XXX: Closing In explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Secrecy and Revelation

  The chapter revolves around the exposure of long-hidden family secrets, including the suppressed paper and the truth about Arthur's father's marriage.

• Imprisonment and Confinement

  Mrs. Clennam's physical confinement within the house mirrors her spiritual and emotional imprisonment by her own rigid beliefs and past actions.

• Family Dynamics and Obligation

  The oppressive family structure, with the uncle controlling the nephew's marriage and Mrs. Clennam's vengeful punishment, highlights dysfunctional familial obligations.

Characters to notice

• Mrs. Clennam

  Defends her lifelong harshness and punishment of others as divine appointment, revealing her discovery of her husband's secret marriage and child.

• Monsieur Rigaud

  Coercively narrates the Clennam family history, exposing secrets and manipulating Mrs. Clennam and Flintwinch.

• Mr. Flintwinch

  Threatens Affery and is physically restrained by Rigaud after she reveals his twin brother's role in hiding the paper.

• Affery Flintwinch

  Terrified, she blurts out that her dreams are true, revealing that Jeremiah's twin brother took the paper on the night Arthur returned.

• Arthur Clennam

  Referenced as the nephew whose father was forced into marriage and whose father's secret is central to the revelations.

• Frederick Dorrit

  Mentioned as the agent who helped the singing girl (Little Dorrit's mother) against Mrs. Clennam, and later as ruined and imbecile.

Key passages

• “Mine were days of wholesome repression, punishment, and fear. The corruption of our hearts, the evil of our ways, the curse that is upon us, the terrors that surround us⁠—these were the themes of my childhood.”

  Mrs. Clennam describes her childhood as filled with repression, punishment, and fear, where she was constantly taught about human corruption and divine curses.

  Reveals the foundation of Mrs. Clennam's harsh worldview.

• “When I forced him to give her up to me, by her name and place of abode... when I accused her, and she fell hiding her face at my feet, was it my injury that I asserted, were they my reproaches that I poured upon her?”

  Mrs. Clennam justifies her harsh treatment of her husband's secret lover by claiming she was acting as a divine instrument, not out of personal injury.

  Highlights Mrs. Clennam's self-righteous justification for her vengeful actions.

• “I owe my knowledge and my proofs⁠—I repeat it, estimable lady⁠—proofs⁠—of the ravishing little family history I go to commence.”

  Rigaud boasts to Mrs. Clennam that he possesses evidence of the family's hidden history, which he is about to reveal.

  Shows Rigaud's manipulative and threatening control over the situation.