Dr. Ann Featherstone explains, “…When [Dickens] describes the dog’s appearance on playbills and having witnessed his performance at a theatre in a Yorkshire town, it is clear that the Traveller is no stranger to dog-drama (‘The Uncommercial Traveller’)…”

Catherine Burgass writes, “The use of animal metaphors for mechanical or human subjects is a common literary trope. The figurative richness of Dickens’ prose means that such metaphors are extended and expanded in his perennial project to highlight the plight of the underdog...”