ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the experience of social change as it reveals itself in the work of Dickens, a nineteenth century novelist. Dickens' Dombey and Son is about change, about society in transition. Essentially the first chapter of Dombey and Son suggests how difficult it is for decent human emotions and relations to make headway in a world so governed by class considerations that people are likely to be indifferent to everything else. There are occasions when the vision of Dombey and Son seems to involve a rejection of the world that is being superseded, and certainly there are a number of places where Dickens attacks any hankering after the old times. Dickens' greatness in terms of imaginative social insight is particularly evident in his handling of Mrs. Skewton and Cousin Feenix, and it is proof, too, of the weighty efforts he makes to be open-minded in the novel. For the most part, Dickens manages the marriage relationship with great skill.
