Not everyone would agree, but Dr. John Mark Reynolds demonstrates that Dickens makes a pretty convincing argument for basic feminism — “the equal and full humanity of women and men before Providence” — in Dombey and Son.
I totally disagree with Dr. Reynold’s assumptions and would argue a strong case to the contrary. For Dickens was that most inveterate of misogynists, since not merely a card-carrying, patriarchal product of his own times, but one who rather dangerously exhibited strong proclivities towards a Lolita Complex and sadism, when it came to his dealings with women.
I smile as I write this; recalling the insight propounded by Dickens himself in “Our Mutual Friend,” concerning the feminine instinct for uneeringly discerning the unpalatable underbelly of a frog, sans any need whatsoever to overturn that clammy specimen. For according to the scornful declaration made by Mrs. Sophronia Lammle – utterances later mused upon with a similarly laconic weariness: “Men are very wise in their way…but they have wisdom to learn….”
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