Little Dorrit and the Structure of Belief

Abstract

Abstract This article probes the famous metaphor from Little Dorrit when Amy Dorrit is called the ‘vanishing point’ in Arthur’s ‘poor story’. Considering in conjunction with theories of perspectival drawing, belief, and ‘representative thinking’, it suggests the metaphor of the vanishing point for Charles Dickens yields a broader ethical argument regarding how one might engage with the beliefs of others. Rather than simply endorsing or rejecting others’ beliefs based on their grounding in empirical reality, Dickens suggests there is distinct moral value in maintaining and cultivating other’s beliefs—even the most ungrounded beliefs—rather than reflexively exploding them.