Charles Dickens' novel Dombey and Son shows the patriarch Mr. Dombey in his obvious and complete disappointment in his daughter. Florence, as Mr. Dombey's only surviving heir, is of no value to him, which he outwardly recognizes, but Florence still craves his affection and will do anything to earn them, blaming herself for the lack of reciprocity. Other motherless girls play similar roles in Dickens's books, such as Amy in Little Dorrit and Estella in Great Expectations. These girls live under strong pressures due to parental or other expectations and obligations, which interfere with their autonomy and their ability to fully become a woman. I argue that this results from an unresolved pattern of triangular desire, as Ren explains? Girard. Once Dickens resolves this problem, if he chooses to do so, the women in his stories will finally be able to flourish, with less oppression, emerging all the better as people from their childhood, or from their pseudo-childhood, which is often the case. case. Neither fully children nor fully adults, these dynamic female characters fight for their autonomy while maintaining a form of authority specific to their position. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay Florence is often depicted in Dombey and Son as an afterthought in Mr. Dombey's mind, often through hanging quotes , which shows his indifferent nature towards her and his inability to do anything, despite his attempts. The first time it is represented by hanging quotation occurs in a small example of pseudo-indirect speech; it is also the first time she is mentioned in the novel: "They had been married ten years, and until that day Mr. Dombey sat, jingling and jingling his heavy gold watch chain in the large armchair near the side of the bed, had had no problem,” the narrator begins in a Dombey-like tone of formality and arrogance. This is immediately followed by a new paragraph with the hanging quotation beginning as the end of the sentence in the previous paragraph: — To speak of; none worth mentioning. There had been a daughter about six years before, and the child, who had slipped into the room unnoticed, was now crouching shyly in a corner where she could see her mother's face. But what is a girl for Dombey and Son! In the capital of the House's name and dignity, such a child was just a base coin that could not be invested – a bad boy – nothing more. (Dickens 13) This passage is incredibly revealing of Florence's role throughout the novel. She is "not noticed" by her grandfather, but she is still "squatting timidly", longing to be in the same room as her parents but feeling afraid at the same time. The striking metaphor of Florence as a coin in Mr. Dombey's eyes has a heavy meaning and shows her fate throughout the novel; alongside all the women in Dombey and Son who can be sold and bought, like Edith and Alice, and even characters in other Dickens novels who are sold as women, like Estella in Great Expectations, Florence is useless to her father and unable to do so. find a place. This leads to her being completely and entirely alone with no one else wanting or needing her. Without a direct and explicit economic objective, Florence practically does not exist. She longs to be treated like other women who can invest in marriage, procreation and social prominence, but instead she finds herself entirely alone, with no onewith whom she can trade her way to love. This inability of Florence to earn something the only way her father showed how to earn something – economically – forces Florence into a passionate, obsessive, pious desire for something resembling love from her father. Florence Dombey, from the early stages of her life. life, was rejected by her father and eclipsed by her brother, before he even existed. Because she is not useful to him as a successor to the family name, especially Dombey and Sons, he does not like her in the limited ways he understands. Paul, on the other hand, is valued solely because of his potential as a business partner. “That the hope of giving birth to a new partner in such a house could not fail to awaken a glorious and moving ambition […]” (Dickens 12) contrasts sharply with Mr. Dombey's idea of ​​a useless Florence and essentially non-existent. “'The girls,' said Mr. Dombey, 'have nothing to do with Dombey and his son […]'” (Dickens 153). Instead of recognizing this exclusion, Florence considers it her duty to change Mr. Dombey's mind and earn his place, which, according to the master of the house, is simply impossible for a humble girl to do. like her; his efforts are in vain. Florence still sees that Mr. Dombey is capable of loving women and children, or at least the facade of doing so, and she thus sees the creation of a triangle of desire built on the patterns of her father's desire. relationship with Paul and Edith. Desire triangles based on child-parent relationships can be very strong, according to Girard, particularly when the object of desire (the parent) is not reciprocal in affections. He takes the example of Swann's Way by Marcel Proust: “The child enjoys, in his universe, both happiness and peace. But this universe is already threatened. When the mother refuses a kiss to her son, she already plays the double role characteristic of internal mediation: she is both the instigator of desire and the relentless guardian who prohibits its development” (Girard 35). Without knowing it, therefore, by refusing to interact with Florence and by naturally being her father, Mr. Dombey is also both the “instigator” of Florence’s desire and the one who blocks its realization. Of course, other blocks also appear later in the novel, such as Edith. According to Girard, these models of triangular desire are based on “internal mediation”, when the emotional distance between the two spheres of relationships (what is sought and what already exists) is very small. This means that the two spheres can easily overlap and influence each other greatly, having a significant influence on these relationships (Girard 9). Florence even begs Edith to show her how to win love: “[…] that I am not a favorite child, mother. I've never been there. I never knew how to be. I missed the path and had no one to show me. Oh, let me learn from you how to become dearer to daddy. Teach me! you who know so well! (Dickens 550). This hanging quote brings out the idea of ​​the original from the first chapter of the book. Previously, Mr. Dombey and the narrator showed how insignificant Florence was by reflecting on it after the fact with a quote. Now, Florence admits that she is an afterthought with the same kind of structure and the same hesitant language, starting in the middle of a sentence and sounding meek. Much more can be inferred from this passage, as Florence admits that she resents the loss of her mother in her life, if only to have a model to model her proper loving relationships. Schor states: "It is proof of Florence's lack of worldliness (and of how little her life has shown her about true love) that sheimagines that she can learn from Edith how to please her father – that her “stepmother” can give her the key to victory. the affection she spent her life trying to earn” (55). Edith recognizes Florence's loss and her own position as a child devoid of a mother's love. "'That I should teach you how to love or be loved, God forbid!' said Edith. “If you could teach me, that would be better; but it's too late. […]'” (Dickens 550). This rejection could be the first step in showing Florence the importance of selecting models carefully. Edith understands Florence's position and also had a bad role model to look up to, hence her conscious warning to Floy. Learning more about Edith from the rest of the novel, one can infer that Edith represents many of Dickens' daughter characters , particularly Estella in Great Expectations, as she reveals in her passionate statement to Carker. “I am a woman,” she said. , facing him “who, from her childhood, was humiliated and hardened. I was offered and rejected, accommodated and evaluated, until my soul was sick. I have not had an accomplishment or a grace that could have been of value, as if the common crier had called it from the streets. My poor and proud friends looked and approved; and all bond between us was extinguished in my bosom. There isn't one I care for, like I could care for a pet dog. I am alone in the world, remembering well how hollow this world has been to me and what a hollow part of it I myself have been. You know it, and you know that my fame is worth nothing to me […] Becoming too indifferent for any opposition other than indifference, to the daily work of the hands that had shaped me to his; and knowing that my marriage would at least prevent them from praising me up and down; I allowed myself to be sold, as infamous as a woman with a halter around her neck is sold in any market […]” (Dickens 823) Edith’s profound objectification and commodification illustrates, and perhaps magnifies and exaggerate the situations. Dickens's daughters. These women are not people with human wants and desires; they are objects created to complete tasks, marry, stay apart, or complete tasks for the sake of someone else. This passage also shows how permanent the torment is for these women, remaining in the past participle and painfully exploiting every detail. Parallels between Edith and Estella can be seen, notably when Estella claims that she is also "hollow" like Edith with bonds "sleeping in [her] chest", stating: "[...]I have no heart – if that has anything to do with it. to do with my memory […] I have no sweetness there, no – sympathy – feeling – absurdity” (Great Expectations 237). Self-reliance is not present in these girls' childhoods, but, while Edith becomes bitter and cold, Dickens's daughters are given mostly happy endings with heavy doses of moral goodness, wish fulfillment, and reparation, even partially in the case of empty-hearted Estella. . But without characters like Edith, who act as catalysts, these happy endings wouldn't be possible. For Florence in particular, Edith creates a new possibility of being independent, but Florence does not see it. Florence desires to be even more commodified than she is, so she is worth something to her father. While believing that this commodification will liberate her and win her love, Dickens's daughters actually prove that it only restricts movement even more. These girls rarely get what they want in their original triangles; their contribution is considered useless insofar as the only triangles implemented inthe narrative action are those concerning these women as commodities or, in Ren? Girard’s language, quite simply, “objects”. Florence is thus involved in several effective triangles of desire, as described by Ren? Girard, based on the commodity that is love. It is essentially a worthless, empty, hollow love, but it is the appearance of that love that is largely of interest to all parties involved, because of the way in which it is modeled. Edith's entry into the Dombey family shifts Florence's desire for a loving father from one based on the relationship patterns she has seen, to one based on rivalry, with Edith at the center. Girard explains this phenomenon of role switching as being necessary to the desire triangle itself. He says: “We are always confronted with two competing desires. The mediator can no longer play his role as a model without also playing or appearing to play the role of an obstacle” (Girard 7). This can also be explained by the fact that previous desire triangles were based on "mediations", and therefore allowed both relationships to have significant impacts on each other, allowing for volatile dynamics. When Mr. Dombey demands that Edith stop showing affection to his daughter (Dickens 647), he creates, knowingly or unwittingly, a multidirectional triangle of desire. Edith rivals Florence's affection for her father. Mr. Dombey is a rival for Florence's desire to love Edith. Mr. Dombey acts as a rival for Edith's affection towards Florence. Florence serves as a rival for Mr. Dombey's desire for Edith. Perhaps most interesting in these triangles is the third, in which Florence serves as a rival for Dombey's acquisition of Edith. Dombey never outwardly mentions Florence as a rival, but it is clear that he is jealous of Florence and Edith's relationship, telling her, through Mr. Carker: "You will kindly tell her that her demonstration of devotion for my daughter is unpleasant for her. Me. This is likely to be noticed. This is likely to make people contrast Mrs. Dombey in her relationship with my daughter with Mrs. Dombey in her relationship with myself” Dickens 647). Florence clearly plays a very important role in Edith and Mr. Dombey's relationship through her jealousy of Edith's attention. According to Girard, “Jealousy and envy imply a third presence: object, subject and third person towards whom jealousy or envy is directed. […] Like all victims of internal mediation, the jealous person easily convinces himself that his desire is spontaneous, that is to say that it is deeply rooted in the object and in this object alone” (Girard 12). Mr. Dombey's jealousy of Florence immediately gives him abundant power, but his refusal to admit it disenfranchises her once again. Fortunately, however, these triangles don't last long after Dombey forbids Edith's interaction with Florence. When Edith leaves Mr. Dombey and Florence follows, these triangles are broken. Edith chooses herself over helping Florence and Florence chooses Edith over her father's unrequited love. This finally opens up the opportunity for Florence to fully grow up and develop real attractions and affections as a woman, rather than as a child, thus moving beyond Ren's susceptibility? Girard says that children are sensitive to this triangular desire. Girard quotes Puérile as saying that “childhood is the natural state in which the capacity to imagine oneself differently is most evident” (Girard 36). Florence finally comes out of this imagination of herself and accepts herself as she is; she becomes an entrepreneur instead of a victim of unwanted love and lust. She is finally able to marry Walter without hesitation or question of loyalty to the ideals ofhis father. The reader sees Florence's first step toward autonomy occur when she proposes to Walter. “If you take me as your wife, Walter, I will love you dearly. If you let me go with you, Walter, I will go without fear to the ends of the earth. I can give up nothing for you – I have nothing to give up, and no one to give up; but all my love and my life will be devoted to you and with my last breath I will breathe your name into God if there is any sense and memory left in me” (Dickens 770). Florence's proposal initially shocks because she chooses to take the first step; rather than waiting for something to happen to her, she seeks love herself, something she learned from her difficult relationship with her father. Second, Florence wants to show that she has nothing to give him; she sacrificed her childhood in bitter solitude to seek love. Not only does she have nothing left to give materially or financially, but she will no longer sacrifice respect or autonomy for love, a big step for Florence and a lesson she may have learned from Edith, strong and independent. It was because Edith gave up respect that she became bitter and cold, as she later admitted to Carker: "[...] the struggle I had for a long time with something that was not respect for my property, the fame – it was I don't know what – perhaps the fact of clinging to this last retirement – ​​was over. That night I turned away from everything except passion and resentment” (Dickens 824). Florence, never having been commodified like Edith, is not forced to give up respect, but she also now recognizes that she does not want to. Edith's life ends unhappily and Florence, now that she sees the potential for happiness before her, understands that following Edith's path and giving up her self-esteem will take it away, but she also understands what kind of things sacrifice. From Florence's life where she wanted to leave the person she is, she understands compromise and sacrifice, but it now manifests in a healthy way after seeing how Edith was able to abuse these things. According to Schor, "the speech [of Florence's proposal] provides a category of virtues that Florence is here to represent and which separate her from Edith: she is patient, she is good, she loves 'tenderly.' Being “nothing” pays off right now, because Florence (unlike Edith) has “nothing to resign.” However, in Florence, as in its magic purse, nothing will ever be lost and the end of the world will not arouse any fear. The more Florence gives in, the more she has; the more she loves, the more she deserves love; the more she is forgotten, the more she will remember” (60). Although the fact that Florence owns nothing may show her as a disenfranchised character, it actually gives her power in this situation. However, Dickens takes the opportunity to conclude quite clearly about Florence's relationship with her father. As Mr. Dombey's business goes bankrupt and Mr. Dombey himself falls into ruin, he remembers the love he lost with Florence and the potential for intangible happiness their relationship could have been . This shows how even a girl without freedom can have an impact. However, it is only when Florence reaches a level of autonomy allowing her to bear the name Dombey that she can become admirable in her father's mind, particularly to escape her state of destitution. Before fleeing, "Florence tried so hard to substitute herself for a little Dombey, that her courage and perseverance would almost have earned her the free right to bear the name itself" (Dickens 187), but this did not was simply not enough; she couldn't escape the idea in Dombey's head that she was a useless, uninvestable coin..