“Now let me hasten over the rest of my story” (The Little Witness, p47) – the narrator
seems to be in a rush and trots on swiftly towards the next dramatic scene of
the novel – we will “skip over the next few months which followed.” (Ibid.)
They are summed up in a few sentences: “In the river … the body of a
child, in every way corresponding to that of the missing one, was discovered …
so disfigured and defaced” that it was assumed to be the body of Dora Hardy. (The Little Witness, p48). “For the rest,
in spite of the most earnest endeavours, the indefatigable efforts on the part
of the police, the affair completely baffled their skill.” (The Little Witness, p50). The murder of
Old John remained unsolved and no one was looking to Dora, “when suddenly the
long-sought clue was discovered.” (The
Little Witness, p52).
Billy Doike is injured by a frightened horse
“somewhere in the extreme North of England” (The Little Witness, p52), he is found to be carrying burglars’
tools and he has a child with him the “child was Dora Hardy.” (The Little Witness, p54). The narrator decides
that this part of the tale; the police catching and bringing Billy Doike to
justice, “would take too long to detail now” (The Little Witness, p53). The narrative
is not interested in a murder investigation. Instead, the story cuts straight into the
court room where “William Doike is charged with the murder of John Hardy … as
yet there is not enough evidence to prove the case.” (The Little Witness, p55).
Tinsley is writing a sensational, psychological
drama and the narrative races to its second key scene (after the murder scene),
when the judge calls Dora Hardy to bear witness against Billy Doike. The court
recognizes that Dora’s “evidence cannot, in accordance with the law, be counted
as such; but … it ought nevertheless to be heard.” (The Little Witness, p55). This is the key scene of the narrative; it is essential for dramatic effect and
sensation, that Dora has her day in court.
Dora is
not even five years old. While she does admirably well, considering she is
supposedly standing in a court of law in front of a crowd of strange adults,
what makes the scene particularly interesting is the methods the judge uses to put questions
to a small child. The narrative here displays sensitivity and an awareness of the
ways a child thinks and reasons. It also recognizes how the traumatic
experience of witnessing the murder has been blocked by Dora’s mind out of her
memory and she is incapable of talking about it.
Both the way Dora’s mind deals
with the murder of her grandfather and the judge’s methods of coaxing the
information out of her are what we would today recognize, quite Freudian. This
is interesting, considering that at this time was still experimenting with
hypnotism and had barely started to outline his theories of the unconscious,
repression and psychoanalysis.
The judge begins by establishing whether Dora can
count time and help with the timing of the events. She cannot: “After this very
plain proof that Dora’s knowledge of numeration table was not to be depended
upon, the question of time was given up.” (The
Little Witness, p58). Then he questions Dora about her life on the road
with Billy Doike and establishes that Billy has taken good care of Dora and has
treated her with great kindness and affection. Only then the judge approaches
the critical events: he asks “But how was it you left gran’dad?” (The Little Witness, 61). Dora’s mind
blocks out the trauma: “I don’t remember, I don’t remember.” The judge changes
his approach to indirect and more circuitous questioning: he “led the little one to talk of other things, hoping to win it
by slow degrees.” (The Little Witness,
p63). The court room has to listen to Dora prattling on about her pets and she
has “a pretty unconscious action … her blue eyes grew big with delight and
wonder.” (The Little Witness, 64).
Finally, the judge approaches the traumatic experiences presenting them to Dora as a
nightmare – it was only a bad dream (The
Little Witness, p65). And where Dora could not speak of real memories, she
is able to describe her nightmare: “I saw Billy Doike in zee dream.” “Was he
the other man?” The judge asks. “Ess.” Dora confirms in her childish lisp. The
effect on the court room is suitably dramatic: “the totally motionless crowd who
seemed awestruck – paralysed by the evidence.” Billy Doike falls down in a dead
faint (The Little Witness, p72) and the judge has “an image of a child leading [him] by the hand to the
scaffolding.” (The Little Witness,
p71) Dora is both an innocent, clueless witness – from the
mouths of babes the truth – and an avenging angel leading Billy Doike to his
death.
Dora does not understand that she has condemned Billy to death, instead
she calls to him and begs to be let to go to him: “he takes her in his arms,
dries her tears … “ and Dora says to him: “Oh, Billy! I’se so glad oo’se come
back, cos I love oo so. I love oo so.” (The
Little Witness, p76). Like the hero and heroine of a romance, Billy and Dora are then torn away from each others' arms when Dora is
carried out of the court room. After this, Billy Doike makes a full confession
and he is condemned to hang.
This is where the psychology of The Little Witness gets a little cloudy,
but therefore all the more interesting. The remaining two chapters explore the
relationship of Dora and Billy. Dora has fallen ill and is placed in care by the judge. Billy is locked up waiting for his sentence to be carried out. Dora’s fondness
for Billy underlines her childish innocence and is thus understandable; she is
a small child who attaches herself to the adult who shows her kindness and
cares for her. She has blocked out the memory of the murder and her memory of
Billy as the murderer. We could see her behaviour as a manifestation of the
Stockholm syndrome.
Dora is an orphan, she lost both her parents,
then her grandfather too, all before the age of 5. She is one messed up kid,
and yet in the story she behaves like a traditional heroine of melodrama with
all the appropriate religious and romantic feelings. This is where Dora as a
toddler loses credibility and takes on some disturbing qualities of a grown up
woman and Billy’s beloved.
Dora and Billy long for each other. Billy begs
the judge to let him see Dora one more time, before his sentence is carried
out: “he made a most heartfelt prayer to be allowed to see this child.” (The Little Witness, p 89, see also p90).
Similarly Dora, restless in her fever, keeps asking “Why doesn’t he come? He
promised to, and he hasn’t.” (The Little
Witness, p104). The narrative reaches its final melodramatic climax. The
evening before the execution, the night before Dora’s fifth birthday, Billy is
led out of his cell in shackles (The Little
Witness, p101) to visit Dora. The lovers are reunited for one fleeting moment. Dora, again, appears as a romantic heroine:
“The beautiful blue eyes opened under long lashes
and stared over to the door; a flushed face became lit up as if by magic with
an expression of wondrous happiness; the brown head was raised, and all
weariness forgotten, two thin arms eagerly outstretched with a longing gesture.”(The Little Witness, p105). She cries
out: “Billy! Oh, it’s my Billy – my Billy Doike come at last!” (The Little Witness, p106). How natural is it for a 5-year-old child to call a grown man "her" Billy?
Billy
responds with equal passion: “Dora is clasped in a pair of strong arms –
clasped with a frenzied fervour to a heart which beats until it is nigh to
bursting.” (The Little Witness, p106).
The narrator goes to great lengths to assure us
that Billy Doike is evil: “Do not let my reader for an instant think I would
have him appear otherwise than he was – a murderer, in all the full meaning of
the horrible name.” (The Little Witness,
p92). He would get the end that such men deserve (The Little Witness, p86, 87). Leaving Dora, Billy is left alone in
Dora’s room for a moment, with an open window. He does not escape, but “Alone
he descended the stairs, crossed the hall, opened the door of the waiting van,
got in and closed it after him.” (The
Little Witness, p122).
Little Dora has not only softened the heart of
the callous, criminal Billy and taught him to love her. She has had a benign
moral influence on him. She prayed that God would make Billy good again so they
could be reunited in Heaven (The Little
Witness, p117). So why does Billy not escape? Has he become good? Is he hoping that he can redeem himself and be re-united with Dora in the afterlife? Or has his life lost meaning with the loss of her beloved Dora? If he has become good, does he still deserve to die? Is his love for Dora enough to atone for a career of crime and Old John's murder?
