DICKENS AND HIS OLDER PEOPLE: TRANSITIONAL, MIDDLE & LATER NOVELS (1842-1870)
DOMBEY AND SON ( 1846)
Dealing with the Firm of Dombey and Son
Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation
PART TWO: The Cast of Major and Supporting Older Adults: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Having explored in Part One the 'Curse of Middle Class Assumptions and Presumptions', we move on to an analysis of individual older characters. It is always important to note that Dickens's use of symbolism, the role of women, and the significance of the family and society at large were shaped by his language and style. On death, mourning and grief, even more so. (:Lit.Summaries) The portrayals we will encounter display jealousy, family, prostitution, modernity, technology, education and loyalty. ( Barkley, D & Suduiko. A (Eds) 1925) As usual, we have the peculiarities on which to draw and interpret, plus a cocktail of older people and their idiosyncrasies.
MR PAUL DOMBEY: the Head of the City of London Merchant House and a dealer in hides, not hearts.
There is little to commend Dombey as a parent, a husband, or, to be honest, a person. We know he was in his late middle age and a couple of years off being one of Dickens' older people, as I have defined it. That said, it would be ridiculous to have excluded him as such. Described as 'rather bald, rather red, and though a handsome, well-man, too stern and pompous in appearance to be prepossessing. On the brow of Dombey, Time and his brother care had set some marks, as on a tree that was to come down in good time, remorseless twins they are for striding through their human forests, notching as they go.' ( Philipps A.J. & Gadd, L. ( 1989 ed)
It is not necessary here to detail his attitude towards his two children, but it is relevant to register that, following the death and departure of Paul and Edith's mother, Fanny. Dickens describes her as "a woman whose pride is equal to his (Dombey's) own, and who not only has no love to give him, but refuses to render him the deference and submission which he extracts as his due" ( Dale. R. (2005)). Edith Dombey ( nee Skewton) was at that time in her twenties and saw in him nothing more than material gain and her increased status. In many ways, they were well matched, with 'mutual aversion and contempt' ( Dale). In true Dickens fashion, she takes off with Dombey's manager, James Carker, aged nearly forty, but later killed by a train, thought to be at Paddock Wood Station, Kent.
Dombey's own fate following his bankruptcy became a life-transforming experience. His ego-centric pride disappears, and his abused daughter takes him into her home, having married Walter Gay, Sol Gill's nephew. I'm tempted to ponder how that worked out, but there again, Dickens loved a happy and reformed older person's ending. That said, Dombey's portrayal is that of a London filled with cold, pompous, stiff, purse-proud men like this. ( Collins P. (1971) and Hawes. D. 2002). A reflection of his middle-classness rather than his chronological age. Donald Hawes references a Preface to later published editions of the novel, which is of interest to us, stating that " Mr Dombey undergoes no violent change, either in the book, or in real life. A sense of his injustice is within him all along. The more he represses it, the more unjust he necessarily is. Internal shame and external circumstances bring the contest to a close in a week, or a day, but it's after a long balance in victory that has been a contest for years, and is only fought out after a long balance of victory" (. Hawes). It is worth mentioning that Rodney Dale's commentary re reinforces that Dombey's "crowning retribution proves a blessing after all; for it demonstrates his pride, melts his obstinancy, and, sets his injustice plainly before him...he passes the evening of his days, a wiser and a better man" ( Dale). The thirty-five-year-old Dickens continued to believe that such repentance was possible in one's later years. A view, yet again, of his notion that old age equates to a 'Pickwickian' golden one, where there is loving family and/ or friendship support, preferably by a loving daughter. It is a Victorian stereotype and a fantasy reflecting notions of repentance, self-actualisation and happy endings. He was a man of his time. Confession meant absolution and in theological terms, justification - sins washed away and living in grace. One is tempted to think that there was perhaps a 'shameful' secret Dickens held, a discussion I will have at a later stage.
The Honourable Mrs Skewton ( aka 'Cleopatra') Miss Skewton . By Hablot Knight Browne
( Phiz) 1848
It is said that Dickens based this seventy-year-old character on 'a Mrs Campbell, a lady well known in Leamington' ( Kitton. F.G. (1906). In a way, Dickens's Skewton is the personification of his scathing opinion of the aristocracy, and indeed even the pretentiousness of the higher middle class and especially of older women in his novels. She is Edith Granger's mother, scandalously trading on her ancestry of Lord Felix, her nephew. She outrageously flirts with fifty-year-old Major Bagstock. Mrs Skewton is described thus: 'Although the lady was not young, she was very blooming in face, quite rosy, and her dress and attitude perfectly juvenile....Her attitude in the wheeled chair (which she never varied had been taken in a borach, some fifty years before, by then a fashionable artist who had appended to his published sketch the name 'Cleopatra': (Hawes. D.). Furthermore, Skewton's a beauty in her youth, her false teeth set off her complexion, and her juvenile dress cannot disguise her seventy years any more than can her talk of 'nature' and 'heart' obscure the heartlessness that makes her see her beautiful daughter as a saleable commodity' ( Bentley. N, Slater, M & Burgess. N (1988). She became even more grotesque when she suffered a stroke. "They took her to pieces in very shame, and put the little of her that was real on a bed. She dies soon afterwards, haunted by her fear of a stone arm raised to strike her" (.Hawes). Note that the haunting fear is not her remorse or regret of a life lived exploiting and cunning, but the result of a cerebral vascular accident. Dickens presumably regarded her character as needing to pay the price of her personality, but nevertheless reinforced the forgiving nature of her daughter.
Mrs Skewton is explored by Leah Grisham (2017) in a fascinating paper focusing on older women. The overall messaging is that frequently during the nineteenth century, 'ageing and elderly women were associated with helplessness, senility and redundancy'. Quoting Devany Looser ( In Grisham 2008) "old age was more likely to be experienced as a period of loss, as compared to men's ageing experience - both in terms of property and law and in the perception of physical decay. The culture's fixation on a youthful physical idea was especially directed towards women." That said, Grisham argues that Mrs Skewton's character was a "refutation of the helplessness that was associated with old age in women". She was grasping, relentless and far from cognitively impaired. Her use of a wheeled chair was not related to infirmity. But here is the rub: the very pseudonym 'Cleopatra' underpinned the unnaturalness of her, in that it reinforced Dickens's notion that she was "analogous to deviant social, sexual, economic and political power in a way that she undermined Victorian gender ideologies. Dickens's description evidences this, in that her portrayal, behaviour, unladylike, and immorality were totally un-English. ( Grisham ). On the one hand, she defies the stereotype associated with gender differences, but on the other hand, Dickens portrayed her as " an unnatural and threatening distortion of the domestic order" (Grisham). Furthermore, as Grisham reminds us, she was a villain, false and vain, and her attempt to recreate her youthfulness was deemed unbecoming of a woman in her seventies. Dickens derides her at almost every level. The overt, even pernicious ageism reflected in how older women, who defied what was basically male and hence Victorian attitudes to old age, Dickens laid bare. But was he actually just confronting that ageism and the notion of older women being confined to a world of domesticity, passivity and compliance, and used her as a literary and cliched trope which readers would recognise? How did he personally view and treat his wife, Catherine, in her later years? Arguably, with disdain and brutal emotional rejection.
As with the character of old Martin Chuzzlewit, her feigned infirmity masked a cynical and shrewd way of controlling and manipulating to forward their own plans. Chuzzlewit, to expose Pecksniff and Skewton to exploit her daughter into marrying Dombey. Older men and women evidence the belief that old age is associated with dependency, sickness and frailty. Neither were they powerless. Edith, however, knew her mother well. It was one thing to have been pimped, but quite another to witness how her mother 'dragged the innocent and beautiful Florence down the same path of mercilessness, wealth hunting'. (Grisham ).
A point often missed or ignored by many Dickensian scholars and commentators when discussing the portrayal of Skewton, is not surprisingly picked up by Grisham. Namely, the sexual exploitation of both Florence and Edith. Whilst acknowledging was not regarded as a sexual threat, she was most certainly, writes Grisham,' associated with sexual and moral deviance....Mrs Skewton's desire for wealth has led her to force (Edith) into a life that is often related to prostitution.' (21: p 5) Grooming is not just a twenty-first-century issue and Dickens would have been personally and professionally familiar with the practice. I am not suggesting that he himself groomed, but he was dangerously close. The drive for financial gain ( security ?) applied to all Victorian social classes, and it would be a mistake to stereotype prostitution as simply a lower-class issue. We are shocked by Geoffrey Epstein today, but pimping, trafficking, grooming and exploiting young girls and boys by rich and powerful men using their money, influence and celebrity for their own sexual gratification using gifts, promises and 'a better life' to both children, teenagers and young adults. The perpetrators are frequently older adults. In his early novels, Dickens was often ambiguous in writing about such matters ( e.g. Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop) and of necessity, his framing as a writer was clearly not to disturb the sensibility of his readers - the Victorian hypocrisy writ large. ( Richardson (2024)
Major Joseph Bagstock:(aka 'Old JB ')
Major Bagstock: The Victorian Webb.org
Philip Hobsbaum's rather scathing assessment of Dombey and Son argues that the character 'appears to exist for the purpose of comic relief: indulging himself in the role as surely as Quilp and Pecksniff' ( Hobsbaum (1998). Notwithstanding, he considers that Bagstock 'is the one flight of fancy Dickens allows himself' in the book (24). Apart from referring to himself in the third person, he calls himself 'old'. Hawes adds '[he] has arrived at what is called in polite literature, the grand meridian of life( ie the 'age of fifty' ( 26/26)
Bagstock may well be 'comic relief ', but he is indeed most unsavoury, even an 'old letch' towards the tender-hearted and compassionate neighbour Lurecia Tox. As with many older characters throughout Dickens's works, he is a jealous and cunning manipulator, and an older adult. His association and past relationship with Mrs Skewton tells us much about sexuality in later life. In addition, the Victorian obsession with death, Dickens could not resist the Major frequently choking on his food and continued his 'downhill journey with hardly a throat' (Philip and Gadd (1989 edition). On the bankruptcy of Dombey, with whom he had deliberately become friendly as part of his connivance with Mrs Skelton to matchmake her daughter with him ( thus taking Miss Tox out of the picture), he abandons Dombey, alleging he had 'been deceived, hoodwinked and blindfolded' ( Hawes). Thus, this 'apologetic, wooden featured, blue faced Major with his eyes staring out of his head,' the Major, says Hobsbaum, ' chokes and gasps through the book' ( Hobsbaum). In other words, the Major ' evokes a wornout windbag, full of flashy yet empty speech' ( Wikipedia (2025)
Mrs Pipchin; 'An old lady living in Brighton' (Dale.(2005)
' A marvellous ill-favoured, ill-conditioned old lady. of a stooping figure, with a mottled face, like bad marble, a hooked nose and a hard grey eye, that looked as if it might be hammered on an anvil without sustaining any injury' ( Hawes ( 2002 edition). Little Paul, when meeting her at the Boarding House she manages, says directly to her that he had been wondering how old she must be with his usual 'sharp questions and grave stare.' It is noted that Dickens's description was based on Mrs Roylance, his landlady in Little College Street, where he stayed whilst his father was imprisoned in the Marshalsea.( Hawes). The relationship between Pipchin and Little Paul was one of ''a kind of attraction'' comments Hawes. She later becomes Dombey's Housekeeper but understandably rushes back to Brighton on his bankruptcy. It is worth mentioning her niece, Miss Berinthia ( Berry) ' a middle aged spinster whose exploitation as a drudge by her aunt does nothing to diminish her dog like devotion to her'. ( Bentley et al ( 1988).
There is a hint of Dickens's affection towards this 'ill favoured and conditioned' old lady. Nevertheless, it is both patronising and paternalistic, placing her portrayal and role within the setting of domesticity, education, and childcare. ( See author's References and Sources).
Paul and Mrs Pipchin
Illustration by Phiz ( Hablot Knight Browne)
The Dickens Page
Dr Blimber: Proprietor of an expensive private boarding school
Leon Lituack, in his contribution to the Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens, comments that while Dickens had a lifelong interest in education and was informed on educational developments, he stopped short of offering practical solutions to problems, and his works reflect only a selected range of issues and institutions. ( Lituack in Schlicke (2011). His portrayal reflected his own childhood experiences, which he admitted were 'irregular and mixed'. From the deficient private school in Chatham to 'the positive and inspiring establishment' of the Rev William Giles, then Wellington House under the headmastership of the sadistic William Jones. These personal experiences and subsequent work as a journalist led him to advocate for a sectarian rather than a State ' comprehensive liberal education' which he claimed 'rewarded honesty, stimulated rather than idle, eradicate evil or correct what is bad.' Dickens' speech in Birmingham (1844). Quoted by Lituack.) He did, however, endorse and support the Ragged School movement, but did not regard it as a panacea. ( Lituack)
Dombey removes his fragile son from the somewhat one size fits all approach of Mrs Pinchin to the pompous Dr Blimper's Academy which he describes as ' a great hot house, in which there was a forcing apparatus at work where they knew no rest from the pursuit of strong-hearted verbs, savage noun substantives, inflexible syntactic passages, and ghosts of excerises that appeared to them in dreams' .( Lituack ). It could be argued that Blimper was not manevolant in his rigidity, self-opinionated, and pomposity but a reflection of his age and is therefore associated with a stereotyping of older adults - namely, a lack of sensitivity and flexibility compared to that of the younger teaching assistant, Mr Feeder.
Paul introduced to Dr Blimper by Harry Furness in
The Charles Dickens Library Edition ( 1910)
'Good Mrs Brown' - An ominous presence
Mrs Brown calls herself 'good and her story one of seduction, illegitimacy, revenge, child kidnapping, family betrayals and theft. The life course of this older character contains a thread woven by Dickens into the Dombey saga. In many ways, the description, whilst typically Dickens, should not overshadow her lived years. Or should it? 'She was a very ugly old woman, with red rims round her eyes, and a mouth that mumbled and chatted to itself when not speaking' ( Hawes). In addition, Philip and Gadd point out that she was a dealer in rag and bones, lived in a hovel, miserably dressed and carried some skins over her arms. Her living conditions, destitution of body and soul, and abject poverty belie the rage of fire within her, being driven by revenge. Let us focus again on her living conditions, in that 'there was no light in the room save that which the fire afforded- a heap of rags, a heap of bones. a wretched bed, two muli coloured chairs or stools, the black walls and blackened ceiling were all its winking brightness shown up' (Philp and Gadd)
The intersection of her physical appearance, her home, her occupation and being old, which Dickens brilliantly portrays, tells half her story. When a child Mrs Brown was seduced, possibly raped, though Dickens does not explicitly say so ( mindful of his readers) by Edith Granger's uncle from whom she bore the illegitimate Alice Marwood. This daughter is unknown to the cousin she resembles in her beauty and pride, but she and, of course, her mother know the whole history and draw parallels between them. ( Bentley et al 1988). She had been seduced and abandoned by Carker, hence, her great motive throughout her life was vengeance. The daughter was later transported for theft, and when returning, the mother and daughter seek retribution on both Carker and his sister, Harriet.
A child's relationship with their parent(s) or guardian(s) is stock in trade for Dickens and he understands that the legacy of how they were parented, the grievances and sibling jealousy are never far from his lived experience as he perceived it. The reader, however, has to decipher the allusions, be it sexual abuse, including rape, abandonment, betrayal and jealousy. In Freudian terms, fantasies about killing one's parent(s) or incest would be included. Be that as it may my purpose is not to psychoanalyse Dickens ( too fraught and dangerous) but to simply acknowledge that both in terms of his novels and actual, his portrayals of families, their histories and even their ages are a reflection of his preoccupations, storytelling, theatrics and personal history.
During my professional social work career working with older people, I noted that many, in their early years or young adulthood, certain traumatic events still led to grudges, humiliation, guilt, sadness and rage. Dickens, we know, held many grudges against his parents, family and others, even his wife, Catherine. Literary revenge is sweet.
'Florence and Good Mrs Brown'. Fred Barnard's 7th illustration for
Dombey and Son. Household Edition (1877) p37. Victorian Web
Dickens and Victorian Female Sexuality
With both Mrs Skewton and Good Mother Brown, sexuality and Dickens's storytelling cannot be ignored. Joss Lutz Marsh posits that Dombey was written towards the heyday of Victorian reticence, hypocrisy and activity in sexual matters- before a decent woman was admitted to have a sexual life, before the age of consent crept above twelve, before legislation against obscenity....he (Dickens) gives place to sexuality at it's most problematic - woman's sexuality' ( Jos Lutz Marsh ( 1991). Dickens, I would argue, was caught up, as reflected in his portrayals, which Marsh describes as 'the fear of female desire and the moral panics surrounding it highlights the complexities of gender roles and the struggle for women's rights and autonomy'. Professor Par Veronoque Molinari argues however that the notion of a libertine eighteenth Century to a prudish Victorian era should be cautioned. ( Molinari ( 2025)
As we discussed previously, looking at Dickens's early novels, his childhood and early adulthood were within the Georgian/Hanoverian period'. His literary ambiguity regarding sexual intimacy and behaviour was, as Wilkie Collins states, about Dombey and Son was all about his reputation and not offending his readership with explicit reference to sexual abuse. That said, Marsh considered it a pivotal work. Collins, regardless of what he thought about Dickens and this novel in particular, was very much aware of Dickens's sexual behaviour ( including extramarital), and whilst not personally criticising Dombey, he certainly did those novelists who avoided touching on 'sexual relations which literally swam about them [him]', as quoted by Marsh. Dickens, through his portrayals, "gives women a voice, and yet silences them" ( Marsh p405)
Returning to Professor Molinari, we must distinguish the differences between Victorian 'ideology and reality, prescription and behaviour and public adherence to a discourse and private control'. Social class is also a factor whereby industrial and rural customs interplay with middle class society, anxious about unregulated female sexuality and the need to protect and reinforce notions of ideal motherhood and their wifely duties and qualities - middle-class moralism.
Little is made of Good Mrs Brown's chronological age within the plot but Dickens conformed to the view that in terms of sexuality women in general, and older ones in particular, overt sexual feelings were not an issue, or certainly not acknowledged. She was in many ways de sexed. Her life course experience, including of sexual abuse, abandonment and exploitation, pathologisation led to a Dickens portrayal of one of his most grotesque portrayals of old age. This de sexualization, age appropriateness in speech, dress and behaviour in many ways demonstrated the increased pathologisation of older adults who, if deviated from what was viewed as appropriate in later life, were labelled as demented and delinquent. That said it would be wrong to consider Dickens, whilst demonstrating these attitudes, did in many of his characterisations of older people (mainly middle class) show another picture. One of increased agency, independence, and authority within their familial, business and local community. : (Froide. M ( 2001). Did, however, Dickens generally portray and defend the rights of older women to their bodily integrity and sexual pleasure? I think not. That said, he did indeed illuminate the complex mix of later life agency and oppression ( Botelho. L. & Thane P.(2001). Sexuality, be that Good Mrs Brown or other older female characters, Dickens, in his writings, moved them away from displacement or obscurity, intersecting with gender, social class and race. ( Naylor L. (Ed) (2012). As we have frequently seen and will continue do so, Dickens displayed the 'good, bad and ugly' across his whole canon of works. The challenge remains, however, that the majority were underpinned by his and Victorian assumptions and presumptions about female age and ageing, social class, gender bias and sexuality in both the private and public space.
Captain John (Jack ) Bunsby, Captain Cuttle, Sol Gills and Mrs MacStinger: A quartet of 'true and false humours'?
This is Dickens having a laugh. The interrelationships between Captain Bunsby, his friend Captain Cuttle, Sol Gills and the irascible cross-grained widow Mrs MacStringer are pure pantomime farce. Whilst their chronological ages are not specifically given, they are clearly fifty-plus, as illustrated by Phiz, thus in their later years. The basic Dombey storyline of Florence and Water Gay is the main course; Bunsby, Cuttle, Gills, and MacStinger are the warm-up who steal the show.
Original illustration by Phiz (1846) From the Goodman
Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery (2023)
'Captain Cuttle consoles his friend'
Sol Eytinge Jr's character study of the 'odd
couple on their wedding day': Mrs MacStinger and
Bunsby (1867). The Victorian Webb
Sol Gills and Water Gay. Sol. Eytinge Jr. (1867).
Scanned image by Philip V Allingham. Victorian Web
Taking a 'Who's Who' approach, let's take a closer look at these portrayals. They are distinguished by eccentricity, speech and gestures, with Dickens 'employing a variety of techniques rooted in the eighteenth century tradition, being satirical and humorous' ( 51: Wikipedia). There is much symbolism and domestic sentimentalism, as reflected in Sol Gill's shop and house.
Of Captain ( Jack ) Bunsby, he is an old sailor and friend of Captain Cuttle. He is bluff and taciturn, later, and note, unwillingly, marries Mrs MacStringer. Donald Hawes, as usual, provides clarity out of the quartet's complex interpersonal relationships, narrative and behaviours. His summary description cannot be bettered, and I quote:
'Bunsby is admired by his friend, Captain Cuttle, who says that [he] could deliver an opinion on any subject, as could give Parliament six and beat them. He had one stationary eye in [his] mahogany face, and one revolving one, on the principle of some lighthouses..... Captain Bunsby rescues his friend Cuttle from Mrs MacStringer, whom he placates ('awast, my lass, 'awast) but succeeds in dominating him and leading him to the altar' (52/53 Hawes (2002).
Dickens, furthermore, describes Bunsby as having shaggy dishevelled hair and his dress a succedaneum for a waistcoat, with outsize wooden buttons. He may well have been a seafarer of distinction, but not so brave that Mrs MacStinger put the fear of God in him!
Of Captain Cuttle, himself, is a co-lodger at MacStingers' and equally intimidated by her relying on Bunsby, his confident for moral support and advice. Described as a kind, sympathetic and caring soul, especially towards Florence and the then fourteen year old Walter Gay. In terms of dress and appearance, he has a knobbly nose, like his walking stick, a hook instead of a right hand, bushy eyebrows and a loose, rough 'shirt collar that looked like a sail.'
Respite from the intimidating and controlling MacStinger comes when Sol Gill ( his close friend) goes off to search for Walter Gay (who had mysteriously disappeared) surreptitiously, takes over his shop, thus escaping from his nemesis. He can breathe easily.
If the names MacStinger, Bagstock, Cuttle, and Bunsby conjure up notions of skuttling, worn-out windbags, a bun and stinginess, the name of Solomon Gills implies wisdom. A predictable trait of most of Dickens's names was deliberately used to portray their characteristics, behaviours, and particular attributes, which, for many of his older people, as far as our discourse is concerned, reinforces ageism, sterotyping and his attitude towards them.
Uncle Sol Gills is specifically an 'elderly gentleman', slow, quiet, thoughtful and though dressing relatively conservatively, sported bling buttons. The narrative descriptions give evidence, to me at least, of Dickens's 'amiable humour' but are arguably rooted in what could be considered as implicit ageism. Namely, that he was unconscious and thus unaware, rather than deliberately that his portrayals were deliberately 'othering', stereotyping and mocking old age and older people, which we today would classify as gerontophobic. Gills, Cuttle and Bunsby were seasoned rough seafarers, yet all paternally influenced by the childness, vulnerability, and innocence of Florence Dombey. The 'wicked witch' provides the boos and hisses in this pantomime. They were a useful lens through which to see those characters of natural imperfection but good intentions, negotiating the existential threats of selfishness, malice and cunning of other characters ( Wikipedia). Dickens himself skillfully moderates between sentiment and irony, humour and obsession, perversity and protection. These specific older adult portrayals, however, through their caricaturizations, offer respite from the dark underbelly of the novel.
000OOO000
There remain a further six characters who are clearly older adults to whom we now turn. In doing so, it is worth remembering Donald Hawes's point that some of Dickens's characters are exaggerations, say of virtue and vice, others are caricatures, particularly of the aristocracy, or personifications of 'humours' as with Pecksniff and Uriah Heep. Dickens included many of psychological complexities. ( Hawes 2002). I have tried to locate older people in the context of Victorian social class and culture, including their occupations, past and/ or present, testing out how Dickens reflected, or not, his personal and literary sensibilities of old age biases.
Mr and Mrs John: ' sometime bully' and Louisa Chick: 'past her middle age'
Mr and Mrs Chick, and Miss Tox: Sol Eytinge, Jr. The
Diamond Edition of Dickens's Works. Vol 3. (Boston: Ticknor
and Fields. 1867) The Victorian Web.com
Being Mr Dombey's sister, she is in the mould of an opinionated, insensitive and proud nature. When present at the birth of Little Paul, she urges her dying sister-in-law, Fanny, to make more of an effort to live. Sarcastically, she asserts that not 'trying hard' is in Fanny's nature and hence is 'condemned' to failure - even to the point of death. Later, she has no sympathy for even her own brother, blaming him for his own downfall for not trying hard enough!
Dickens cannot resist portraying her dressing inappropriately in a juvenile manner, 'particularly as to the tightness of her bodice'.
Of John Chick, we are not given his age, but Dickens describes him as 'a stout old gentleman, with a very large face, and his hands continually in his pockets, and who had a tendency to whistle and hum tunes'. The relationship with his wife is somewhat ambiguous. On the one hand, they bickered a lot, she discounted much of what he said, was quick to put him down, and he, on occasions, when feeling brave enough, bullied her to the point of abuse. Yet on the other hand, they are seen as 'well matched, fairly balanced and a take and give couple'. ( Philips & Gadd, 1989 ed).
Mr Morfin: ' a cheerful looking, hazel-eyed elderly bachelor'
An interesting character and portrayal. Morfin is in the employ of Mr Dombey and assists in exposing the dastardly James Carker and is described as 'gravely attired, as to his upper man, in black; and as to his legs, in pepper-and-salt colour. His dark hair was touched here and there with specks of grey, as though the thread of Time had splashed it; his whisters were already white' ( Hawes. page 157). He later marries James Carker's sister, Harriet, with whom he has had feelings of fatherly affection and admiration, if not pity. He is portrayed as her ' unknown friend'.
Dickens's depiction is somewhat ambiguous. On the one hand, a devoted employee, despite overhearing conversations between Dombey and James Carker, which has the effect of making him sympathetic to both John Carker and Harriett. The picture is of an older adult, sensitive, even passive, with his beloved violoncello and enjoying his Wednesday evenings playing at a 'certain club room hard by the Bank'. Should we read anything into this 'elderly,' cheerful, innocent amateur musician, lovingly caring and protecting his cello? He is, however, secretive, observing the 'evil machinations' of his employer and portrayed as 'an officer of inferior state within the Dombey empire. We know that Dickens was sympathetic towards clerks, but Morfin arguably was not one, but clearly knew his place.
Of Harriet, we do not know her exact age, but she was not a young adult. There is no suggestion of sexual attraction between Morfin and Harriet; rather, there is one of empathy towards her, and we have an indication of a debt owed, given his rescuing of her and James, and his secret scheming to help Mr Dombey following his bankruptcy. It may be the very portrayal given by Dickens of an innocent, vulnerable, and kind hearted Harriet that tells us more about Morfin than her.
Mrs Miff: 'a wheezy little pew opener' and Mr Sownds; 'The orthodox and corpulent beadle'
Let the description of Mrs Miff speak for itself about this rather minor cast member in the Dombey story: ' a mighty dry old lady, sparely dressed with not an inch of fullness anywhere about her, with a vinegary face' who attended both marriages of Florence and Edith and the Christening of Little Paul. She is present yet invisible.
Fred Barnard's 33rd illustration for Dickens: ' Signing the Marriage Register in the Vestry. Household Edition (1877) The Victorian Web Note Mrs Miff- far right & Mr Sownds - far left
Sophia Jochem, when a PhD candidate, writing for The Dickens Project, looked explicitly at the interaction between Mrs Miff and Mr Sownds. Their discussion evidenced her as a nasty, intolerant, money grabbing and resentful older adult. Jochem argues that Dickens 'satirically exaggerates' both characters to demonstrate the 'monetisation of the Church and its mercenaries, capitalism [is their] religion' ( Jochem. S ( 2020)).
Mrs Miff, being female, could not aspire to becoming a beadle and hence secure a salary. She earned shillings per marriage, christening and funeral. Dombey is full of weddings, as are several of Dickens's works and reflects the Victorian literary tradition of 'ending novels'. Perhaps Mrs Miff was not a minor character at all, but allowed Dickens to associate conservatism and capitalism with social injustice. Miff's portrayal, however, is set within a dusty church (see below), which is relevant to how Dickens, consciously or unconsciously, viewed older women.
Regarding Mr Sownds, we do not specifically know his exact age, but his physical description, employment and the interactions with Mrs Miff imply at least late middle age, but arguably was an older adult. Here we return to the setting in which he appears, namely, a dusty, dirty and dim church. Jochem's narrative is significant. ' There is a dusty old clerk...There is a dusty old pew opener... and a dusty old Beadle....There are dusty wooden ledges and cornices poked in and out over the altar....There are dusty old sounding boards over the pulpit and reading desk.' Old and dust are synonymous in terms of inanimate objects and people.
This dusty old beadle is described as an orthodox, conservative, portly, corpulent, pompous and self-proclaimed liberal. His so called liberalism is used by Dickens to contrast with Mrs Miff's conservatism. Was Dickens also equating old age with conservatism? This age stereotype is still common today.
Lord Feenix (aka) Cousin Feenix- Mrs Skewton's nephew. Retired and living in Baden, Germany.
Cousin Feenix. By Sol Eytinge Jr. ( Diamond Edition: Dombey and Son 1867 ). Scanned image and text by Philip Allingham. ULR The Victorian Web.org
Four decades ago, he was a man about town who, in his later years attempts to cover the latent wrinkles on his face. He enters the story at Dombey and Edith's wedding, having travelled from Germany. Dickens portrays him as somewhat confused about where he is walking, giving the impression of a lumbering old man. That said, he is evidently kind, following Edith's ignominy in finding her in France and providing her asylum in his London home. It is further noted that Feenix takes Florence to bid goodbye to her stepmother.
Today, we would view him as productively and positively ageing. a contributor, mentor and an asset. This is an interesting portrayal, given Dickens's generally negative opinion of the aristocratic class. Yet in terms of literary gerontology, we also see a character uncomfortable with at least the physical sign of ageing and wanting, as did Dickens later, to mask the signs and recapture his younger self. It is both positive and negative. Dickens was now in his mid-thirties, penning his seventh major novel but still showing little sign of coming to terms with his own future ageing, at least in his characterisations.
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John Sutherland (2009) writes that Dombey and Son marked 'Dickens's growing interest in using his art for the purpose of social criticism in the late 1840s, and introduces a distinctly darker tinge to his fiction'. For me, Dickens also introduces a darker tinge of gender and age bias. I am reminded of Helen Small's commentary on the character of eighty year old Helen Higden in Our Mutual Friend (1864) , which demonstrates yet again the 'manipulation of Dickens's narrative in its engagement with old age' ( Small. H. 2002/3). If he idolised the memory of Mary Hogarth through numerous portrayals of young women and girls, he arguably at worse demonised many older characters or at best had a binary view of older adults to be cherished with compassion or mocked with derision. We have the whole spectrum here, yet even the positive is underpinned with a kind of compassionate ageism.
SOURCES AND REFERENCES
Addison, J (1911). Characters in Dombey and Son. The Spectator. As Quoted in Wikipedia
Barkley, D., & Suduiko, A. [Eds] ( 2016). Dombey and Son Themes. GradeSaver. 16th July 2016. Web. 04.04.25.
Bentley, D.; Slater, M & Burgis, N.( 1988) The Dickens Index.. Oxford University Press. Oxford. New York. (page 237)
Ibid - (page 200)
Ibid- (page 161)
Botelho, L & Thane, P (2001) [Eds] Women and Ageing in British Society Since 1500. Routledge. London. New York. ( Page 89-90)
Chase, K. (2009). The Victorians & Old Age. Oxford University Press. (page 19)
Collins, P. (1971) Dickens: The Critical Heritage. Routledge & Kegan Paul (page 215) Quoted in Hawes, D. Who's Who in Dickens. Routledge. (2000 ed).(page 65)
Dale, R. [Ed] (2005). The Wordsworth Dickens Dictionary. Wordsworth Reference. (pages 179-180)
Ibid - page 178
Ibid- page 180
Ibid- page 183
Froide, A. (2001). ' Old Maids: the life cycle of single women in early modern England. Chapter Five in Botelho, L., & Thane, P. (pages 89-90)
Grisham, L. (2017). A Distortion of Nature's Harmony: Ageing Women and the Exotic in Dombey and Son & Villette. Nineteenth Century Gender Studies. Issue 13.2. (Summer 2017)
Ibid. page 1
Ibid. page 2
Ibid. page 4
Ibid page 5
Hawes, D ( 2002 ed) Who's Who in Dickens. Routledge. London and New York. (page 7)
Ibid. pages that relate to specific characters in narrative, taken from Who's Who 67, 65, 212, 213, 13, 184, 84, 30, 33, 34, 157.
Hobsbaum, P. (1998) A Reader's Guide to Charles Dickens. Syracuse University Press. Originally published by Thames and Hudson. London (1972), the edition quoted is (1998) Page 108.
Jochem, S ( 2020). We Must Marry 'Em. Dickens-to-Go. The Dickens Project ( July 20.2020 [ Modified 10.11.25]
Kitton, F. G ( 1906). Charles Dickens: His Life, Writing and Personality. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. New York. (page 13) Quoted in Hawes, D. (page 213)
LIT Summaries. ( Date unknown). Diving Into Dombey and Son: A Literary Analysis of Charles Dickens Masterpiece.
Lituack, L. ( 2011). Education in Schlicke, P. [Ed) in Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens Oxford University Press (page 214)
Ibid. Pages 214/5: Quoting Dickens's Speech in Birmingham in 1844
Ibid Page 217
Looser, D ( 2005). Women Writers and Old Age in Great Britain 1750- 1850. John Hopkins University Press (2008). Quoted in Grisham (pages 1, 2, 4, 5)
Marsh, Lutz, J. ( 1991). Good Mrs Brown's Connections: Sexuality and Story Telling in Dombey and Son. Journal article JSTOR. John Hopkins University Press. Vol 58. No 2. (Summer 1991. (Pages 405-426 / page 405)
Molinari, P. V ( 2025). Fearing Passions of Women: Female Desire and Sexuality in the 19th Century. La. Cle des languages [en ligne]. Lyon, janvier . Consulte le 09/01/2026.PDF.
Naylor, L. [Ed] ( 2012) Introduction to Dickens, Sexuality and Gender. Routledge. A Library of Essays on Charles Dickens ( page xvii)
Philip, A, J. & Gadd, L. ( 1989 ed). The Dickens Directory. Braken Books (page 88)
Ibid: pages 3, 10, 38
Richardson, C. ( 2024). Exploring the Lives of Victorian Prostitutes. Penn Sword History.
Small, H. ( 2002). Quoted from The Unquiet Limit: Old Age and Memory and Memorials: 1789-1914. Matthew Campbell [Ed], Jacqueline, M Labbe and Sally Shuttleworth. London . Routledge 20000 page 72. Referenced in CHASE, K. The Victorians and Old Age . Oxford University Press. (page 9)
Sutherland, J. ( 2009). The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. [ 2nd Edition] Routledge. London. New York. ( page 191)
WIKIPEDIA ' Characters in Dombey and Son (5.07.2012) Retrieved April 21. 2025. (page 2) From https:// en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title =characters_in_ Dombey_and_Son =1293635753
