Little Dorrit is a classic tale of imprisonment both literal & metaphorical while Dickens working title for the novel Nobodys Fault highlights its concern with personal responsibility in private & public life. Dickens childhood experiences inform the vivid scenes in Marshalsea debtors prison while his adult perceptions of governmental failures shape his satirical picture of the Circumlocution Office. The novels range of characters
- the honest the crooked the selfish & the self-denying
- offers a portrait of society about whose values Dickens had profound doubts.