"Oh, My God, forgive me!" — fifty-first illustration by W. L. Sheppard for Dickens's "Dombey and Son" (American Household Edition, 1873)

"Oh, My God, forgive me!" by W. L. Sheppard. Fifty-first illustration for Dickens's Dombey and Son in the American Household Edition (1873), Chapter LIX, "Retribution," page 342. Page 341's Heading: "His Head Rests on the Bruised Breast." 10.6 x 13.6 mm (4 ⅛ by 5 ⅜ inches) framed. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

Passage Illustrated: Florence and Her Father Reunited

It sat down, with its eyes upon the empty fireplace, and as it lost itself in thought there shone into the room a gleam of light; a ray of sun. It was quite unmindful, and sat thinking. Suddenly it rose, with a terrible face, and that guilty hand grasping what was in its breast. Then it was arrested by a cry — a wild, loud, piercing, loving, rapturous cry — and he only saw his own reflection in the glass, and at his knees, his daughter!

Yes. His daughter! Look at her! Look here! Down upon the ground, clinging to him, calling to him, folding her hands, praying to him.

“Papa! Dearest Papa! Pardon me, forgive me! I have come back to ask forgiveness on my knees. I never can be happy more, without it!”

Unchanged still. Of all the world, unchanged. Raising the same face to his, as on that miserable night. Asking his forgiveness!

“Dear Papa, oh don’t look strangely on me! I never meant to leave you. I never thought of it, before or afterwards. I was frightened when I went away, and could not think. Papa, dear, I am changed. I am penitent. I know my fault. I know my duty better now. Papa, don’t cast me off, or I shall die!”

He tottered to his chair. He felt her draw his arms about her neck; he felt her put her own round his; he felt her kisses on his face; he felt her wet cheek laid against his own; he felt — oh, how deeply! — all that he had done. . . .

As she clung closer to him, in another burst of tears, he kissed her on her lips, and, lifting up his eyes, said, “Oh my God, forgive me, for I need it very much!”

With that he dropped his head again, lamenting over and caressing her, and there was not a sound in all the house for a long, long time; they remaining clasped in one another’s arms, in the glorious sunshine that had crept in with Florence. [Chapter LIX, "Retribution," 341-342]

Commentary

Four years later, in illustrating the British Household Edition for Chapman and Hall, Fred Barnard choose exactly the same moment for one of his final illustrations. For the Victorian reader a thorough reconciliation between father and daughter would have been absolutely mandatory for a suitably sentimental closure.

The firm's creditors have generously left Mr. Dombey his chief personal asset, his London mansion, but the servants have decamped, fearing they would not be paid. Only the faithful Miss Tox sees to Mr. Dombey's needs. Left alone for so many hours and confronted by his gaunt image in the mirror, he begins to realize how he has mistreated Florence, and how she was faithful to him despite his neglect. He considers whether he should leave the house and put it up for rent. In despair at the loss of both his son and daughter, Dombey contemplates suicide, and then he hears steps in the next room: Florence has returned from abroad. Ironically, as in Sheppard's illustration, it is she, the ever-dutiful daughter and now a mother herself, who has come to beg forgiveness immediately after arriving home with Walter and their young son, whom she has named "Paul." As she begs him to forgive both her and Walter, Dombey exclaims that he is the one who needs to be forgiven. Dombey and Florence leave the house together, leaving Miss Tox and Polly Toodle ("Mrs. Richards") to pack up his last few remaining possessions.

This then is the context of the present illustration, in which a gaunt and disoriented Dombey clings to the grownup daughter whom he has so grievously wronged. Sheppard intimates that the room in which Dombey has been camping out is a mess. The bookshelves are utterly empty, the books surrendered by the conscientious owner to the creditors. An interesting aspect of Sheppard's interpretation is the apparent blindness of Dombey, which the text does not support, although Dickens describes Dombey, bereft of family and servants, as an object or thing rather than a person. Distraught, Florence struggles to embrace him.

Relevant Illustrations from Other Editions (1848, 1877, and 1910)

Left: Phiz's depiction of a much chastened Mr. Dombey reunited with Florence: "Let him remember it in that room, years to come!" (April 1848). Centre: Fred Barnard brings the story of Dombey and Daughter with a scene of mutual forgiveness: "Oh, my God, forgive me, for I need it very much!" (1877). Right: Harry Furniss downplays the maudlin scene by thrusting Florence ad her infant well into the background: Mr. Dombey's Repentance (1910).

Related Material, including Other Illustrated Editions of Dombey and Son (1846-1910)

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. L. Sheppard. The Household Edition. 18 vols. New York: Harper & Co., 1873.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 55 vols. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862. Vols. 1-4.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr., and engraved by A. V. S. Anthony. 14 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867. III.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard [62 composite wood-block engravings]. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son. With illustrations by H. K. Browne. The illustrated library Edition. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, c. 1880. II.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. 61 wood-engravings. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1877. XV.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by W. H. C. Groome. London and Glasgow, 1900, rpt. 1934. 2 vols. in one.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. 18 vols. London: Educational Book, 1910. Vol. IX.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). 8 coloured plates. London and Edinburgh: Caxton and Ballantyne, Hanson, 1910.

__________. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"). The Clarendon Edition, ed. Alan Horsman. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.

Created 3 March 2022