How Does Mr. Dombey's Son Change Throughout The Novel

The slightest alteration in people’s lives have the ability to change their outlook on life forever. In a more specific circumstance the transformation of Mr. Dombey’s character in Charles Dicken’s novel Dombey and Son is slowly revealed to the readers due to the birth of his new-born son. Readers see that the presence of Mr. Dombey’s son begins to shift Mr. Dombey’s personality. Dicken’s creates a vivd portrait of Mr. Dombey’s character through the use of diction along with figurative language such as personification, simile, and imagery. In the first chapter of this novel, Dickens creates an enough of an image of Mr. Dombey’s character so that readers grasp an essence of his personality without wholly revealing the depths of his identity.

In the first lines of the novel, Dickens describes how the baby was laid down next to the fire, in which he uses the simile, “as if his constitution were analogous of to that of a muffin, and it was essential to toast him brown while he was very new” (4-5). Though this simile pertains to the son, the nature of the simile reflects on Mr. Dombey’s character. The fact that Mr. Dombey provides extra care to the baby—as if Mr. Dombey’s life depends on it—proves to the readers the amount of love and care he has for this baby. Onward to Mr. Dombey’s physical appearance, Dickens personifies time and care, in which he suggests that “On the brow of Dombey, Time and his brother Care had set some marks…remorseless twins as they are for striding through their human forests” (13-14). Dickens uses the personification of time and care to engagingly portray that Mr. Dombey’s is a man of old age. Yet, Dickens does this in such a way that readers indirectly understand that Dombey’s age. Dickens also uses imagery to illustrate the way Mr. Dombey views his life with his new son. Dickens describes their relationship as, “The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made to give them light” (40-41). The portrait that these claims depict reveal the essence of Mr. Dombey’s character. Dickens use of imagery in these few lines convey that Mr. Dombey is willing to dedicate his entire life to his son. A new meaning to his life beings and it entirely includes his son. Dickens uses figurative language from describing the forming relationship between Dombey and his son to physical appearance in order to describe Mr. Dombey’s