Parent Child Relationships

In his exploration of multiple evolving parent/child relationships, Dickens explores the changing roles of parents and children, suggesting that families are defined by the love they have for each other, not blood or name. Moreover, Dickens insists that children forced to fulfill expectations defined by their parents are destined to misery and failure. Parents, parent figures, and children owe each other love and nothing more.

Parents in this novel are not always related to their children by blood or name. Children frequently find worthy, lifelong parent figures outside of their families when their own parents are dead or unavailable. At the very beginning, we see newborn Paul bonding with his wet nurse, Polly, after his mother dies. Though Dombey forbids Polly to become attached to Paul, the intimate relationship they share makes it impossible. Though she only nurses him for a few months...