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Chapter VIII introduces both Mr. Dombey and Paul's opinions regarding the concept of money as a man-made device which can triumph over human nature. Paul asks his father quite simply, 'What's money?' to which his father can only reply: 'Gold, and silver and copper. Guineas, shillings, half-pence'. Mr. Dombey explains exactly what money is: inanimate pieces of metal which are worthless until contexualised by man much like Paul was. Paul then asks what it is that money can do to which his father answers: 'Money...can do anything.' It is also interesting that we as readers as well as Mr. Dombey begin to see Paul for what he is: an inquisitive child. Perhaps it is the asking of 'seemingly innocent question that we are repeatedly pointed out of Paul's childlike mannerisms. Mr. Dombey paternally pets Paul on the head; Paul's arms are 'hardly long enough to fold'. Mr. Dombey's final verdict regarding money is fairly predictable, however: ' money causes us to be honoured, feared, respected, courted, admired and made us powerful and glorious in the eyes of all man.' This discourse is reminiscent of William Blake's 'The Human Abstract' which attempts to place man at the centre of human unkindness and unhappiness; the poem's opening seemingly answers a small child's innocent question suggesting, perhaps, that children may be less immune to the world's suffering.
Carlyle's view may serve as a precursor to John Ruskin's concerns regarding the division of labour or, more appropriately, the division of men within the industrialised society of which Mr. Carker may have been a victim. Carker, the Manager, had imbedded himself within the stagnant and cavernous counting-house of Dombey as one of the outside links between Dombey and the common masses and whose eventual embezzlement will serve as the impetus of his downfall both financially and emotionally. |
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