The narrator frequently attributes human qualities or the human ability of comprehension to inanimate objects or events, which adds a sense of power and movement to the setting. One example of this occurs in Chapter 31 when Dickens describes the dawn as peeking in through the windows of the church on the morning of Dombey’s wedding to Edith. In this description, the narrator suggests that this single event has the attention of the entire world, not just the people involved in it, reinforcing the momentous nature of the occasion. Paul’s notion that the waves are whispering to him is another example of personification, showing his close attention to the natural world and an interest in death, as the ocean is often referred to as a symbol of eternity or the afterlife.

A device frequently used in Victorian novels, such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre or William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, though much less so in modern writing, is the direct address. This technique may take the form of the narrator directly addressing a character, as Dickens often does to underline a dramatic moment or outline a moral of his story. One example is when the narrator entreats Dombey to realize the error of his ways with his exhortation: “Awake, doomed man!” (579). A variation on the direct address occurs after Paul’s death, when Dombey rejects Florence as she seeks to comfort him and herself. The narrator intones, “Let him remember it in that room, years to come!” (247). Here, the direct address highlights a particular moment for the reader, which serves a purpose in a serialized novel, when a reader will wait several months to see the consequence of that action.