Küçük Dorrit romanında, Charles Dickens on dokuzuncu yüzyılın ikinci yarısındaki Viktoryen Britanya'yı ticaret, kredi ve finansal spekülasyon gibi yeni ekonomi modelleri bağlamında resmetmeyi amaçlar. Sanayi Devrimi sonrasında, Viktoryen Britanya ekonomisi taşınmaz sahipliğine dayalı varlık bilincinden taşınabilir akışkan varlık sahipliğine geçişe tanıklık eder. Bu önemli ekonomik değişikliğin bir sonucu olarak, aristokrasi ulus üzerindeki politik ve ekonomik otoritesini kaybeder ve buna bağlı olarak Viktoryen orta sınıf yeni egemen sınıf olarak ortaya çıkar. Maddi ve entelektüel güç arasındaki ilişkinin bir sonucu olarak, maddi kaynakların hâkimiyetini elinde tutan Viktoryen orta sınıf, entelektüel gücü uygulama yetkisine sahip duruma gelir. Kendi değer yargılarının, var olan ve kaçınılmaz değer yargıları olduğunu dayatmak için Viktoryen orta sınıf, edebiyatın gücünden etkili bir biçimde faydalanır. Edebiyat, orta sınıf ideolojisini Protestanlık etiği ve Ütiliter çalışma disipliniyle bağdaştırarak, bu ideolojinin yayılmasına katkıda bulunur. Bu çalışmada, Charles Dickens'ın Küçük Dorrit (1857) adlı romanında, Protestan etiği ve Ütiliter ticaret ruhuyla şekillenen Viktoryen orta sınıf ideolojisini nasıl resmettiği incelenecektir. Dickens'ın, anlatımıyla Viktöryen dönemin sosyo-ekonomik değişimlerine ve bu değişimlerin sonuçlarına nasıl ışık tuttutuğu üzerinde durulacaktır. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışma, Dickens'ın toplumu kasıp kavuran yeni ekonomik modellerden biri olan finansal spekülasyonu nasıl yerdiğini, bununla birlikte Protestan etiği ve Ütiliter çalışma disiplininin Viktoryen sosyal hayatının vazgeçilmezleri olduğunu vurguladığını inceleyecektir

In Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens tends to portray mid-Victorian Britain in the context of new modes of economy based on commerce, credit and speculation. In the aftermath of Industrial Revolution, Victorian Britain economy witnesses the shift from fixed landed property to the liquidity of portable property. As a result of this major economic change, aristocracy loses its political and economic power over the nation and the middle class emerges as the new ruling class in Britain. The Victorian middle class who controls material forces assumes the right to enforce intellectual forces as a consequence of the interrelation between material and intellectual forces. In order to impose their values natural and inevitable, the Victorian middle class utilizes ‘literature’ effectively as one of the intellectual forces. The literature contibutes to the diffusion of the middle class ideology reconciling it with Evangelical Christianity and Utilitarian hard work ethic. In this study, Charles Dickens’s representation of the middle class values of mid-Victorian period shaped by Evangelical Christianity and Utilitarian commercial spirit will be explored in his Little Dorrit (1857). It will be emphasized that how Dickens tries to illustrate the major socio-economic changes and their outcomes in the Victorian period through his narrative. Within this context, this study will analyze how Charles Dickens reinforces Evangelical morality and Utilitarian hard work ethic as indispensable to Victorian social life by despising financial speculation prevailing throughout the society In this study, it is aimed to show how Charles Dickens narrates mid-Victorian period within the context of new modes of economy in his Little Dorrit (1857). Dickens tries to illustrate the shift from traditional modes of economy based on fixed landed property to the new Victorian modes of economy based on manufacturing, commerce, credit and speculation. In the aftermath of Industrial Revolution, Victorian Britain witnesses some major economical, social and political changes. As a consequnce of economic expansion following Revolution, London became the financial center as the world’s rapidly growing indutrial engine and central bank. The middle class Victorians started to generate wealth through circulation of property and commodity, so they began to measure their worth not by simply estates or lands but by rules of property circulation. The Victorian middle class emerged as the new ruling class, as a result of this aristocracy lost its political and economical power over the nation. The emergence of the middle class as the new ruling class brought along with the diffusion of the middle class ideology as natural and inevitable. Literature played a crucial role in the incorporation of middle class polite manners and common cultural standards into Victorian social life. In other words, literature was used as a way of ideological control in the aftermath of economical, social and political changes in Britain. Furthermore, literature contributed to alleviate the effects of disparities between classes preventing the working classes from reaction. As for the Victorian novelists, they permanently took ino consideration the taste of their reading public. Consequently, the Victorian manners and attitudes shaped by Evangelicalism and Utilitarianism filled Victorian novels. The Victorian novels emphasized the importance of Evangelical morality and Utilitarian hard work ethic promoting entrepreneurial attempts in this money making age. Little Dorrit not only includes new Victorian modes of economy but also provides a sharp and critical picture of mid-Victorian society. By despising the Victorian desire for wealth, the social abuse of the lower classes, and the misconduct of the governmental institutions, Dickens sheds light on the deeper social and economic conditions of the midVictorian period. Dickens tends to portray that the Victorian inclination to get money and increase their wealth caused evolution of speculative fever as internal to mid-Victorian economy. As an economic practice of deriving profit from price fluctuation, the financial speculation was rendered as a contradictory practice since it denied Utilitarian hard work ethic and the middle class morality. In his work, Dickens tries to convince his readers that invested money is virtual without the actual passing of currency so it poses the risk of losing it. Dickens’s constant representation of financial anxiety pervading society reveals Dickens’s discontent with this uncertain economic practice. He shows his dissatisfaction with the money driven society he lived in through his fictitious institutions and characters. While criticizing the practices of speculator Mr. Merdle and the Circumlocution Office, he celebrates the middle class virtues in Daniel Doyce and Arthur Clennam whom he shows as a good business exemplar. The downfall of Mr. Merdle committing suicide in a bathing house and bankruptcy of his investors reveal Dickens’s criticism of speculative fever pervading Victorian society. Dickens condemns the abuses of the government with his fictitious institution the Circumlocution Office whose officials especially keep down enterprising members of the middle class from progress. His criticism of governmental intervention in entrepreneurial attempts is to dignify Utilitarian commercial ideology that favors Victorian middle class progress. Dickens depicts the Bleeding Hearth Yard residents, the members of lower classes, in miserable conditions. The entire population of Bleeding Hearth Yard invested their money in Mr. Merdle’s speculations and ended up being poorer than ever. Dickens tries to render that the residents who lacked Victorian virtue of hard work ended up financial failure instead of economic gain. However, Victorian gentlemen such as Doyce and Clennam who adopted hard work ethic triumphed in the social and financial sphere. The Marshalsea debtors’ prison is the most powerful and prominent symbol in Dickens narrative. Dickens draws attention to the rampant desire for money that imprisoned people on all levels of society. In other words, in the novel the lack of money, the constant pressure to get money, and the presence of money present different cases of imprisonment for the individuals. The state of financial anxiety and financial failure pervade the society and Dickens aims to show financial speculation as the basic cause of their desperate situation of financial failure. In this respect, his aim is to convince Victorian readers that only hard work and moral values would bring salvation and happiness rather than rampant desire for money and wealth.