# Dombey and Son — Character guide

> Key figures in Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens.

- [Florence Dombey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/florence_dombey.md): Florence grows up in the shadow of her father's obsession with his son and heir, treated as an afterthought in her own home. Her warmth and devotion to little Paul stand in stark contrast to the emotional frost of the Do
- [Paul Dombey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/paul_dombey.md): Little Paul is the cherished hope of the firm of Dombey and Son, groomed from infancy to become the man his father already converses with in his imagination. Yet the boy is wan, wistful, and unnervingly thoughtful, prone
- [Mr. Dombey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mr_dombey.md): Mr. Dombey is a man of frozen dignity who regards his son less as a child than as the future embodiment of the firm's grandeur, planning for a grown man while ignoring the boy in front of him. His parental affection, suc
- [Edith Dombey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/edith_dombey.md): Edith Granger enters the Dombey household as a trophy wife, married for her beauty and connections rather than affection, and she knows exactly what the transaction is. Proud, intelligent, and deeply resentful of being t
- [Walter Gay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/walter_gay.md): Walter is the good-natured nephew of Solomon Gills, the nautical instrument-maker, and a junior clerk in the Dombey counting-house where his honesty and open temper stand out against the firm's cold formality. He adores 
- [Captain Cuttle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/captain_cuttle.md): Captain Cuttle keeps watch over Solomon Gills's shop and Walter Gay's fortunes with a devotion as sturdy as his wooden hand, forever quoting his friend's wisdom and making himself useful in gloriously muddled ways. Bluff
- [Mr. Carker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mr_carker.md): As Dombey's second in command, Carker moves through the firm's affairs with a deference so smooth it reads as menace, his face shifting from obsequious grin to frowning scrutiny the instant his employer looks away. He ne
- [Susan Nipper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/susan_nipper.md): Susan Nipper has waited on Miss Floy since the child could barely speak, and her loyalty has hardened into something fierce and unapologetic. When Mr. Dombey lies helpless on his sofa, she seizes the moment to tell him e
- [Mr. Toots](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mr_toots.md): Mr. Toots drifts through Dr. Blimber's establishment in a fog of good intentions and confused arithmetic, cheerfully unable to remember whether the firm is Dombey and Son or Son and Dombey. He is ridiculous without being
- [Solomon Gills](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/solomon_gills.md): Sol Gills keeps his shop, his nephew, and his hopes with the same gentle, misty persistence, watching the door for customers who rarely come. His investments and his faith in Walter's future are the twin burdens of a man
- [Miss Tox](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/miss_tox.md): Miss Tox hovers at Mrs. Chick's elbow, commiserating on cue and elevating her eyebrows at every expected sorrow, her devotion to Mr. Dombey a quiet, unspoken ache. Elevated to godmothership precisely because she can thre
- [Mrs. Chick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mrs_chick.md): Mrs. Chick presides over the nursery and the family's opinions with a sigh of modest merit, quick to pronounce that Florence will never, never be a Dombey. Her loyalty to her brother's grandeur is absolute, and her sympa
- [Mrs. Skewton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mrs_skewton.md): Mrs. Skewton drifts through fashionable watering-places in a wheeled chair, rouged and ringleted, insisting on being called Cleopatra while she arranges Edith's match with Mr. Dombey. Her charm is a business asset and he
- [Major Bagstock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/major_bagstock.md): Major Bagstock, retired from the army and bloated with self-regard, cultivates Mr. Dombey's friendship at Leamington and Brighton, forever boasting of 'old Joe' and his toughness. He is selfish to the stomach, jealous of
- [Rob the Grinder](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/rob_the_grinder.md): Rob the Grinder, son of the honest Toodles, is put to work at Mr. Dombey's warehouse and later taken up by Captain Cuttle, but his restless ambition and taste for easy money keep him drifting toward dangerous patrons. He
- [Polly Toodle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/polly_toodle.md): Polly Toodle, wife of a stoker and mother of a brood, is engaged by Mr. Dombey on condition she answer only to 'Richards' and sever contact with her family. Her natural warmth floods the cold house, and her love for Paul
- [Harriet Carker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/harriet_carker.md): Harriet Carker shares her brother James's name but none of his coldness, dwelling in a modest cottage with her other brother John and a household of rescued creatures. She loves James without illusion and grieves for the
- [Cousin Feenix](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/cousin_feenix.md): Cousin Feenix, a man-about-town of forty years ago, turns up at the Dombey-Granger marriage in Bond Street, amiable, well got-up, and hopelessly circuitous in speech. He is kindly where the rest are calculating, and his 
- [Alice Marwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/alice_marwood.md): Alice Marwood moves through the novel's shadow-world of debt, shame, and grudge, her bitterness sharpened by years of punishment for a crime others escaped. Her hunger for revenge fixes on those who used and discarded he
- [Good Mrs. Brown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/good_mrs_brown.md): Good Mrs. Brown haunts the novel's margins as a figure of predatory poverty, stripping Florence of her fine clothes and her innocence in a single afternoon. Her menace is not loud but acquisitive: she hoards knowledge of
- [Mrs. MacStinger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mrs_macstinger.md): Mrs. MacStinger presides over her lodgings as a petty tyrant, her respectability a weapon she wields against anyone who threatens her order. Captain Cuttle, who has faced storms at sea, lives in mortal dread of her tongu
- [Doctor Blimber](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/doctor_blimber.md): Doctor Blimber runs his school as a factory for premature gentlemen, his pupils stuffed with classics until they resemble little old men. His pedagogy is relentless and cheerfully inhuman, and the fragile Paul Dombey is 
- [Cornelia Blimber](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/cornelia_blimber.md): Doctor Blimber's learned daughter, who tutors the boys.
- [Mr. Feeder](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mr_feeder.md): Assistant master at Blimber's school, later marries Cornelia.
- [Mr. Toodle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mr_tootle.md): Polly's husband, a stoker on the railway.
- [Perch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/perch.md): Messenger and clerk at Dombey's office.
- [Mrs. Wickam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mrs_wickam.md): Nurse to Paul and later Florence at various times.
- [Diogenes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/diogenes.md): Florence's loyal dog, a gift from Walter.
- [Mr. Bunsby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mr_bunsby.md): Eccentric, oracular sea captain friend of Captain Cuttle.
- [Towlinson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/towlinson.md): Butler in the Dombey household.
- [Sir Barnet Skettles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/sir_barnet_skettles.md): Neighbor and MP who befriends the Dombeys.
- [Mrs. Pipchin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mrs_pipchin.md): Cantankerous old woman who runs a boarding house for children.
- [Mr. Morfin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mr_morfin.md): Kind, thoughtful clerk at Dombey's, friend to Harriet Carker.
- [John Carker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/john_carker.md): James Carker's older, disgraced brother, humble and hardworking.
- [Briggs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/briggs.md): A boy at Blimber's school, often bullied.
- [Tozer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/tozer.md): A boy at Blimber's school and his parents.
- [Mrs. Perch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/mrs_perch.md): Mr. Perch's wife, often pregnant.
- [Fanny](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/fanny.md): Mr. Dombey's first wife, who dies after giving birth to Paul.
- [Papa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/papa.md): Florence and Paul's father, Mr. Dombey.

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