Charles Dickens's 'Dombey and Son' Part III

thematically with the classic ills associated with greed and moral complacency which surround the never ending quest for material gain. Paul was doomed at birth by the stain of money and was only to serve as Mr. Dombey's link to commercial immortality as Dombey and Son would be likely to perpetuate itself; Mr. Dombey himself and had 'risen as his father before him, in the course of life and death, from Son to Dombey' (Chpt. I). Paul may also bee seen to have fallen victim to Blake's Tree of Mystery; Mr Dombey is like the Tree in that he poisons those around him who are capable of love and compassion. Florence, however, was saved solely because she was a girl and not a 'Son'; a role that would be passed on to her after her brother's death but because of her inherent purity would not be able to fill. Florence was intuitive and sensitive enough to realise through the deaths of both Paul and her mother what it was that the waves may have been saying: death is a fact of life and the life which we are given is only temporary. Florence is able to value a stable family life and she passes most of her unhappy childhood gazing across the river at the model family that she longs to a part of; the river imagery again serves to inject the impermanence of life but this time is associated with Florence, a much more natural entity. Her virtuous qualities and respect for family values may be what saves her from the fate which befell her brother was set against the corruption associated with money and its associate: greed.

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