Dombey’s residence, which provides the setting for much of the domestic action throughout the novel, also becomes a metaphor for Florence’s state of mind and feelings of separation from her father. While it was customary in the abodes of upper and upper-middle class Victorian families for the children and the nurses who tended to them to reside on the top floors of the house, the distance between the Florence’s room and the main house symbolizes the emotional distance of her father. As Paul grows up, Dombey often takes Paul into his study with him, a physical closeness never afforded to Florence. After Paul’s death, Dickens uses metaphorical language to describe the house as decaying under a magical spell, symbolizing Florence’s sense of separation and mourning as if she were a fairy tale princess locked away in a tower: “No magic dwelling-place in magic story, shut up in the heart of a thick wood, was ever more solitary and deserted to the fancy, than was her father’s mansion in its grim reality, as it stood lowering on the street” (304). Despite the grandness of their home, Florence’s experiences of neglect and cruelty from her father render it a desolate and loveless place.

The refurbishment the house undergoes before Dombey’s marriage, which is done to please Mrs. Skewton more than Edith, symbolizes Florence’s hopes for a new home with two loving parents. When these hopes are dashed, the beautiful house is even more a prison for Florence, marked by her increasing loneliness. The stripping and sale of the furnishings when Dombey goes bankrupt symbolizes all that he has lost. As he looks around his barren parlor, he remembers the neglect and harshness with which he treated Florence. When the house is later sold and Dombey moves in with Florence, it symbolizes a new beginning, as he leaves his old life and his former character behind.