Amidst the controversy related to `the woman question' in the Victorian age, many writers still agreed that women and men were essentially different and ought to complement each other, not compete for equality. This `separate spheres' ideology, derived from Puritan conceptions of marriage and family, was especially popular in mid-19th century, and put an emphasis on home as the only haven from the harsh industrialised world (Oxford Companion to Dickens, 2000:188).

"Of Queen's Gardens" by John Ruskin is the elaborate statement of this ideology, supported by examples from world literature. The domestic ideal as presented by Ruskin is in various ways portrayed and discussed by Dickens in Dombey and Son. In this essay, I am going to look into the parallels between Ruskin's lecture on the role and function of women and the practical representation by Dickens of the character of Florence Dombey. In my opinion, the domestic...