Voorjaar 2009 no.66
The Dutch Dickensian Volume XXIX
24
without the loss or transformation of oneself.
As Little Dorrit says to her sister Fanny: "If
you loved anyone, you would no more be
yourself, but you would quite lose and forget
yourself in your devotion to him" (LD 494).
Bella learns this, but only when she has her
reality transformed around her and becomes
part of an elaborate dramatic production.
Noddy Boffin, who is mercurial in his trans
formation of character, acts the part of grasp
ing, mean miser and in so doing demonstrates
to Bella what a mercenary wretch may
become. Bella learns her lesson well, and
proves she is "true golden at heart" (821). But
Bella has been prepared for the discovery by
Lizzie, who tells her what she sees in the fire:
not a "limited little b" but a "heart well worth
winning, and well won. A heart that, once
won, goes through fire and water for the win
ner, and never changes, and is never daunted"
(565)-
Eugene Wrayburn is, self-confessedly, a
"ridiculous fellow"(147), an "absurd fellow,"
according to Mortimer (302), who "know[s]
less about [himself] than about most people in
the world"(303). When Mortimer asks him
what his plans are with Lizzie, "What is to
come of it? Where are you going? What are
you doing?" Eugene says he would answer
that question if he could:
"But to enable me to do so, I must first have
found out the troublesome conundrum long
abandoned. Here it is. Eugene Wrayburn."
Tapping his forehead and breast. "Riddle-me,
riddle-mee-ree, perhaps you can't tell what
this may be? - No upon my life I can't. I give
it up."
(314)
Eugene has no energy, although he tells
Mortimer he would show energy if he had
"something really worth being energetic
about" (22). He becomes energised by Lizzie.
He tells Mortimer that he has never taken as
much trouble over anything as he has trying to
find Lizzie after her disappearance. The ener
gy Eugene is referring to, although misdirect
ed by him at this time, is the same energy
Matthew Arnold talks about in his description
of Hebraism.
Hebraism, according to Arnold is "this energy
driving at practice, this paramount sense of
the obligation of duty, self-control, and work,
this earnestness in going manfully with the
best light we have" (107). Arnold regards
Hellenism, on the other hand, as the "intelli
gence driving at those ideas which are, after
all, the basis of right practice, the ardent sense
for all the new and changing combinations of
them which are, after all, the basis of right
practice, the ardent sense for all the new and
changing combinations of them which man's
development brings with it, the indomitable
impulse to know and adjust them perfectly"
(107). He sees these forces as "rivals dividing
the empire of the world between them." The
governing idea of Hellenism is "spontaneity of
consciousness"; that of Hebraism, "strictness
of conscience" (109). The "uppermost idea
with Hellenism is to see thins as they really
are; the uppermost idea with Hebraism is con
duct and obedience" (109). Arnold argues that
Christianity, "Hebraism aiming at self-con
quest and rescue from the thrall of vile affec
tions, not by obedience to the letter of the law,
but by conformity to the image of self-sacrific
ing example (113), saved the pagan Hellenic
world from the "self-dissatisfaction and
ennui" it had fallen into (114), and thus
became the dominant cultural current in
Western Europe until the Renaissance, at
which time there was "an uprising and rein
statement of man's intellectual impulses and
of Hellenism" (116).
Unfortunately, according to Arnold, in
England the Renaissance assumed the form of
its "subordinate and secondly side," the
Reformation. "The Reformation has been
called a Hebraising revival, a return to the
ardour and sincereness of primitive
Christianity" (116), Arnold argues, and this
was the wrong direction for England to take at
that time. "For more than two hundred years
{since the Renaissance} the main stream of
man's advance has moved toward knowing
himself and the world, seeing things as they
are, spontaneity of consciousness; {whereas}
the main impulse of a great part, and that the
strongest part, of our nation has been toward
strictness of conscience" (119). He concludes
that England must go "back upon the actual
