Character Comparison: Lizzie Hexam and Amy Dorrit

Lizzie Hexam and Amy Dorrit are heroines from Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend and his Little Dorrit, respectively. If you’ve read both these books, you may have noticed that there are a number of similarities between these two characters.

(WARNING: If you don’t know one/both of these stories and don’t want them given away, I would urge you not read any further. There will be spoilers.)

~ The first similarity is that both Lizzie and Amy have rather – in a word – problematic families, and both are the only really good, virtuous members of their families. Lizzie Hexam’s father makes a living by robbing dead bodies he finds in the river, and her brother is (by the end of the story, at least) one of the most selfish, ungrateful people you’re ever likely to meet (well, hopefully he’s much more selfish and ungrateful than anyone you’re likely to meet, since I certainly wouldn’t wish the acquaintance of someone like Charlie Hexam on you).

Amy Dorrit’s father is pompous and selfish, her brother is lazy and unmotivated, and her sister is prideful and vengeful (the characters of both Amy’s father and her sister could be elaborated on more than that, but since this post isn’t about them, I’m sacrificing precision for brevity). All of Amy’s family are self-centered and have a a very aggrandized view of their family’s position and importance. There is an incident which illustrates this that is both sad and a little comical, in a way, in which Amy’s father and sister are outraged to see her walking arm-in-arm with an old man who lived in the poorhouse – when the Dorrits, mind you, were living in prison.

~ The next similarity is that both characters lost their mothers, and both became the mother-figures in their families (which is elaborated on in the next point).

~ Both Lizzie and Amy are devoted to their admittedly flawed families. Lizzie loves both her father and her brother, and stays with her father even as everyone around them grows hostile to him, believing him to be a murderer. At the same time she contrives the means to send her brother, Charlie, away to get an education, knowing that will be better for him. Later on, when Charlie acts harshly and unkindly towards her, she never acts with anything less than kindness to him, and is heartbroken when he in the end casts her off.

Amy, though younger than either of her siblings, is the real manager of her family. She continually devotes all her time and all her energy to their concerns, and indeed often gave even her meals to her father so that he would feel as little want as possible. She is so wrapped up in caring for her family that when they finally leave the prison and there is no need for her to care for them anymore, she is unhappy and doesn’t know what to do with herself.

~ Another similarity is that both had to refuse an offer of marriage, and disappoint someone close to them by doing so. Lizzie refused Bradley Headstone, greatly angering her brother, and Amy refused John Chivery, which upset Mr. Dorrit, her father (although only because her refusal caused John’s father to be a little short with him, Mr. Dorrit).

~ Both had to, for some time, patiently and quietly love without any expectation that their love would be returned. In Amy’s case, this was simply due to the man she loved being ignorant of her feelings and thinking of himself more as her protector and guardian than anything else. In Lizzie’s case, it was due to the fact that the man she loved was not, in fact, a morally good person; he was attracted to her from the start, but his feelings toward her were too selfish to really be called love.

As to their differences – I feel that Lizzie comes across as a stronger character, but, thinking about it, I’m not sure if she actually is. Amy is shyer, and dislikes having attention on her (not that Lizzie by any means gives the impression of seeking the spotlight), but she, like Lizzie, is strong when it comes to her principles, and Lizzie, like Amy, is infinitely gentle and patient with her family. Perhaps the illusion of Lizzie being stronger partly comes from the fact that she was more often forced by her principles to say no to the people around her – she had to refuse the wishes of her brother, of Bradley Headstone, and of Eugene Wrayburn, none of whom were very happy to have their plans thwarted. The only person whose wishes Amy really had to go much against was John Chivery, and he, good soul that he was, did not try to force her to change her mind.

Another difference is in who the two heroines fell in love with. Although he has his good points, Eugene Wrayburn was honestly something of a jerk. He used whatever low means he needed to find Lizzie when she tried to flee from him, he pursued her against her wishes, and he deliberately goaded and tormented Bradley Headstone just for the fun of it. Yeesh. You could do so much better, Lizzie. (He does have a character arc, though, so in the end it’s all good. Honestly wasn’t the greatest idea to fall in love with the man in the first place, though.)

Although Lizzie loved Eugene, she could not accept his addresses. She knew his careless nature and knew that she was in a much lower class of society than he, and she therefore had no reason to think he intended on marrying her. She was thus put in a peculiarly hard position – forced to flee from a man whom she was in fact in love with.

Arthur Clennam, on the other hand, the man Amy loves, is one of the nicest and most principled men in literature. He is compassionate toward others, and scrupulous in trying to always do the right thing. Something that shows his contrast to Eugene is how he behaves towards Mr. Gowan, his rival for Minnie Meagle’s hand (yes, Arthur is a little block-headed sometimes and imagined he was in love with this Minnie person, when it was extremely obvious that he was supposed to fall in love with Amy). Knowing how easy it would be to be unkind and unjust to Mr. Gowan solely due to his position as his rival, Arthur tried his hardest not only to ensure that he did not let this change his behavior toward him, but even in his thoughts was always trying to keep himself from slipping into thinking ill of him, blaming him, or attributing bad motives to his actions. He continued to do this, even when subtly insulted and taunted by Mr. Gowan (another jerk, by the way – even worse than Eugene, if anything).

So I suppose another difference between Lizzie and Amy is that Amy has much better taste…

Despite all their similarities, I feel like the two definitely still come across as distinctly different personalities. I have, of course, taken Lizzie’s name for my own, but I think personality-wise I relate a bit more to Amy.

Which heroine do you like better?