浅析董贝父子的悲剧成因 论文

An Analysis of Causes of Dombey’s Tragedy

in Dombey and Son

Thesis Statement The tragedy of Dombey proclaims the social problems of capitalistic society. The cause of the tragedy involves some different factors: social reality, personal characteristics and so on. Outline I

.Introduction

II .Charles Dickens and Dombey and Son

A. Introduction to Charles Dickens and the Background B. The Skeleton of the Novel

C. The Description of Main Characters and the Relations with Dombey and the

Train

III .Analysis of Dombey’s character

A. Dombey’s Selfish and Greedy, his Pursuit of Assets and Heir B. Dombey’s Attitude to His Company, Wife, Son and Daughter IV .The Causes of the Tragedy

A. Social Factor — The Situation of Capitalistic Society B. Personal Factor — Dombey’s Greedy Characteristics C. The Education of 19th England

V .Conclusion

An Analysis of Causes of Dombey’s Tragedy

in Dombey and Son

I

Introduction

Dombey and Son represents an important turning point of Dickens writing career and is regarded as a summit. It was created in 1946 and finished in 1948. It was a vivid story about Dombey’s tragedy life, full of different interesting stories, mainly on his pursuit of the heir of the company and the profits, his attitude towards wife, son and daughter. Money has dominated his mind. This novel has a more profound description of the capitalistic society and a higher place in literature compared with his early writings. It has a tight structure. Before writing Dickens has conceived prudentially. He has arranged all the performance of the role and the plots of the story reasonably. They all develop around the destiny of Dombey. Every plot combines with each other and it is very interesting. The novel has depicted the vivid personality of the society of the time — Dombey ,Florence and so on. They all have their own personal features and language. The English novelist Catherine and French critics Tana have various analyses to the novel. Catherine once wrote in her work “It is not an accident to put Dombey and Son into the list of the representative of 1930s.It reflects the social solutions and problems at that time. Different stages have different benefits. Dombey is arrogant, selfish and cold-blinded. He is addicted to money. He loses himself. He is the embodiment of the capital and the symbol of the corporation spirit in 19th century. The appearance of Dombey and Son caters for lots of people’s favor. In the world of that time’s London, there are lots of people who are as same as Dombey, they are cold, donnish, selfish and stiffly like Dombey. So to be frank, Dombey is a representative in that time in English society. In order to have a better understanding of the story, we will discuss the causes of the tragedy from several perspectives.

II Charles Dickens and Dombey and Son

A. Introduction to Charles Dickens and theBackground

Charles Dickens was an English novelist. He was born in 1812 and passed away in 1870. He was born in an army family. When he was 11, for poor life he had to drop out of school and take on the heavy labor work. He had once worked in the newspaper office and then in a law office. Only with a few years of education, he became a famous writer by industrious self-study and hard work. He was diligent and talent, so he had abundant of famous writings. He was productive. Dickens was the main delegate of the 19th realistic literature. He was humor and he always used amusing words in his works to narrate the realistic society between the romance and reality. He had a wonderful conjunction among humors, meticulous psychoanalysis, description of realistic and romantics. Dickens was always at the pace with the epoch. He mainly realistically wrote to expose the hypocritical, greedy, wretched and atrocious of the top class and the bourgeois. He also sympathized the lower class, especially the misery situation of the women, the old and children. He described the social problems and the cruel situation of the 19th century and the struggle against the gerentocratic. At the same time, he eulogized the truth, kindness and beauty of the humanity and then had a wishful longing for a more reasonable society and better life with the emotion of idealism and romanticism. His fiction career began with short pieces reprinted as Sketches by “Boz” (1836). He exhibited a great ability to spin a story in an entertaining manner and this quality, combined with the serialization of his comic novel The Pickwick Papers (1837), made him the most popular English author of his time. The serialization of such works as Oliver Twist (1838) and The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) followed. After a trip to America, he wrote A Christmas Carol (1843) in a few weeks. With Dombey and Son (1848), his novels began to express a heightened uneasiness about the evils of Victorian industrial society, which intensified in the semiautobiographical David Copperfield (1850), as well as in Bleak House (1853), Little Dorrit (1857), Great Expectations (1861), and others. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) appeared in the period when he achieved great popularity for his public readings. Dickens's works are characterized by an encyclopedic knowledge of London,

pathos, a vein of the macabre, a pervasive spirit of benevolence and geniality,

inexhaustible powers of character creation, an acute ear for characteristic speech, and a highly individual and creative prose style. B. The Skeleton of the Novel

There are some important plots in the novel. Dombey is a selfish and greed person. His only purpose is to have a good management of his company and try his best to make more profits. So he bends himself to find a heritor to take over his corporation. He has a wife and then his wife gives birth to a daughter. But he doesn’t love his daughter, Florence. He just regards her as a bad coin which can not be put into investment. So she is always snubbed by his father and can’t feel any care and attention from his father. Florence feels painful and disappointed and she is silent and endocentric and seldom to say something. At the beginning of the story when, Dombey’s son Paul, the one he expects a long time, has finally come to the world, he feels stirring and excited, for the reason that he has got a heritor at last. He pins his hope on his son and ambition. He only pays his attention to his company and does not care about his son’s inner world at all. Paul doesn’t get any love from his father and does not feel warmth and the real happiness of the family. So he is lonely and unhappy. Dombey’s only attention to his son is that he expects his son to grow up imminently so that he can take over his company and his business. When Paul is six, Dombey sends him to a school which can cultivate his son and make him have masculinity. This is a fast scene in the novel. For lots of reasons, Paul died young. And the death between his first wife and his son makes a big difference. He doesn’t feel anything to the death of his wife, and just thinks something absent in the family. But the death of his son makes him painful and depressed. There is another role in the story, Edith, controlled by his greedy mother and educated to draw attention to every rich man from her childhood. She succeeds in attracting Dombey and she is bought by Dombey. Then she becomes his wife and has a top status and affluent of fortune. Dombey thinks that she is happy and satisfied. But in fact she does not feel content and pleased. At last, in order to retaliate Dombey she elopes with Dombey’s manager Carker. But she doesn’t stay with Carker,she just breaks up with him and leaves. She aspires after the freedom and spares no effort to get it. She retaliates her mother,

Dombey and the whole society. She abandons her reputation and then has a reclusive life at last. At the same time, Dombey’s company is declining owe to Carker. He has a big crisis of his family and corporation. The ship wrecks in the sea. Then he claims that he breaks up. He has got nothing. At that time when he wants to end up his life, his daughter Florence comes to him and stops him. He is moved by his daughter. He wakes up to what he has done is sinful. He finds that he has a lot of things to do. He needs to atone to what he has done and gets forgiveness. In his aged life he has a good and formal life and experiences a lot. He feels happy and satisfied. Dombey has a good life with his daughter and his son-in-law. Then they have a lovely daughter. The story has a wonderful and orbicular ending.

C. The Description of Main Characters and the Relations with Dombey and the Train

There are important roles in this story. They are Mr.Dombey, Florence, Paul, Edith, Carker.

Dombey is an asocial and self-serving person. His only aim in all his life is to manage his firm and make money. He wants to have a son so he can get his hair. But he has no more emotion on him. The son is just an instrument to come in for his possession and enterprise. He is cool and cold-blinded. In that time, the English society is hooking on to the “Time”. The society reason and his characteristic result his tragedy. This has a good reflection of the society problem.

Florence, Dombey’s only daughter, has saved Dombey’s life and moved him at last. She has changed his father and made him become better. We can see in the novel:

“Papa! Papa! Speak to me, dear Papa!”

He started at her voice, and leaped up from his seat. She was close before him' with extended arms, but he fell back.

“What is the matter?” he said, sternly. “Why do you come here? What has frightened you?”

If anything had frightened her, it was the face he turned upon her. The glowing love within the breast of his young daughter froze before it, and she stood and looked at him as if stricken into stone.

This is the plot which describes Dombey’s attitude to his daughter. From this

plot we know father is distant from his daughter. In this plot, it is a good chance to remind the relation between them. Florence hopes to get the love from his father. She is a kind and naïve girl. She is a morality consolation in the story. There is a distinctive contrast between Dombey and Florence. Dombey is peremptoriness and domineering. Florence is tender and modest. Dombey is selfish and always cares more about himself. Florence always stands in other’s shoes and considers more for other people. Dombey is cold-hearted while Florence is ebullient. They are so different. They are father and daughter. This is a good contrast and it will have a good reflection of the capitalist society and the bourgeois’ life. By comparison, it represents the thought of Dickens. This makes the role more vivid and bright.

Paul, Dombey’s son, an instrument for succession. It is a tragedy by the cultivation of his father. He does not get any love from his father and family. His father just wants him to grow up quickly to take over his business. But he does not care about him or pay attention to anything else of his son, just like inner world, habits, interests and so on. All this results in his young death.

Edith is another tragedy. She has a tragic life and marriage. When she was young, she didn’t have a funny childhood. The only thought her mother breathe into her mind is money and the aim is to pander to the rich person and draw their attention in order to marry them. Then she got married with Dombey. It is a beginning of a tragedy. She hopes to get free, so she abandon everything only to find what she really wants.

Carker is an ambitious person. This role is a bridge to connect Dombey and Edith and make the story proper. He is a greedy person.

There are other roles and scenes in the novel. For example, the declined aristocrat, the beggar, the cocotte, the labor people and so on. They are all connected with each other.

In the novel Dickens uses only a symbol throughout the story. It conveys a meaning that the whole world scene, an understanding of the world, a society and an epoch. It expresses the meaning of progress and advancement. That is the “train”. “The train” and “the railway” appear many times in the story. It stands for some special meanings. Mostly it describes the atmosphere and the emotion at important

moments. At that time, the train in England makes a big progress and improvement. So it is proper to sum up England with the word “train”. England is a developed country and the industrialization in England has reach to a height. Then the appearance and the development of the train have changed people’s life style and thought. It is more convenient for people to go wherever they want. They feel it is very close and we just need to spend little time going somewhere. The railway has changed the conception of space and time of people,esp. a new group of labor people —the platelayer. The railway means strength, the movement, the speed and the faster living pace. At this moment, the railway is the symbol of social reformation. It takes new lives to the ratty old situation. At this point, Dickens speaks highly of the train developed in the industrial society and turns up the thumbs to the advantages of the industrialization. On the other hand, “the train” is full of threaten. It has other symbolized meaning. The train is fast and very hard to control. It always runs at the same way and never changes its direction. It roars loudly forwards and backwards. It is just like the way Paul dies, silent and heartless. After Paul’s death, Dombey goes out to pay a visit and he takes the train. Just like the heavy train, he feels heavy-hearted. This is a distinctive contrast. Dickens uses the symbol to present a phenomenon and bring forward a question. The railway will change the life of the people, but how does it reach? The train is developed quickly, and how will the capitalist society develop? This will let people have a deep thinking. The word “the train”, “the earthquake” and “the monster” has consisted of a words-chain. They all direct to the main clue “deprive”. The deprivation in the novel has appeared many times. For example, little Paul is deprived of his nurse mother; Florence is deprived of her clothes; the two children lost their mother; the death of Paul; the death of Carker and so on. They all show the most important absence, that is the lost of soul. It also stands for another meaning: the pursuit for speed. Dombey longs for the growth of his son. So he takes the wrong measures and leads to the death of Paul. The description of the train is a consciousness of suffering. It criticizes the society and the bourgeois. And it reminds people of saving the soul of the human beings. This points out the main idea of Dickens.

III Analysis of Dombey’s Character

A. Dombey’s Selfish and Greedy, his Pursuit with Assets and Heir

As we say in the above paragraph, Dombey is a selfish and egoistic person. He cares about nothing except his fortune. He has a daughter. But he is apathetic to his daughter, Florence. He wants to have a son. After the birth of his son, Paul, he feels amused and affectionately calls her wife “Mrs. Dombey, my dear”. It is abnormal. It never appears before. He thinks money is everything and he can’t live without money. He is always thirsting for money and tries his best to make profit and earn more money. When his little son asks him what is the use of the money, his answer is that money is everything. He can not give his son a good education and set a right example. While Paul goes on asking why money can’t make his mother alive, he avoids this question and says money can make others scare, respect, fear and admire of them. And they are honorable. When he chooses a teacher for Paul and spends lots of money, he thinks the most expensive is the best and it will bring his son the best education. The wrong cultivation leads to the death of Paul. When asked what he wants, little Paul says that he wants to die.

Dombey does everything to earn money.

B. Dombey’s Attitude to his Company, Wife, Son and Daughter

Dombey is cold to his wife and his daughter. After giving birth to his longed-for son, his wife is very weak and about to die. But he does not pay much attention to her, the son’s mother. He only sees his loved son, which will be the heir of his company. He devotes himself to his company completely. His only aim is to make profit and manage his company. As for his son, he just wants him to inherit his company and fortune. The little does not receive any love. To his daughter he is cold. His daughter wants to talk with him, but he always rejects and avoids her. As the 18 part in the novel:

In its standing open, even by so much as that chink, there seemed to be hope. There was encouragement in seeing a ray of light from within, stealing through the dark stern doorway, and falling in a thread upon the marble floor. She turned back, hardly knowing what she did, but

urged on by the love within her, and the trial they had undergone together, but not shared: and with her hands a little raised and trembling, glided in.

Her father sat at his old table in the middle room. He had been arranging some papers, and destroying others, and the latter lay in fragile ruins before him. The rain dripped heavily upon the glass panes in the outer room, where he had so often watched poor Paul, a baby; and the low complainings of the wind were heard without.

But not by him. He sat with his eyes fixed on the table, so immersed in thought, that a far heavier tread than the light foot of his child could make, might have failed to rouse him. His face was turned towards her. By the waning lamp, and at that haggard hour, it looked worn and dejected; and in the utter loneliness surrounding him, there was an appeal to Florence that struck home.

But at last, his daughter saves him and they live together happily. This satirizes Dombey’s action. Finally, his company goes into bankrupty. He has nothing but his daughter and son-in-law. Then he has a satisfying life. IV The Cause of the Tragedy

A. Social Factor — the Situation of Capitalistic Society

The capitalist society at that time has a big improvement. This has represented from the important symbol—the train. The industrialized England is developing quickly. It is just like the development of the train. It is fast, directed and no-stopped. Dickens has described the different but conjoint aspects in English capitalistic society of 19th century. In the novel we can find diverse characters, from the unprivileged people to the top status, like the powerful capitalists, the declined aristocrats, the ordinary business men and subnormal labor people. In the capitalistic society the capitalists bend themselves to make money and exploit the labor workers. They pay too much attention to fortune and forget the humanity. At that time, Dombey is the representation of the capitalists. They are cool, stiffly. They only know how to make a pile, but don’t know other happiness. To them, the heir means the continuous of the capital. And it is the exclusive way to be forever and immortality. Actually, it is the fortune in substance. Dombey is the representation of the capitalist of that time.

At that time, the situation of the society influents the people on their thinking.

The improvement of the economy has a big influencr on the society, for example, the way people think and the way they solve a question. So it is very important to analysis this cause of Dombey’s tragedy.

B. Personal Factors — Dombey’s Greedy Characteristics

The tragedy is not only owe to the capitalistic society, but also due to Dombey’s personal characteristics. Just because of his greedy and selfish quality, he loses everything at last. His action leads to the death of his son and his ex-wife. Then his second wife leaves him and runs away. He loves money, he wants to develop and expand his corporation, so he struggles to have a son and then marry the second wife. He thinks this is everything he wants and people will respect him. But actually at last he is the poorest. Everything is gone. He walks in his shabby house lonely and wants to end up his life. His daughter comes back and saves him. Then he finds he is wrong. He is sinful. He should remedy something. Then the story has a wonderful ending. Dombey is a representative of that time. He represents an image of that time’s economy and businessman and the culture. Dombey died at last, but there are lots of Dombey in the society in England. So it reflects the social problems.

Dombey’s characteristics is selfish. But at last he was moved by his daughter. Dombey’s fortune is not decided by the development of outside world. It is his inner personality leads to his break-up. He punishes himself, and it explores the factors of the capitalistics’ personalities. C. The Education of 19th England

At that time, the education is not good enough. The development of economy is speed ,but the education falls behind relatively. This has several reasons, such as the country doesn’t pay much attention to the education, the long time influence of the church on the education and the obvious difference between different classes. Just as the English educationer S.J.Gurtis and M.E.A.Boult-wood has said “In England, the development of society, politics and industry has a large change, and it can be a revolution. But the college and school education can seldom keep pace with them.

Dombey does not receive a good education, so it leads to the tragedy of his little son Paul directly. His education method is not great. He wants his son to be a great

man. So at the very early time of the young Paul, he sends him to a school which is famous for the dead study method. There, children need to recite lots of things. Paul can not afford this and long before he is dead. It is his father Dombey who makes this tragedy. V Conclusion

Dombey and Son is an important turning point in Dickens writing career. It succeeds in shaping a typical image of the capitalistic society of 19th. At first, Dombey was selfish and greedy. But at last he changed and became a good man. Dickens has described the story vividly. The different images in the novel convey us different kinds of feelings. And it also presents us the problem in the 19th capitalistic society. The top status has lots of rights and they deprive of the right of the poor. They have money so they can do what they want to do. In their mind, money is everything. Money can make them get more prerogatives and receive the best education.

The development of the society and the transportation means people have a good understanding of the space and the time. It is more convenient for people to connect with each other. The important symbol in the novel “the train” endows the story with big significance. At that time, the train is the sign of the speed development of industry and science. The absent of soul is the main idea. This is the oppugn people carry out to the Industrial Revolution. The consciousness of hardship is a critical thing to the social system and the endeavor to save the soul.

To sum up, the tragedy of Dombey is due to several reasons. We discuss it from different perspectives. The 19th English society has many “Dombeys”. It represents a kind of social configuration. They are cold-hearted, cool, selfish, arbitrarily and avaricious. They regard money as the best thing and then they can get the best treatment. They ignore the relationship between the relatives. From this novel we know the most important thing is health and happiness. Money is not everything. And we should take a right attitude to the development of the science.

Words Cited

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions

Limited,1995.

Charles Dickens . The Speech of Charles Dickens.Oxford: Clarendon Press,1960. Raymond Williams. The English Novel From Dickens to Lawrence.London:Chatto and Company,1973:73-114.

罗经国. 新编英国文学宣读[Z]. 北京：北京大学出版社，1996. 李宜燮，常耀信. 美国文学选读[M]. 天津：南开大学出版社，1991. 陶铁柱(译者). 第二性[M]. 北京：中国书籍出版社，1998 吴辉（译者）. 董贝父子[M]. 南京：译林出版社，1992.

王小平. 不同的手法共同关注——《巨型收音机》与《董贝父子》的对比阅读.[J].

宿州学院学报, 2007（3）：38-45.

殷企平.《董贝父子》中的“铁路意向”[J]. 外语与外语教学，2003（1）：37-40. 祝庆英（译者）. 董贝父子[M]. 上海：上海译文出版社，1998.