Montreal Dickens Fellowship Study Questions: “Dombey and Son”
Westmount Public Library
May 7, 2019 1:00-3:00
Chapters 51 - 62
- Dickens’s descriptions of the comments, opinions and living conditions of Mr. Dombey’s servants give the novel an “Upstairs Downstairs” sort of quality. How do you think his Victorian readers would have responded to this? Discuss.
- The secretive and sensational scenes with Mrs. Brown, Rob and the concealed Mr. Dombey, give these chapters a highly melodramatic quality adding to the suspense and excitement of the book. Comment.
- Why does Alice repent of her part in revealing Mr. Carker’s location and tell Harriet about it? What importance do the characters of John Carker, Harriet Carker and Mr. Morfin have to the plot or theme of the novel if any? Discuss.
- Chapter 54, which depicts the fugitives in France, is filled with excitement and narrative tension. Edith reveals that she has no intention of staying with Carker and that she only used the idea of fleeing with him to revenge herself on Dombey’s pride. Does this redeem her in any way in your opinion? Would Victorian society forgive her behavior if she does not have a physical relationship with Carker?
- Mr. Carker’s flight is a masterpiece of tension and anticipation, as is its culmination in his grizzly death under the wheels of the train. Comment on Dickens’s masterful writing and his use of irony in his use of the train as both a positive influence (kills the bad guy/ helps good to triumph) and negative influence (the cause of devastating destruction). Dickens himself was to suffer traumatic consequences of a serious train accident 20 years later at Staplehurst, which had him fearful of train travel for the rest of his life!
- Were you surprised by Uncle Sol’s return? What do you think about Dickens’s tying up of all loose threads and happy endings?
- The first mention of a Jew in the novel is that of a “shabby vampire “ at the Dombey mansion bankruptcy sale. Dickens has often been often accused of anti-Semitism. Comment.
- Compare bankruptcy auctions then and now.
- What do you think make Mr. Dombey finally think of Florence? Love? Loneliness? Guilt? Self-Preservation? Do you think his repentance is genuine?
- Louisa Chick has never deserted him. Why not turn to her in his time of need?
- Comment on the comment of Lord Feenix’s cousin who stated that Shakespeare was a man for not one age but for eternity. Do you think Dickens imagined himself in the same way?
- Do you think the water imagery in the novel represented good or bad; life or death?
- “Dombey and Son “ has a remarkable number of contrasting interiors, reflecting its’ many contrasting characters and moods. E.g.: the Dombey mansion, the midshipman’s parlor, the Toodles’ home, Mrs. Brown’s hovel, Dr. Blimber’s, Miss Tox’s apartments, the hotel in Dijon. Discuss how Dickens uses settings to highlight his characters, emotions and themes.
- The train, like the sea, is a powerful symbol in this novel. Both images represent power, onward movement to progress and life or destruction and death. Like sea travel, used for expansion, imperialistic growth and economic progress but accompanied by risk and danger of upheaval and destruction, train travel for all the industrial, capitalist and social progress it represents is also fraught with physical risk and danger of social upheaval. Both must be used with respect, extreme, caution and preparedness. Discuss.
- “Dombey and Son” is often described as being one of Dickens’s earliest cohesive novels. Tied together by powerful symbols, recurring themes and language, it all comes together in the end with lessons about pride, the triumph of love over money, progress, friends and family. Comment.
- Aside from the main images of water and trains, this novel is filled with other symbols like birds (Mr. Carker’s parrot, Rob’s pigeons) and time-pieces (Dr. Blimber’s hall clock, Captain Cuttle’s watch, Saul’s chronometers.) Comment.
- Comment on the musicality of the novel. (Mr. Chick’s humming, Florence and Edith’s singing, Captain Cuttle’s ditties, Mr. Morfin’s cello) What does music represent in the novel.
- Do you know people who are better grandparents than they were parents? Discuss.
- Did you enjoy the novel? Why? Why not? Compare and contrast it to other Dickens works you may have read. Comment on the movie. What might you have wanted to see differently?