Page "Dombey and Son" Paragraph 15

Gissing makes a number of points about certain key inadequacies in the novel, not the least that Dickens's central character is largely unsympathetic and an unsuitable vehicle and also that after the death of the young Paul Dombey the reader is somewhat estranged from the rest of what is to follow.

He notes that ' the moral theme of this book was Pride — pride of wealth, pride of place, personal arrogance.

Dickens started with a clear conception of his central character and of the course of the story in so far as it depended upon that personage ; he planned the action, the play of motive, with unusual definiteness, and adhered very closely in the working to this well-laid scheme '.

However, he goes on to write that, Dombey and Son is a novel which in its beginning promises more than its progress fulfils ' and gives the following reasons why: Impossible to avoid the reflection that the death of Dombey's son and heir marks the end of a complete story, that we feel a gap between Chapter XVI and what comes after ( the author speaks of feeling it himself, of his striving to " transfer the interest to Florence ") and that the narrative of the later part is ill-constructed, often wearisome, sometimes incredible.

We miss Paul, we miss Walter Gay ( shadowy young hero though he be ); Florence is too colourless for deep interest, and the second Mrs. Dombey is rather forced upon us than accepted as a natural figure in the drama.

Dickens's familiar shortcomings are abundantly exemplified.

He is wholly incapable of devising a plausible intrigue, and shocks the reader with monstrous improbabilities such as all that portion of the denouement in which old Mrs. Brown and her daughter are concerned.

A favourite device with him ( often employed with picturesque effect ) was to bring into contact persons representing widely severed social ranks ; in this book the " effect " depends too often on " incidences of the boldest artificiality ," as nearly always we end by neglecting the story as a story, and surrendering ourselves to the charm of certain parts, the fascination of certain characters.