The Old Curiosity Club discussion
Dombey and Son
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D&S Chapter 11-13
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Paul’s Education
The epigraph for this chapter is “Paul’s Education.” I guess education is in the eyes of the beholder. The way Blimber walks seems to say “Can anybody have the goodness to indicate any subject, in any direction, on which I am uninformed? I rather think not.” Poor Paul. He ends up in the dry ancient hands of Blimber’s daughter who immediately asks Paul “How much do you know of your Latin grammar?” It seems that Mrs Pipchin’s lessons fall short of the Blimber’s expectations. Shocked, Blimber asks who Paul’s former teacher was. Paul replies old Glubb and then continues to tell the Blimber’s of Glubb’s teaching which centred around the deep sea and sea monsters. Glubb. Wonderful onomatopoeia. What a great name to connect a person to the sea. Also, it is important to note how Dickens once again folds in references to the sea.
Miss Blimber takes Paul to a classroom where the teacher, Mr Feeder, yet another wonderful Dickensian name for a teacher, is slowly grinding Virgil into the heads of four students. Paul then is taken to his bedroom. Paul’s bed is near a window which looks out upon the sea. Toots seems to take an active interest in Paul. The rest of the students seem too tired from their studies to do much of anything. At dinner, the boys are fed a meal of modest proportions and an excess of conversation from the Blimber’s on ancient times. In terms of sound did you note that dinner began with the tintinnabulation of the gong and ended with a gong sounding. Tintinnabulation. That’s a new word for me! Sounds of time. Everywhere we seem to have various sounds that mark or identify time.
Paul’s progress at Blimber’s is linked to a reference to torture. Dickens recounts that “the students went round like a mighty wheel, and the young gentlemen were always stretched upon it.” On Saturdays, however, Paul’s fortunes change. That is the day Florence comes at noon to visit. Paul is happy only when he is with Florence. We learn that Miss Nipper has come down from London to be with Florence. With Miss Nipper’s presence Mrs Pipchin has finally found her match. We learn that Florence wants Miss Nipper to buy a copy of all the books Paul uses at Blimber’s. And so, after Florence’s own lessons are completed each day, she intends to study from the books Paul is using and thus become his weekend tutor. There is much love between Florence and Paul.
Thoughts
I do not want to belabour the concept of time and the sea too much as important symbols in the novel. That said, keep an eye out for their repeated appearances in the novel. At this point of the novel, however, why do you think Dickens may be leaning so heavily on these two concepts?
Florence is the one bright spot in Paul’s existence at Blimber’s. She has decided to help Paul in his studies. In what ways could this help Paul? Help herself? Help further the plot?
Florence’s help with Paul’s studies brings them even closer together. I found it interesting that Dickens was not overly harsh in his criticism of The Blimber’s. Rather, Dickens sees their way of educating their pupils as a consequence of “the faith in which they had been bred.” As Dickens comments “it would have been strange if Doctor Blimber had discovered his mistake, or trimmed his swelling sails to any other tack.” Earlier, we asked what your opinion of Dombey
was. To what extent do you now think that Dombey’s mindset is much like the Blimber’s, another person who is only acting as he himself knows from experience? What dangers exist in such a mindset?
And so Paul’s education carries on, but now with the loving support of Florence. Dickens slowly brings Toots to the forefront of the students who are connected with Paul. It seems that Dickens has future plans for Toots. Paul and Toots talk about clothes, the sea, and life in general. One night when they are talking Paul calls out “There she is! There she is!” We learn that Florence comes in the weekday evenings to walk under her brother’s window so he can see her. Even simple-minded Toots can see how Florence’s presence is the only joy Paul experiences during the week. As the chapter ends we learn something else of great importance. It is not only Florence who pays nocturnal visits and walks alone by the Blimber’s house. Mr Dombey himself comes at night, but rarely does he come to visit during the weekends. And he comes alone, and unannounced. He comes only to “look up at the windows where his son was qualifying for a man; and wait, and watch, and plan, and hope.” This chapter ends with a lament from Dickens: “Oh! Could [Mr Dombey] have seen, or seen as others did, the slight spare boy above, watching the waves and clouds and twilight, with his earnest eyes, and breathing the window of his solitary cage, when birds flew by, as if he would have emulated them, and soared away!”
Thoughts
To me, this is a wonderfully written chapter, and the final sentence is really powerful. We have a reference to the sea, we have the symbolism of being caged and wanting to be free, and we have the time as being “twilight.” Let’s unpack this as best we can.
There are three people who are central to this chapter’s ending. They are Florence, Paul, and Mr Dombey. Mr Dombey comes surreptitiously at night. He is seen by neither his daughter or his son. Florence comes to be seen at night and Paul sees her and is overjoyed. Finally, while Florence and her father both come at night they never see each other. What do you make of this? What, if anything, does it suggest, does it mean?
The final word. I loved the word “tintinnabulation.” I had never seen that word before and confess to looking it up to see if it really was a word or a creation of Dickens. Do you have any favourite words, phrases, or sentences from this chapter?
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Shipping Intelligence and Office Business.
This chapter takes us to the offices of Dombey and Son. We read that when Mr Dombey is in the area the vendors “fell off respectfully.” When Dombey is in the office “a solemn hush prevailed.” Dombey is obviously a man of position and power. The offices of Dombey and Son are not modern. In fact, Dickens notes that the office seemed “enveloped in a studious gloom” as if it were assembled “at the bottom of the sea.” The messenger Perch sits on a little bracket “like a timepiece.” We meet Mr Carker, Dombey’s right-hand man, who is obsessively differential towards Dombey. His office is beside Dombey’s. Carker’s main attribute, or fault, are his glistening white teeth. They seem to overwhelm his face. Teeth, hmmm. Interesting. Under Carker is Mr Morfin, who is “an officer of inferior state.” His office is nearer the clerk’s. We learn that Morfin is a “cheerful-looking ... elderly bachelor.” Unlike Carker, whose teeth define his entire character, Morfin is that he is “a great musical amateur in his way.” As Carker looks likened to a snarling cat, Morfin has great affection for his violoncello. From these early descriptions, I like Morfin much better. Perhaps he will become like Tom Pinch in this novel. Is there any musician in Dickens’s novels who is not likeable?
James Carker is the office manager and right hand man of Dombey. There is also a John Carker who works at Dombey and Son. John Carker is James’s older brother, and a man we learn is held in much disrespect by his brother. John never complains about his position, or the fact that his younger brother James speaks in very disrespectful and cruel terms to him. We learn that the elder brother John once robbed the firm of Dombey and Son, and his younger brother will never let him forget it. The conversations between James and his older brother reveal the true nature of James. James is a bitter, cruel, crude man who clearly enjoys humiliating his brother. To Dombey, of course, James is humble and obsequious. John Carker is a mere shadow of a man. If it were possible to kick a shadow I’m sure James Carker would gladly kick his brother’s shadow, or, failing that, would be glad to directly kick his brother.
Thoughts
In the office of Dombey and Son we have two brothers. They are very different in character. Why might Dickens have created them so differently? What are your first impressions of their characters?
Dickens has a fondness for creating easily compatible siblings or near relatives. In what ways do Paul and Florence Dombey compare and contrast to John and James Carker? What might Sickens’s purpose be in creating these pairings in the novel?
We learn in this chapter that there is a need for a new clerk in Barbados. Without a second thought Mr Dombey directs James Carker to send Walter Gay to fill the open position. Dombey tells Walter to inform his uncle Sol. Walter is to leave within the next month or so. When Walter asks for how long the appointment will be he is told he will remain there. It is apparent that both John Carker and Walter Gay are not the most favourite employees of James Carker or Mr Dombey. As we weave or way through the chapter we learn that Walter Gay has been friendly with the quiet and humble John Carker. Thus, we have a situation where we see how the powerful James Carker and Mr Dombey deal with John Carker and Walter. Dombey and James seem to prey on the weak and the underlings of the office. Once again, Dickens is aligning his characters into distinct categories. Loosely stated, it seems that the servant class is contrasted to those with power, position, or money. As the chapter ends Walter is still in shock that he will be leaving his uncle Sol and Captain Cuttle for the Barbados . As Walter muses on his fate Perch asks if Walter will send a jar of ginger from Barbados to help Mrs Perch during her next confinement. In a curious manner, we have yet another leaving and coming set up in the last sentence of the chapter like we did in chapter one. Walter is departing across the ocean and leaving his home while Perch’s wife’s next birth will be eased by the ginger. Strange echoes from the end of chapter one?
Thoughts
Why do you think Dombey seized the opportunity to send Walter to the Barbados?
How might Walter’s move to the Barbados complicate the plot? Advance the plot?
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Paul’s Introduction to a New Scene
Dickens begins this chapter with the words “Mrs Pipchin’s constitution was made of such hard metal ... .” I’m tempted to call her Mrs Pinchchin. In a..."
As you say, Peter, Dr. Blimber and his establishment are rooted in the past, and so is Mrs. Pipchin's - and hers is in a much darker past. Unlike Dr. Blimber, Mrs. Pipchin's motive in keeping children in her house is probably financial gain - after her husband's demise in the Peruvian mines -, and probably also the desire to gratify her grumpy temper, which needs easy victims. Dr. Blimber, however, seems to think that he is really doing his pupils a service. He means well and follows a theory he has embraced whole-heartedly. In a way, he is similar to Mr. Gradgrind, who kills his students' imagination but does so on the assumption that he is preparing them for life. Blimber (and Gradgrind) are not like Mr. Squeers, whereas Mrs. Pipchin, minus the physical violence, is.
What should Paul have learned as a successor to the throne - yet not upholstered - of Dombey senior? That's a good question. I guess it would be maths, bookkeeping, geography, economics and such things. This would be knowledge to help him keep up with the changing times, and to cope with the advent of the railway. Instead, he is made to dig out dead languages - although I must admit that I always enjoyed Latin at school. It's an immaculate language.
A last thought from me today: Did you notice how little Paul was put onto a table during the first interview between Mr. Dombey and Dr. Blimber? He is always treated like an object, isn't he?
Peter wrote: "In terms of sound did you note that dinner began with the tintinnabulation of the gong and ended with a gong sounding. Tintinnabulation. That’s a new word for me! ..."I noticed that too! I can only remember coming across it one other place: https://poets.org/poem/bells
Tristram wrote: "Mrs. Pipchin's motive in keeping children in her house is probably financial gain - after her husband's demise in the Peruvian mines..."Wait, what happened to her husband? I'm not sure it's been mentioned before... :)
I found all the Pipchin and Blimber material kind of predictable and long, but I *am* curious to see what comes of Florence learning Paul's lessons. I wouldn't be surprised to see her continuing to help him along and becoming the real (and uncredited) force at Dombey and Son.
Peter wrote: "Why do you think Dombey seized the opportunity to send Walter to the Barbados?How might Walter’s move to the Barbados complicate the plot? Advance the plot? ..."
I think Walter is being sent away until Florence is old enough for him to aspire to without it making people uneasy, and I expect he'll make a ton of money in Barbados and come back an eligible bachelor. But probably Dombey will ruin it.
Do you find any words, phrases, or sentences that were particularly memorable to you in this chapter?
In this installment I love Carker's teeth, which as you mentioned are his most noteworthy feature: "two unbroken rows of glistening teeth, whose regularity and whiteness were quite distressing."
Mod
Me too.
I think so too.
Somehow I missed Carker's white teeth! The way he is described, I wouldn't be surprised is Carker Sr. will turn out to be the real bad guy, if this book has any.
Somehow I missed Carker's white teeth! The way he is described, I wouldn't be surprised is Carker Sr. will turn out to be the real bad guy, if this book has any.
Oh and I think tintinnabulation is such a beautiful word! Just like sussuration, you almost hear it's meaning in the sounds of it.
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I noticed that..."
I wonder if when an author finds or discovers an unusual word it is shared among their friends or hoarded until it appears in their work. Then I wonder if another author will poach it for their own purposes down the road?
Peter wrote: "I wonder if when an author finds or discovers an unusual word it is shared among their friends or hoarded until it appears in their work. Then I wonder if another author will poach it for their own purposes down the road?"I'm kind of taken with the word "findrinny," which is an Irish-language word, but English-language Irish writers (Joyce, Yeats) pop into into their literature often enough that you can find it in English dictionaries.
But rather than hoard it up to prevent poaching, when I teach Irish lit I make all my students learn it, just for fun. My fun, anyway. Not sure what they think of it.
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I knew about sussuration because I'm a pratchett-fan, not because I talked to Tristram. The latter is an interesting idea too though, I like words that are long too. Once a teacher said she could pick the readers of classic literature out of our group of English-teachers-to-be by the words we used.
Kim wrote: "Tintinnabulation, sussuration, findrinny? I think you all have been meeting with Tristram behind my back. Although I would think saying ringing, whisper and white bronze would be easier."Every word's got its moment. :)
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The Doctor was sitting in his portentous study
Chapter 11
Leonard Skeats
Text Illustrated:
The Doctor was sitting in his portentous study, with a globe at each knee, books all round him, Homer over the door, and Minerva on the mantel-shelf. ‘And how do you do, Sir?’ he said to Mr Dombey, ‘and how is my little friend?’ Grave as an organ was the Doctor’s speech; and when he ceased, the great clock in the hall seemed (to Paul at least) to take him up, and to go on saying, ‘how, is, my, lit, tle, friend? how, is, my, lit, tle, friend?’ over and over and over again.
The little friend being something too small to be seen at all from where the Doctor sat, over the books on his table, the Doctor made several futile attempts to get a view of him round the legs; which Mr Dombey perceiving, relieved the Doctor from his embarrassment by taking Paul up in his arms, and sitting him on another little table, over against the Doctor, in the middle of the room.
‘Ha!’ said the Doctor, leaning back in his chair with his hand in his breast. ‘Now I see my little friend. How do you do, my little friend?’
The clock in the hall wouldn’t subscribe to this alteration in the form of words, but continued to repeat how, is, my, lit, tle, friend? how, is, my, lit, tle, friend?’
‘Very well, I thank you, Sir,’ returned Paul, answering the clock quite as much as the Doctor.
‘Ha!’ said Doctor Blimber. ‘Shall we make a man of him?’
‘Do you hear, Paul?’ added Mr Dombey; Paul being silent.
‘Shall we make a man of him?’ repeated the Doctor.
‘I had rather be a child,’ replied Paul.
‘Indeed!’ said the Doctor. ‘Why?’
The child sat on the table looking at him, with a curious expression of suppressed emotion in his face, and beating one hand proudly on his knee as if he had the rising tears beneath it, and crushed them. But his other hand strayed a little way the while, a little farther—farther from him yet—until it lighted on the neck of Florence. ‘This is why,’ it seemed to say, and then the steady look was broken up and gone; the working lip was loosened; and the tears came streaming forth.
Mod
"Don't tell me, sir; I know better."
Chapter 11
Fred Barnard
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‘Who is that?’ said the Doctor. ‘Oh! Come in, Toots; come in. Mr Dombey, Sir.’ Toots bowed. ‘Quite a coincidence!’ said Doctor Blimber. ‘Here we have the beginning and the end. Alpha and Omega. Our head boy, Mr Dombey.’
The Doctor might have called him their head and shoulders boy, for he was at least that much taller than any of the rest. He blushed very much at finding himself among strangers, and chuckled aloud.
‘An addition to our little Portico, Toots,’ said the Doctor; ‘Mr Dombey’s son.’
Young Toots blushed again; and finding, from a solemn silence which prevailed, that he was expected to say something, said to Paul, ‘How are you?’ in a voice so deep, and a manner so sheepish, that if a lamb had roared it couldn’t have been more surprising.
‘Ask Mr Feeder, if you please, Toots,’ said the Doctor, ‘to prepare a few introductory volumes for Mr Dombey’s son, and to allot him a convenient seat for study. My dear, I believe Mr Dombey has not seen the dormitories.’
‘If Mr Dombey will walk upstairs,’ said Mrs Blimber, ‘I shall be more than proud to show him the dominions of the drowsy god.’
With that, Mrs Blimber, who was a lady of great suavity, and a wiry figure, and who wore a cap composed of sky-blue materials, proceeded upstairs with Mr Dombey and Cornelia; Mrs Pipchin following, and looking out sharp for her enemy the footman.
While they were gone, Paul sat upon the table, holding Florence by the hand, and glancing timidly from the Doctor round and round the room, while the Doctor, leaning back in his chair, with his hand in his breast as usual, held a book from him at arm’s length, and read. There was something very awful in this manner of reading. It was such a determined, unimpassioned, inflexible, cold-blooded way of going to work. It left the Doctor’s countenance exposed to view; and when the Doctor smiled suspiciously at his author, or knit his brows, or shook his head and made wry faces at him, as much as to say, ‘Don’t tell me, Sir; I know better,’ it was terrific.
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"Your father's regularly rich, ain't he!" inquired Mr. Toots.
Chapter 12
Fred Barnard
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Young Toots who was ready beforehand, and had therefore nothing to do, and had leisure to bestow upon Paul, said, with heavy good nature:
‘Sit down, Dombey.’
‘Thank you, Sir,’ said Paul.
His endeavouring to hoist himself on to a very high window-seat, and his slipping down again, appeared to prepare Toots’s mind for the reception of a discovery.
‘You’re a very small chap;’ said Mr Toots.
‘Yes, Sir, I’m small,’ returned Paul. ‘Thank you, Sir.’
For Toots had lifted him into the seat, and done it kindly too.
‘Who’s your tailor?’ inquired Toots, after looking at him for some moments.
‘It’s a woman that has made my clothes as yet,’ said Paul. ‘My sister’s dressmaker.’
‘My tailor’s Burgess and Co.,’ said Toots. ‘Fash’nable. But very dear.’
Paul had wit enough to shake his head, as if he would have said it was easy to see that; and indeed he thought so.
‘Your father’s regularly rich, ain’t he?’ inquired Mr Toots.
‘Yes, Sir,’ said Paul. ‘He’s Dombey and Son.’
‘And which?’ demanded Toots.
‘And Son, Sir,’ replied Paul.
Mr Toots made one or two attempts, in a low voice, to fix the Firm in his mind; but not quite succeeding, said he would get Paul to mention the name again to-morrow morning, as it was rather important. And indeed he purposed nothing less than writing himself a private and confidential letter from Dombey and Son immediately.
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Doctor Blimber's Young Gentlemen As They Appeared When Enjoying Themselves
Phiz
Chapter 12
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During the half-hour, the young gentlemen, broken into pairs, loitered arm-in-arm up and down a small piece of ground behind the house, or endeavoured to kindle a spark of animation in the breast of Briggs. But nothing happened so vulgar as play. Punctually at the appointed time, the gong was sounded, and the studies, under the joint auspices of Doctor Blimber and Mr Feeder, were resumed.
As the Olympic game of lounging up and down had been cut shorter than usual that day, on Johnson’s account, they all went out for a walk before tea. Even Briggs (though he hadn’t begun yet) partook of this dissipation; in the enjoyment of which he looked over the cliff two or three times darkly. Doctor Blimber accompanied them; and Paul had the honour of being taken in tow by the Doctor himself: a distinguished state of things, in which he looked very little and feeble.
Commentary:
Dr. Blimber's school finishes off, in the next three plates, what was begun by Mr. Dombey in dismissing Polly, and continued by sending Paul to Mrs, Pipchin. For "Dr. Blimber's Young Gentlemen as they appeared when enjoying themselves" (ch. 12), Dickens' surviving instructions show us how much Browne was able to contribute to his collaboration with Dickens. The larger part of the memorandum concerns a paraphrase of his evocation in the preceding chapter of the Doctor's disagreeable method of education; the rest gives a very brief account of the subject:
These young gentlemen, out walking, very dismally and formally (observe it's a very expensive school). . . . I think Doctor Blimber, a little removed from the rest, should bring up the rear, or lead the van, with Paul, who is much the youngest of the party. I extract the description of the Doctor. Paul as last described, but a twelvemonth older. No collar or neckerchief for him, of course. I would make the next youngest boy about three or four years older than be.
Phiz deviates from the instructions and text by including seventeen rather than the ten boys said to be in the establishment at one time, and the only possible excuse for this might be that the smaller number would populate the design too sparsely; in the drawing six are lightly drawn, suggesting a late addition. Besides making this change, Phiz has fully apprehended the drift of Dickens' meaning and added four country urchins, two of them ogling the funereal procession with amusement, the others rollicking alongside Blimber's boys, some of whom view them with envy; in addition, there are bathing-machines on the beach, a child flying a kite, and another riding a donkey with an older companion — all examples of the kind of childhood fun that Blimber's pupils are supposed to be too dignified and unchildlike to enjoy.
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Paul's Exercises
Chapter 12
Phiz
‘See here, Susan,’ she said. ‘These are the names of the little books that Paul brings home to do those long exercises with, when he is so tired. I copied them last night while he was writing.’
‘Don’t show ‘em to me, Miss Floy, if you please,’ returned Nipper, ‘I’d as soon see Mrs Pipchin.’
‘I want you to buy them for me, Susan, if you will, tomorrow morning. I have money enough,’ said Florence.
‘Why, goodness gracious me, Miss Floy,’ returned Miss Nipper, ‘how can you talk like that, when you have books upon books already, and masterses and mississes a teaching of you everything continual, though my belief is that your Pa, Miss Dombey, never would have learnt you nothing, never would have thought of it, unless you’d asked him—when he couldn’t well refuse; but giving consent when asked, and offering when unasked, Miss, is quite two things; I may not have my objections to a young man’s keeping company with me, and when he puts the question, may say “yes,” but that’s not saying “would you be so kind as like me.”’
‘But you can buy me the books, Susan; and you will, when you know why I want them.’
‘Well, Miss, and why do you want ‘em?’ replied Nipper; adding, in a lower voice, ‘If it was to fling at Mrs Pipchin’s head, I’d buy a cart-load.’
‘Paul has a great deal too much to do, Susan,’ said Florence, ‘I am sure of it.’
‘And well you may be, Miss,’ returned her maid, ‘and make your mind quite easy that the willing dear is worked and worked away. If those is Latin legs,’ exclaimed Miss Nipper, with strong feeling—in allusion to Paul’s; ‘give me English ones.’
‘I am afraid he feels lonely and lost at Doctor Blimber’s, Susan,’ pursued Florence, turning away her face.
‘Ah,’ said Miss Nipper, with great sharpness, ‘Oh, them “Blimbers”’
‘Don’t blame anyone,’ said Florence. ‘It’s a mistake.’
‘I say nothing about blame, Miss,’ cried Miss Nipper, ‘for I know that you object, but I may wish, Miss, that the family was set to work to make new roads, and that Miss Blimber went in front and had the pickaxe.’
After this speech, Miss Nipper, who was perfectly serious, wiped her eyes.
‘I think I could perhaps give Paul some help, Susan, if I had these books,’ said Florence, ‘and make the coming week a little easier to him. At least I want to try. So buy them for me, dear, and I will never forget how kind it was of you to do it!’
It must have been a harder heart than Susan Nipper’s that could have rejected the little purse Florence held out with these words, or the gentle look of entreaty with which she seconded her petition. Susan put the purse in her pocket without reply, and trotted out at once upon her errand.
The books were not easy to procure; and the answer at several shops was, either that they were just out of them, or that they never kept them, or that they had had a great many last month, or that they expected a great many next week But Susan was not easily baffled in such an enterprise; and having entrapped a white-haired youth, in a black calico apron, from a library where she was known, to accompany her in her quest, she led him such a life in going up and down, that he exerted himself to the utmost, if it were only to get rid of her; and finally enabled her to return home in triumph.
With these treasures then, after her own daily lessons were over, Florence sat down at night to track Paul’s footsteps through the thorny ways of learning; and being possessed of a naturally quick and sound capacity, and taught by that most wonderful of masters, love, it was not long before she gained upon Paul’s heels, and caught and passed him.
Not a word of this was breathed to Mrs Pipchin: but many a night when they were all in bed, and when Miss Nipper, with her hair in papers and herself asleep in some uncomfortable attitude, reposed unconscious by her side; and when the chinking ashes in the grate were cold and grey; and when the candles were burnt down and guttering out;—Florence tried so hard to be a substitute for one small Dombey, that her fortitude and perseverance might have almost won her a free right to bear the name herself.
Mod
"You respect nobody, Carker, I think," said Mr. Dombey.
Chapter 13
Fred Barnard
Text Illustrated:
Mr Carker was a gentleman thirty-eight or forty years old, of a florid complexion, and with two unbroken rows of glistening teeth, whose regularity and whiteness were quite distressing. It was impossible to escape the observation of them, for he showed them whenever he spoke; and bore so wide a smile upon his countenance (a smile, however, very rarely, indeed, extending beyond his mouth), that there was something in it like the snarl of a cat. He affected a stiff white cravat, after the example of his principal, and was always closely buttoned up and tightly dressed. His manner towards Mr Dombey was deeply conceived and perfectly expressed. He was familiar with him, in the very extremity of his sense of the distance between them. ‘Mr Dombey, to a man in your position from a man in mine, there is no show of subservience compatible with the transaction of business between us, that I should think sufficient. I frankly tell you, Sir, I give it up altogether. I feel that I could not satisfy my own mind; and Heaven knows, Mr Dombey, you can afford to dispense with the endeavour.’ If he had carried these words about with him printed on a placard, and had constantly offered it to Mr Dombey’s perusal on the breast of his coat, he could not have been more explicit than he was.
This was Carker the Manager. Mr Carker the Junior, Walter’s friend, was his brother; two or three years older than he, but widely removed in station. The younger brother’s post was on the top of the official ladder; the elder brother’s at the bottom. The elder brother never gained a stave, or raised his foot to mount one. Young men passed above his head, and rose and rose; but he was always at the bottom. He was quite resigned to occupy that low condition: never complained of it: and certainly never hoped to escape from it.
‘How do you do this morning?’ said Mr Carker the Manager, entering Mr Dombey’s room soon after his arrival one day: with a bundle of papers in his hand.
‘How do you do, Carker?’ said Mr Dombey.
‘Coolish!’ observed Carker, stirring the fire.
‘Rather,’ said Mr Dombey.
‘Any news of the young gentleman who is so important to us all?’ asked Carker, with his whole regiment of teeth on parade.
‘Yes—not direct news—I hear he’s very well,’ said Mr Dombey. Who had come from Brighton over-night. But no one knew It.
‘Very well, and becoming a great scholar, no doubt?’ observed the Manager.
‘I hope so,’ returned Mr Dombey.
‘Egad!’ said Mr Carker, shaking his head, ‘Time flies!’
‘I think so, sometimes,’ returned Mr Dombey, glancing at his newspaper.
‘Oh! You! You have no reason to think so,’ observed Carker. ‘One who sits on such an elevation as yours, and can sit there, unmoved, in all seasons—hasn’t much reason to know anything about the flight of time. It’s men like myself, who are low down and are not superior in circumstances, and who inherit new masters in the course of Time, that have cause to look about us. I shall have a rising sun to worship, soon.’
‘Time enough, time enough, Carker!’ said Mr Dombey, rising from his chair, and standing with his back to the fire. ‘Have you anything there for me?’
‘I don’t know that I need trouble you,’ returned Carker, turning over the papers in his hand. ‘You have a committee today at three, you know.’
‘And one at three, three-quarters,’ added Mr Dombey.
‘Catch you forgetting anything!’ exclaimed Carker, still turning over his papers. ‘If Mr Paul inherits your memory, he’ll be a troublesome customer in the House. One of you is enough.’
‘You have an accurate memory of your own,’ said Mr Dombey.
‘Oh! I!’ returned the manager. ‘It’s the only capital of a man like me.’
Mr Dombey did not look less pompous or at all displeased, as he stood leaning against the chimney-piece, surveying his (of course unconscious) clerk, from head to foot. The stiffness and nicety of Mr Carker’s dress, and a certain arrogance of manner, either natural to him or imitated from a pattern not far off, gave great additional effect to his humility. He seemed a man who would contend against the power that vanquished him, if he could, but who was utterly borne down by the greatness and superiority of Mr Dombey.
‘Is Morfin here?’ asked Mr Dombey after a short pause, during which Mr Carker had been fluttering his papers, and muttering little abstracts of their contents to himself.
‘Morfin’s here,’ he answered, looking up with his widest and almost sudden smile; ‘humming musical recollections—of his last night’s quartette party, I suppose—through the walls between us, and driving me half mad. I wish he’d make a bonfire of his violoncello, and burn his music-books in it.’
‘You respect nobody, Carker, I think,’ said Mr Dombey.
‘No?’ inquired Carker, with another wide and most feline show of his teeth. ‘Well! Not many people, I believe. I wouldn’t answer perhaps,’ he murmured, as if he were only thinking it, ‘for more than one.’
A dangerous quality, if real; and a not less dangerous one, if feigned. But Mr Dombey hardly seemed to think so, as he still stood with his back to the fire, drawn up to his full height, and looking at his head-clerk with a dignified composure, in which there seemed to lurk a stronger latent sense of power than usual.
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During this conversation, Walter had looked from one brother to the other with pain and amazement.
Chapter 13
Fred Barnard
Text Illustrated:
That gentleman was standing with his back to the fire, and his hands under his coat-tails, looking over his white cravat, as unpromisingly as Mr Dombey himself could have looked. He received them without any change in his attitude or softening of his harsh and black expression: merely signing to Walter to close the door.
‘John Carker,’ said the Manager, when this was done, turning suddenly upon his brother, with his two rows of teeth bristling as if he would have bitten him, ‘what is the league between you and this young man, in virtue of which I am haunted and hunted by the mention of your name? Is it not enough for you, John Carker, that I am your near relation, and can’t detach myself from that—’
‘Say disgrace, James,’ interposed the other in a low voice, finding that he stammered for a word. ‘You mean it, and have reason, say disgrace.’
‘From that disgrace,’ assented his brother with keen emphasis, ‘but is the fact to be blurted out and trumpeted, and proclaimed continually in the presence of the very House! In moments of confidence too? Do you think your name is calculated to harmonise in this place with trust and confidence, John Carker?’
‘No,’ returned the other. ‘No, James. God knows I have no such thought.’
‘What is your thought, then?’ said his brother, ‘and why do you thrust yourself in my way? Haven’t you injured me enough already?’
‘I have never injured you, James, wilfully.’
‘You are my brother,’ said the Manager. ‘That’s injury enough.’
‘I wish I could undo it, James.’
‘I wish you could and would.’
During this conversation, Walter had looked from one brother to the other, with pain and amazement. He who was the Senior in years, and Junior in the House, stood, with his eyes cast upon the ground, and his head bowed, humbly listening to the reproaches of the other. Though these were rendered very bitter by the tone and look with which they were accompanied, and by the presence of Walter whom they so much surprised and shocked, he entered no other protest against them than by slightly raising his right hand in a deprecatory manner, as if he would have said, ‘Spare me!’ So, had they been blows, and he a brave man, under strong constraint, and weakened by bodily suffering, he might have stood before the executioner.
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Dr. Blimber
Miss Cornelia Blimber
Mr. Feeder
Poor Paul has so many challenges heaped up on him. I'm glad that Florence is helping him with his studies.The scene that stood out most to me was the talking clock, "how, is, my, lit, tle, friend." It captured the strange atmosphere of the school and the doctor pretty well. Dickens reminds me a lot of Disney sometimes, with the fairy tale backdrop and talking inanimate objects.
This quote was great too: "Paul sat as if he had taken life unfurnished, and the upholsterer were never coming." I think it indicates bleakness and longing for something more in life.
Kyd make Cornelia Blimber look like a man!Oh, and I keep reading Blimber as "be limber." It's hard not to do.
I just looked up limber, and it means, "warm up in preparation for exercise or activity, especially sports." It makes sense to call a school master that, because they do drills in class.
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Peter wrote: "Chapter 11Paul’s Introduction to a New Scene
Dickens begins this chapter with the words “Mrs Pipchin’s constitution was made of such hard metal ... .” I’m tempted to call her Mrs Pinchchin. In a..."
Paul comes across to me as different, a child oracle. He wants to stay a child because of Florence, or is it for Florence. I hear Wickam's portend again. Have there been child oracles in literature? Does anyone else feel Paul sees the future? I feel something big will happen, and Paul sees it.
Susurration is a beautiful word; that's why I remember it. if falls off the tongue in a whisper of ssses and errs, which is what it should do. Suserration is the very sound leaves make in a breeze. I don't know if there is a word for it, but susurration is one of those words whose definition is built into its pronunciation.
That Kyd illustration of Dr. Blimber, he should only do mail correspondence courses. He should not let his students see him. And as for his daughter, Cornelia, that's a fine nose to ski down.
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You and your ssses remind me of singing. When you sing in a group and the word ends in an s, people tend to end the word just a tiny bit at different places so that if you are singing, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas", you hear "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmasssss". Once, a long time ago, a music teacher of mine told us it wasn't necessary for everyone to say the s or a t for that matter, only one or two people should say it. So I've spent many years now singing, "I'm Dreaming of a Whi Christma".
And lastly, Mr. Feeder. He looks good, even impressive, except those hands look like they are itching for a pocket to pick.
I'm intrigued by the Phiz illustration of Dr. Blimber's students "enjoying themselves." It looks like only two are enjoying themselves and the rest are walking formally in line. To my 21st century eyes, kids in top hats at "recess" is kind of funny too.
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I didn't even know they had top hats in kid sizes, and I can't imagine them managing to keep them on their heads while being outside at their strange idea of recess. There certainly are a lot of them for a school of no more than ten boys, math must not be an important subject to them.
I too looked up tintinnabulation wondering if Dickens had created it on the fly. The lingering sound of a bell -- how wonderful. There needs to be a word for that, although unlike susurration, tintinnabulation gives no indication of meaning.Is Paul 6 or 16? Latin indeed. Why not physics?
Paul's longing for the sea (above it or below it?) is sad, like walking alone at night in the snow and hearing the tintinnabulation of a train whistle.
Gotta love Nipper. She'd have the entire Blimper family out building roads with Miss Blimper in the lead carrying a pickaxe. And, of course, she'd buy a cartload of books if the intention was to run Miss Blimper over with it.
This is very odd behavior for Dombey. Not to mention one heck of a carriage ride every night from London.
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Oh, and I keep reading Blimber as "be limber." It's hard not to do.
I just looked up limber, and it means, "warm up in preparation for exercise or activ..."
Thanks, Alissa, I never noticed that allusion. The Blimbers are really more like drillmasters than real teachers. They don't make their students think or understand, but just make them learn their lessons by heart. It's very telling that Dr. Blimber uses assignments of learning texts by heart as punishment for what he sees as unruly behaviour among his students. Why would you want to punish a student with something that you really appreciate?
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And it reminds me of the Spanish word susurrar, which means - surprise, surprise - to whisper.
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Yeah, but Mr. Feeder isn't half bad, I think.
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From all the Dickens teachers and schools, can you remember any one that was depicted as positive? We have the Gradgrinds, we have the crazy Bradley Headstone and young Mr. Hexam, the opportunistic social climber, then there is this terrible sadist headmaster in David Copperfield and an almost surrealist sample of a sadist in Nicholas Nickleby. Are there any positive schools and teachers in Dickens?
Also, isn't this about the time of the first blimps? 1852 or so.Oh, it's Blimbe, not Blimperr. In my best Emily Latella, "Never Mind!"
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Tristram wrote: "It's very telling that Dr. Blimber uses assignments of learning texts by heart as punishment for what he sees as unruly behaviour among his students. Why would you want to punish a student with something that you really appreciate?"Good point. That does seem illogical of him. Maybe he thinks the wisdom of the philosophers will purify their minds somehow.
Tristram wrote: "Are there any positive schools and teachers in Dickens?"
There was the kind schoolmaster who took in Little Nell and Grandfather and treated his students humanely. Other than that, Dickens portrays schools as hell for children.
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Tristram wrote: "Alissa wrote: "I'm intrigued by the Phiz illustration of Dr. Blimber's students "enjoying themselves." It looks like only two are enjoying themselves and the rest are walking formally in line. To m..."
I hate to say it, but Esther Summerson seemed to thrive at her boarding school ...
I hate to say it, but Esther Summerson seemed to thrive at her boarding school ...
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Peter wrote: "In the office of Dombey and Son we have two brothers. They are very different in character. Why might Dickens have created them so differently? What are your first impressions of their characters?"James is two people, is he not? He is the fawning, obsequious flatterer in Dombey's presence, and the condescending bully in his brother's presence. The latter James compensates for the former James, permitting the foolish whole (James) the lie that he has integrity, pride, and self-respect, when in reality he has none.
However, James does have a skill: he understands how susceptible Dombey is to flattery and lays it on thick, another kind of fraud. Dombey can never be flattered too much.
It would appear the Carker brothers share a family trait, they are both frauds, one to the father, the other to the son. But John has learned his lesson. Who is the more free, James or John?
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What an interesting question you ask about which Carker is more free. I have been thinking about the answer for a couple of hours.
Ultimately I would say John Carker is more free. John’s past is not perfect. Because of his brother, John is never free from being reminded of his transgression and never free from the barbs his brother James throws so liberally his way. Still, John is a man who has overcome his past errors, he is a man who has the open and honest love of his sister Harriet. John does carry his self-punishment too far such as the way he avoids opening a friendship with Walter. He is a man who is too much of a self-created martyr. Still, he is free in his mind about who he is now and what he has become.
James Carker is perfectly aware of how he is hurtful to his brother. He no longer cares for his sister. His energy is totally focussed on being a hypocrite. Dickens's portrayal of him as a cat with enormous perfectly formed teeth suggests he is a carnivore. He would eat anyone and devour anything in his path to power. James Carker is never free because he is never the person he projects himself to be.
If you do not know your honest self, how can you ever be free?
If I were left in a room with each brother I would welcome John Carker’s humility much more than James’ fawning hypocrisy. Like Morfin, I would find honour in John’s present life. As for James Carker I would never know where or how to find his soul.
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Yeah, but now we know why John refused William's entreaty to call on Dombey to tell him where his daughter was. Smart move, John. It's almost like Dickens was enjoying a private joke that his readers wouldn't understand until later. William asks the last man in London to do that particular favor for him.Speculating, John stays on because some of each of his monthly paychecks is retained to pay back what he stole. And the interest is compounding daily.
Paul’s Introduction to a New Scene
Dickens begins this chapter with the words “Mrs Pipchin’s constitution was made of such hard metal ... .” I’m tempted to call her Mrs Pinchchin. In any case, she is, and her establishment is, not the right place for such a delicate child as Paul Dombey. At one point Mrs Pipchin tells Paul that “there’s nobody like me” to which Paul responds with brilliant burst of innocent insight “I’m glad of that.” It’s interesting to see how Dickens can insert humour into even the bleakest of situations. We learn that Paul has been with Pipchin for “nearly twelve months.”
Paul is now six. Dombey tells Pipchin that there is a “course” for his son and that “[little Paul’s] way in life was clear and prepared, and marked out before he existed.” It is clear that Paul’s destiny is not his own, but his father’s, and that his father has mapped out Paul’s life just as a ship’s course is mapped out before its journey.
Next, Dombey decides to enrol little Paul in Doctor Blimber’s school. In this way, Paul will also be slowly weaned from his close association with Florence. Dickens describes Blimber’s as “a great hothouse, in which there was a forcing apparatus incessantly at work.” As to the success of this system we are told that its head boy, a chap by the name of Toots, that “when he began to have whiskers, ... left off having brains.
There is a Miss Blimber who is “dry and sandy from working in the graves of deceased languages. None of your live languages for Miss Blimber. The languages must be dead - stone dead - and then Miss Blimber dug them up like a Ghoul.” To round out this educational establishment was the appropriately named Mr Feeder, who had “a little list of tunes at which he was constantly working, over and over again, without any variation.” Under Blimber’s forcing system “a young gentleman usually took leave of his spirits in three weeks. He had all the cares of the world on his head in three months.”
Thoughts
Again we see Dickens carefully tracking time. Paul is now six, and his time with Pipchin is over and his voyage with Doctor Blimber’s about to begin. Have you noticed how both Pipchin and Blimber’s educational systems are rooted in the past? What might be the significance of Dickens emphasizing this fact? To what extent would Paul’s education be enhanced with the knowledge obtained at Pipchin’s and Blimber’s? To be truly prepared for the world of the 19C what should Paul’s education been focussed on? What symbol of industrialization has Dickens embedded in the novel so far to symbolize progress and business?
As Paul begins his new school he must part from Florence. Dickens portrays this parting in the following way. In one hand he holds his father’s hand. His other hand “is locked in that of Florence.” This tells us much of where Paul’s heart is. It also suggests a conflict might be on the horizon in the Dombey family. Blimber introduces Mr Dombey to Toots, the head boy at the academy. Toots is described as the “Alpha and the Omega.” Toots is a weak boy in spirit and appearance but I”m betting he will be a stalwart friend and companion to Paul. Dombey tells Blimber that Mrs Pipchin will visit Paul occasionally. As the chapter ends Dickens once again incorporates time into the narrative. Paul hears Blimber’s clock ticking “gravely” how, is, my, lit, tle, friend.” And so Paul sits and listens to the clock. Dickens ends the chapter with a magnificent phrase of foreshadowing that “Paul sat as if he had taken life unfurnished, and the upholsterer were never coming.”
Thoughts
Do you recall how Mr Dombey sits so imperialistically in his chairs throughout the novel so far? If we look at this last sentence what does it suggest to you about? Why?
Time is again highlighted in this chapter by linking Paul’s age to the ticking of the clock. How might we link the concept and the passing of time with Paul sitting on a chair waiting for an upholsterer who will never come?
Paul has gone from one “school” to another. What are their similarities? The differences? To what degree do you think they will prepare Paul to be the son of Dombey and Son?
I will end as Dickens did with a look the final sentence of the chapter. “Paul sat as if he had taken life unfurnished, and the upholsterer were never coming.” What a delightful and visual sentence. Do you find any words, phrases, or sentences that were particularly memorable to you in this chapter?