Lord Decimus, and humorously recounts the bureaucratic troubles with the Dorrit payment.

• Bar

  A lawyer and guest at the dinner, who flatters the Barnacles and comments on the analogies of wealth and attraction.

• Bishop

  A guest at the dinner who philosophizes about the merging of lesser wealth into greater for the good of Society.

• Mr. Tite Barnacle

  A buttoned-up, weighty official who resents Mr. Dorrit's attempt to pay his debt as an informal disruption.

Key passages

• “Mr. Merdle was going to take up the Barnacles. Some delicate little negotiations had occurred between him and the noble Decimus—the young Barnacle of engaging manners acting as negotiator—and Mr. Merdle had decided to cast the weight of his great probity and great riches into the Barnacle scale.”

  Mr. Merdle planned to support the Barnacle family politically, after secret talks with Lord Decimus, using his wealth and reputation to boost their influence.

  This reveals the corrupt alliance between finance and politics, a central theme of the chapter.

• “It was a triumph of public business... You never saw such a lot of forms in your life.”

  Ferdinand Barnacle boasts about the excessive paperwork that delayed Mr. Dorrit's payment, calling it a victory for bureaucratic red tape.

  This satirizes the inefficiency of the Circumlocution Office, a recurring target in the novel.

• “Thus, instead of two rival and contending flames, a larger and a lesser, each burning with a lurid and uncertain glare, we had a blended and a softened light whose genial ray diffused an equable warmth throughout the land.”

  Bishop argues that merging Mr. Dorrit's new wealth with Mr. Merdle's established fortune creates a harmonious and beneficial influence on society.

  This hypocritical justification masks the self-serving nature of the elite's consolidation of power.