『리틀 도릿』에 숨겨진 서술의 비밀

A story is always subject to interpretation and the nature of narrative is in general open to penetration of interpretation. Narratives must always have their secrets and the secrets can only be interpreted in their social context in view of the novel as a form of social discourse. The aim of this study is to read what Charles Dickens wants his readers to see in his Little Dorrit by means of analysis of its narrative secrets. The first step in the process of finding the narrative secrets is to find a cluster of key words Dickens uses to conceal and reveal his secrets which will provide the reader with clues to the narrative secrets. Words which are associated with 'shadow' and 'stare' indicate the presence of secrets, and they throw lights on secrets hidden in the narrative of Arthur Clennam and Little Dorrit. The secrets which shadow the two characters are the roles of the writer and the reader. The secret is a way in which Dickens copes with his dilemmas he feels between his desire to give comforts and pleasures to his readers and the desire to make them see what is wrong with them. They are the ones who are responsible for the gloomy dark social conditions at the center of which lies the Circumlocution Office. This narrative secret is subversive in that it undermines what the surface narrative conveys. The individualist system of value which is suggested in the love story of Little Dorrit and Arthur Clennam turns out to be ineffective of Little Dorrit.