The Role Of Women In Dombey And Son By Edith Granger

When I first began reading Dombey and Son, I expected it to focus heavily on the business world in Victorian England and the lives of Mr. Dombey and his son, Paul, throughout the novel. I assumed the novel would delve deeply into the lives of men during this period and not touch much on women. What I found instead was a novel that portrays several personalities of women and how they can make powerful changes on the men in the novel. Two of the most unusual and interesting women we discussed from the novel were Edith Granger and Alice Marwood. Both women are beautiful and proud to the point where it becomes difficult to even distinguish the two from one another. The only obvious difference to be seen is that they both come from different social …show more content…
Edith’s disgust for her own mother, Mrs. Skewton, is painful and sad to witness. Edith exclaims to Mrs. Skewton that “‘What childhood did you ever leave me? I was a woman-artful, designing, mercenary, laying snares for men-before I knew myself, or you, or even understood the base and wretched aim of every new display I learnt. You gave birth to a woman. Look upon her. She is in her pride to-night” (431). Edith hates her mother for destroying her innocence and never giving her the normal and happy childhood she …show more content…
Dombey when they got married, but love did come in a different form from the marriage. Shortly after Edith accepts Mr. Dombey’s proposal, she meets her step-daughter Florence whom she loves immediately (445). It does take some time for Edith to truly open up to Florence because she feels that Florence is too pure for Edith to care for (461). Edith enters into a relationship with Florence that she never thought possible. We even mentioned in class that Mr. Dombey compared them to be “like sisters.” I believe that Edith was overall scared of becoming a mother to Florence because of her own painful experiences with her own mother. Edith wanted to protect and love Florence as best as possible. I think this idea of them appearing to have a more sisterly relationship is because of this fear that Edith holds. She does not want to destroy Florence’s life the same way Mrs. Skewton destroyed her own, so she took care of Florence the way an older, more experienced sister would take care of a younger, naïve sister. Her love that shone on Florence gave her step-daughter happiness for a short while, and Florence’s happiness was one of the only things Edith truly cared about in the world. Edith may not have loved Dombey, but she was willing to stay married to him for as long as she did all because she wanted to protect and love Florence (572-573). If it were not for him, she would not have loved dear Florence the way she did