Suspense is a crucial element in crafting compelling narratives, one that can assume many forms. Alfred Hitchcock describes suspense not as having a bomb thrown at you out of nowhere, but when two people are sitting at a table and the bomb ticks away underneath. Although the audience can see it, the people cannot. In his novel Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens creates mystery and suspense not with a bomb but with a letter. Dombey and Son (1848) follows the life of Florence Dombey as the estranged daughter to a proud businessman. Despite being the owner of his firm, Mr. Dombey is revealed to be less the executive than his manager Mr. Carker who is shrewd and duplicitous. Becoming increasingly wary of Carker, Florence reflects that he has woven a “web” around her, and that she feels powerless to escape it (435). Similar to how Carker has created complex ploys manipulating the house of Dombey, Dickens has also woven a web of plot, introducing new persons and conflicts as major characters mysteriously disappear. Both Carker and Dickens appear to be playing the long game, the overarching question remaining whether Florence and Mr. Dombey will ever reconcile. Similar to how Dickens relies on dramatic irony to create suspense, his construction of scenes thereby reminiscent of a stage play, Mr. Carker is also staging a performance in which he is an actor whilst maneuvering characters into the roles he wishes them to execute. 

Dickens implies Carker’s machinations through the mystery of Walter, from the question of his disappearing ship to Mr. Dombey’s sudden declaration that he be sent away. Florence receives news about the former in a suspicious manner, Carker’s unsettling mannerisms drawing resemblance to an earlier scene. She describes that he tells her there is no news of Walter’s ship “in some extraordinary manner through his smile, instead of uttering them” (386). Dickens not only paints Carker’s character with artifice, but also highlights the idea that he had something to do with Walter’s disappearance. Earlier in the book, right before Mr. Dombey commands Walter to Barbados, Carker plucks letters from Walter’s hand, “[dropping] one on the floor, and did not see what he had done” (197). Mr. Dombey blames Walter, feeling that he had “purposefully selected it from all the rest,” and Mr. Carker’s same ambiguous smile is present here as he encourages Dombey, “his mouth stretched to the utmost” (198). What may initially seem accidental is opposed by Dickens’s pointed language and that the letter happens to be Florence’s writing. Mystery is created on multiple levels because while the reader can recognize what is happening, the characters cannot, and both audience and cast remain unaware of characters’ true motives, allowing Dickens to gradually reveal them. 

Mr. Carker presides over the house of Dombey through carefully orchestrated schemes, but he is also a tool that Dickens uses to bring together different plots and points in time. According to Susan Nipper, Mr. Dombey “leaves all to Mr. Carker, and acts according to Mr. Carker” (435). Although Carker’s ambition is evident, the extent of his ambition and influence remains concealed, just as his background. Moreover, since he wields so much authority and his connections apparently precede the events of the novel as well as drive the present action, he is likely a device for Dickens to synthesize different strands of space and time. In considering the future of the Dombeys, Carker may also be a common enemy that can help reconcile the family. For instance, he is described not only as a player of cards but a “master of all the strong and weak points of the game” with the ability to “know the cards at sight, and work out their combinations in his mind” (329). With Walter, Uncle Sol, and Mr. Dombey all leaving the story midway, this analogy emphasizes how Carker is likely maneuvering these characters, who shift in and out of the narrative like actors traversing stage wings. Ultimately, Dickens leaves his audience with an abundance of questions and suspense that propel the story forward.