Dombey And Son Passage Analysis

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Laura Cordes Professor Hurley ENGL 5059-001 September 17, 2014 The final scene Dombey and Son leaves us with a touchingly idyllic image of Dombey Sr. with his grandchildren, daughter, and son-in-law, a sepia-toned family portrait permanently affixed to the pages of a photo album containing countless images of humanity’s collective memories of the archetypal Family. There is something troubling about the conclusion so well suited to a Victorian audience. Beneath the glowing sentimentality is a hauntingly pervasive sense of regret that a modern reader cannot escape Our narrator hints at Dombey’s change of heart as a consequence of his abject state: “And the ruined man. How does he pass the hours, alone?” (Dickens, Chapter 59). There are two possible interpretations of this diegetic narrative commentary. Either Dombey is ruined because he is alone, or alone because he is ruined. Given the narrative context, the second possibility seems more likely. At least it offers a sequence of events through which Dombey could attain redemption. The ruin leads to loneliness, which motivates …show more content…

little Florence!' and smooths away the curls that shade her earnest eyes” (Dickens, Chapter 62). Is it possible that Dombey has transformed from the hubristic figure we meet at the novel’s introduction, who resented his own daughter to the extent he would muse, after his son’s birth, “he had no issue. —To speak of; none worth mentioning. There had been a girl some six years before… such a child was merely a piece of base coin that couldn't be invested—a bad Boy—nothing more” (Dickens, Chapter 1), to a father who could speak his daughter’s name with heartfelt tenderness? Dickens doesn’t argue that it is possible – he shows it happening, so we are forced to acknowledge that such change is

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