Charles Dickens’s Commentary on Genetics and Conditioning in Dombey and Son
Disclaimer — This article has spoilers and contains a few key events and insights from the novel.
Back in the school days, there was a guy who religiously sat on the first bench and listened to all the lectures with utmost sincerity. He was never late to the school and never skipped the morning prayers — a time we, sometimes, leveraged to take a nap. He invariably scored 95% marks and was imperatively punished for not achieving it. He had less or no friends and a strict father, who had unmistakably controlled his study hours and ensured that he doesn’t indulge in any sport. In a way, we can say that my non-friend classmate — let’s keep his name anonymous — was not conditioned to be a human, but a machine that would go on to earn a heap of dough in the future and live a prosperous life, if not a happy or fulfilling one.
While reading Dombey and Son, I constantly remembered him and realized that Dombeys are not born or even nurtured but manufactured and conditioned. Our Little Paul from Dombey and Son pursued, or shall I say, suffered his short life, which was rather controlled by norms than by his natural attributes rooted in genetics. Very early in the novel, we realize that Mr. Dombey is an impregnably cold gentleman, and his wife, Mrs. Dombey, who dies in the very first chapter, was a tender and warm lady.
Little Paul, bereft of mother’s love, grows up under the care of Mrs. Richards, who is stringently restricted to have emotional attachments with Little Paul, who is not born to feel natural emotions but to take the responsibility of the empire called Dombey and Son. Despite the compulsion, we observe that Little Paul grows naturally affectionate to his rented guardian and is indubitably attached to Florence. Furthermore, he is conspicuously contemplative as we observe him asking philosophically profound questions such as, “What is money and what it can do?” to Mr. Dombey, who is a strong believer in the capitalistic powers of the world. Needless to say, asking such questions to Mr. Dombey(s) is of no consequence.
As the narrative progresses, there is an episode in which Mr. Dombey fires Mrs. Richards, and Little Paul is further deprived of affection. Thereafter, he is handed over to Mrs. Pipchin and is further conditioned in her formidable auspices. As a consequence, he grows up as a loner and socially awkward, and his behavior and mannerisms in Dr. Blimber’s school that are more often than not observed as old-fashioned — a phrase inscrutable to Little Paul — by the Blimbers further evinces that in the pursuit of conditioning, Little Paul starts losing his genetic traits received from his deceased mother and ultimately turns into an unsuitable boy in a socially vivid milieu crafted by Charles Dickens, which is one of the contrasts in the novel.
However, despite the unassailable discipline and the emotional detachment evident in the school of the Blimbers and the whole novel at large, Little Paul does retain his loving heart as he befriends Mr. Toots and more importantly, a dog named Diogenes, and his affection for his loving sister Florence remains inviolable until he dies a melancholic death. In addition to that, we also observe him helping Walter — an episode that the perennially conditioned Mr. Dombey perceives as a turning point in the life of Little Paul after which he would be regarded as the heir of Dombey and Son and not the kind soul that he happens to be. However, we, as readers, can see that it is out of kindness that Little Paul helps Walter.
The persuasive conditioning of Little Paul and the slight sustenance of his natural genetic traits and contemplative abilities contrary to the qualities of Mr. Dombey is a subtle commentary on the power of genes (or natural attributes) and conditioning, and how the former triumphs over the latter.
While Charles Dickens’s vision of the meticulous planning and methodical manufacturing of Dombeys happens to be the primary theme in Little Paul’s narrative of the novel, the author portrays that Little Pauls can be conditioned, but they cannot die in their entirety. The day Little Paul dies, we observe that he happens to be the Little Paul with the genetic traits of Mrs. Dombey — his mother who is just a memory — and not the Little Paul, who was hitherto conditioned to be something else so that he grows up to bear the responsibility of the empire called Dombey and Son. According to Mr. Dombey, everything in the world happens for the propitious progress of his firm Dombey and Son, and he ensured that everything happened for the cause, even at the cost of his son’s passing away.
Little Paul could have been who he was supposed or designed to be. Little Paul could have remained kind and tender and yet take the responsibility of his father’s firm. Little Paul could have survived without partially losing his identity in the process of conditioning him as the heir of Dombey and Son.
Little Paul could have raised differently and more importantly, responsibly and sensitively, but as Charles Dickens would say in one of the chapters, let’s not waste our time talking about such things.
