Charles Dickens's 'Dombey and Son'

Just as Mr. Dombey is marked to fall so is his son but Paul's creases are smaller and are constantly being flattened and then smoothed out by the brother Time as a "preparation for (Time's) deeper operations" (Cht.1). Paul raises his tiny new-born fists at an unknown enemy in an attempt, even in his first moments of life, to ward off death's blows; perhaps he is able to see Brother Time's scythe within the first few breaths of life Paul is already responsible for his actions and can already be seen as what John Carey would call a Dickensian Dwarf.2 Paul was not afforded a childhood proper and is therefore destined to die prematurely; his sin being born into a predestined place within a banking firm which perhaps carries with it a hint of predetermined guilt.

As the Editor suggests, Mr. Dombey has indeed followed the Malthusian advice of marrying when one could solely afford to as well as subscribing to one of his preventive checks of moral restraint. This irony may be rooted in the fact that Paul wasn't a product of love or misled passion but was produced primarily to fill the requirements of the name of the firm which can again be seen as a triumph of artificiality over nature. The Dombeys had been married ten years and had had no issue: no issue, of course, until Mr. Dombey's business partner was born. Mr and Mrs Dombey did however have a six-year old daughter: Florence. She wasn't worth mentioning and she was likened by her father as being "piece of base coin that couldn't be invested-a bad boy" (chpt. 1). We receive the impression that Mr. Dombey was still intoxicated with the exuberance that caused him rather unexpectedly to endear himself to his wife as he invites Florence to look at her pretty brother. We also suspect that Mr. Dombey is vindictively displaying Paul to his sister in an attempt to perhaps shame her.

At the first meeting between Florence and Paul, Dickens draws our attention to Mr. Dombey's "very loud and ticking watch" which coupled with a pair of creaking boots embodies the idea of her father to Florence and is thus the inverse of Dombey and Son. The suggestion of the ticking clock also furthers the metaphor of Time being playfully vindictive and also foreshadows the clock in Mr. Blimber's office repeating "Come in my son, come

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