Existing in a Kind of Allegory: Subversive Signs of Deadly Contagion in Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop

Abstract

This essay begins with a probing look into a memorable opening scene in Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop, one that describes the way in which the sleeping figure of Little Nell, the heroine of the novel, surrounded by antiquated objects in her grandfather’s curiosity shop becomes an object of fascination for Master Humphrey, the narrator of the opening sections. Particular attention is placed on the writer’s use of the term “allegory” in depicting the narrator’s obsessive suggestion of the intercrossing between Nell’s fragile body and the bizarre objects. What is unique about the literary term is the absence of artistry or intellectual grasp commonly associated with the way in which an allegorist arbitrarily bestows meanings on his symbols and codes. Taking a cue from this observation, the essay argues that the use of the term allegory is “extra-literary” in the sense that it designates an intriguing mode of human experience, namely in Dennis Walder’s words, “the reciprocal attraction between the human and the non-human.” Broadly speaking, Walder’s phrase refers to a sense of cognitive or perceptual crisis outlining the way in which bodily sense, when caught in a web of complex material experiences, extends beyond its rational jurisdiction. In other words, the phrase bears out a unique frontier of bodily representation in Dickens established by the way in which he taps into the disparity between sensation (body) and knowledge (mind) informing his characters as they confront an increasing diversity of modern objects from trains to rubbish. Seen in this view, the figural interplay between Nell and the menacing, fantastic objects alludes to the materiality of her fragile body that can possibly succumb to forces of corruption and decay pervading the objects around her. This initial allusion can be treated as a prelude to what follows in the novel, the child’s arduous, death-ridden journey in search of a spiritual haven from the “inhuman” city, while pursued and besieged by a range of fantastic, often maniacal, people and things. The purpose of this essay is then to examine the disturbing sense of her bodily materiality by pursuing the trajectory of her bodily decline and death.