# Doctor Blimber — Dombey and Son character guide

> Doctor Blimber in Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Doctor Blimber, Doctor, Blimber, old Blimber

**First appearance:** 0014-xi-paul-s-introduction-to-a-new-scene

## Snapshot

A headmaster who force-feeds Latin and mathematics to small boys as if knowledge were a medicine, he believes childhood is a disease to be cured by grinding.

## Who they are

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 sent into this mill of learning by a father who wants a grown son immediately. He matters because his school is where Dickens shows the cost of treating children as instruments of family ambition, and where Paul's strange, wistful nature is most exposed.

## In the story

### [Paul’s Introduction to a New Scene](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/chapters/xi-paul-s-introduction-to-a-new-scene)

Head of the school; presents Paul to the Blimber family and assigns him to Mr. Feeder's care.

### [XII: Paul's Education](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/chapters/xii-paul-s-education)

Runs the school with a rigid approach, treating students as if they were already grown men and pushing them to excel.

### [New Voices in the Waves](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/chapters/xli-new-voices-in-the-waves)

Receives Florence and Mr. Toots at his school, resumes studies.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters/doctor_blimber
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dombey_and_son_se/characters