Dombey and Son/YMMV

• Double Standard: When Mr. Dombey ignores Florence, it's written in the most heartbreaking terms. When Mrs. Mac Stinger regularly beats her toddler son black and blue, it's Played for Laughs.
• Jerkass Woobie: Mr. Dombey toward the end of the book.
• Les Yay: Susan's almost worshipful feelings for Florence sometimes come across as this, especially when she breaks out the endearments ("my darling"; "the dearest and blessedest angel there ever was"; "my heart's own mistress") or bursts into tears at hearing about Florence's engagement. She even mentions feeling the same way about Florence as Toots does.
• Mind Game Ship: James Carker sees right through Edith and she knows it; he gets a thrill out of manipulating her.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Once they're engaged, Florence and Walter can barely finish a sentence without a "my love", "my own", etc. Toots can barely stand to be in the same room with them.
• The Woobie: Toots! This troper wanted to hug him in every scene. He's mentally handicapped and knows it (remembering a time before), desperately in love with a girl who will never feel the same, borderline suicidal, and still doesn't have an unkind or jealous bone in his body.
  • Paul and Florence.
  • John and harriet Carker.