David Copperfield

1. Charles Dickens
Dickens became one of the most popular and prolific writers of his time, and he remains
the gold standard of English novelists. Charles Dickens had a keen eye for social
injustice. While everyone else was yammering on about how super the Industrial
evolution was, Dickens made sure that the public remembered the middle class.
!or all of his success, Dickens"s personal life was like something out of a Dickens
novel. Dickens"s cash#strapped parents sent him to work at a boot#blacking factory when
he was just twelve years old, an e$perience that left a deep and painful impression upon
him. %is father was thrown into debtor"s prison, a completely legal practice at that time
when people could not pay their debts &declaring bankruptcy was not an option then'. %is
mother was neglectful. Dickens and his wife had ten children before separating bitterly.
(nd Dickens didn"t seem to like being a father any more than being a husband.
In )*+,, Dickens e$perienced a year of tragedy, losing both his mother and his --#year#
old son Walter, who was stationed in India. %is health by this time was beginning to fail,
largely thanks to his insistence on overworking himself. %e was still writing prolifically,
and editing (ll the .ear ound, and giving lectures and readings around the /nited
0ingdom.
1he last novel Dickens completed before his death was 2ur 3utual !riend, which
was finished in )*+4. %e started work on 1he 3ystery of Edwin Drood, a mystery novel
intended to run in twelve parts. %alfway through, however, Dickens suffered a stroke. %e
died at his 5ondon home on 6 7une )*89, at age 4*, and was buried in the :oet"s Corner
at Westminster (bbey. 7ust prior to his death, Dickens had recently performed an
emotional reading of the murder of ;ancy in the character of 2liver 1wist"s <ill =ikes.
!riends believed that the strain of this reading brought on his stroke and killed him. We
have no way of knowing all the secrets of Dickens"s life, but we know this> up until the
very end, he gave everything he had to his work.
2. Plot
1he beginning of the novel starts where any really complete account of someone"s life
begins, at the main character"s birth. David is born to a young widow, 3rs. Copperfield.
(lready in the first chapter, we can see that David has been born into a fractured family.
%is father has died and his great#aunt refuses to be his godmother because David is a boy
instead of a girl. (nd his mother is childlike and easily wounded> not a strong parent
figure.
David"s family life starts out a little precarious, but things don"t really get wonky
until a dark#haired, handsome, stern gentleman enters his mother"s life. 1his is 3r.
3urdstone, and David is the last to know that 3r. 3urdstone has designs on David"s
mother. Imagine the scene> David is sent away to visit his housekeeper"s family for two
weeks, and when he comes back, his mom"s married. (nd his room isn"t even in the same
place? ;ow he lives down the hall from his mother. 3r. 3urdstone and his awful sister
immediately start scolding David"s mother for being too affectionate with her son. 1hey
bully and oppress David, and make him feel like he is the worst boy in the world. (ll in
all, his family life is going down the tubes.
<ut of course, things can always get worse. It"s not bad enough that the
3urdstones are first verbally and then physically abusive. 1hey send David away to a
terrible boarding school, where he is fre@uently whipped by his headmaster. (nd then,
worst of all, David is away from home when his mother and infant baby brother die. (t
this point, all ties between David and the 3urdstones seem broken. 3r. 3urdstone sends
his defenseless ten#year old stepson into 5ondon to work in his factory. =o now, David is
about as far from a happy family as he can possibly get> he is an orphan living alone in
5ondon, with no future and no prospect for improving his life.
=o, David"s in a really bad place. %e"s got nothing to lose, so he risks everything
on a last#ditch effort to befriend his great aunt, 3iss <etsey 1rotwood. David writes to
:eggotty, his old nurse, and finds out that 3iss <etsey is living in Dover, which is about
seventy miles from 5ondon. David sets out on the road. (fter a mishap with a thief, he
has to start selling his clothes piece by piece so that he can eat on his way. !inally, he
turns up at his aunt"s house, and she takes David in. When the 3urdstones come to collect
David, she sends them away with a few words about what jerks they are. =o now, David
has a family> a mother figure in 3iss <etsey, and a delightful brother figure in her other
ward, 3r. Dick.
It looks like David has been given everything he has ever wanted. <ut we"re only
a third of the way through the novel, so there must be some future disaster waiting that
will prevent David from enjoying his new family. It"s not financial disaster, because when
3iss <etsey goes broke, David has enough skills and dedication to support her. ;o,
David creates his own obstacle to happiness. %is affectionate heart leads him to fall in
love with a lady who is completely not right for him, 3iss Dora =penlow. (nd he"s a
stubborn, honorable guy, so he marries her and tries to make it work. We know that he"s
had sparks with (gnes Wickfield since around the time he first met her when he was
around )), but now there"s Dora in the way. %ow will this get resolvedA David realiBes
that he doesn"t want to be married to Dora after he marries her. (nd he also knows there"s
nothing he can do about it. %e tries to change her, to make her more serious, but it hurts
her feelings. =o he gives up and resigns himself to being as happy as he can be with the
wrong woman. (nd he"s genuinely sad when she starts to get sick and eventually dies.
<ut C and we hate to say this, because it sounds mean C it"s also convenient that
Dora dies, because it resolves David"s plot line. 1o find his happy ending, David needs to
marry (gnes, and Dora is in the way. Dickens does his best to avoid any appearance of
impropriety by sending David to Europe for three years to get over Dora before he moves
on with (gnes. Even weirder, Dickens makes Dora ask (gnes to marry David while Dora
is on her death bed. =o, Dickens is trying to reassure the reader that it"s okay that David is
kind of happy Dora has died so that he can marry the right woman. Even so, it seems
wrong that David"s happy family life has to come literally over Dora"s dead body.
In David"s search for a happy family, the resolution &or denouement, as we like to
put it' comes when he marries (gnes, the woman he"s meant to be with. 1he conclusion is
everything that happens after that plot resolution> after David and (gnes marry, they set
up house and (gnes bears David many children. 1hey name one of their children <etsey
1rotwood Copperfield, so 3iss <etsey finally gets the goddaughter she was e$pecting
when David was born. (ll of David"s sons like to fly kites with 3r. Dick. (nd all is right
with David"s world.
3. Setting
1ime
C )6
th
century &David is born in )*-9'
:lace
England &<lunderstone, 5ondon, Canterbury, .armouth, Dover'
=witBerland
(ustralia
4. Characters
:rotagonist
David Copperfield is the main character and narrator of this novel, so he is
definitely our protagonist.
(ntagonist
Mr. Murdstone is clearly the enemy of David"s early days. 3r. 3urdstone horns in
on David"s happy, peaceful relationship with his mother. %e humiliates David
until he feels stupid, lonely, and isolated from the world.
Uriah Heep gets his claws into nearly everything in this book
2ther characters
Tommy Traddles and James Steerforth don"t have much to do with each other once
they grow up. <ut they"re both really important to David, and they both know him
from the same period in his life, his awful schooldays at =alem %ouse.
Agnes nurtures an unre@uited love for David for many years but never tells him,
helping and advising him through his infatuation and marriage to Dora. (fter
David returns to England, he realises his feelings for her, and she becomes
David"s second wife and mother of their children.
Dora Spenlow is the adorable but foolish daughter of 3r. =penlow who becomes
David"s first wife. =he is described as being completely impractical and has many
similarities to David"s mother. David"s first year of marriage to her is unhappy due
to her ineptitude in managing their household, but after he learns to accept this
failing, they grow to be @uite happy.
5. Themes
=uffering
:overty
.outh
!amily
5ove
=ociety and Class
Education
6. Sm!ols
The sea represents an unknown and powerful force in the lives of the characters in
David Copperfield, and it is almost always connected with death.
Flowers represent simplicity and innocence in David Copperfield
3ovies based on DDavid CopperfieldE
David Copperfield C )6+6 David Copperfield C )666
David Copperfield C -999 David Copperfield # )6,4
Illustration by %ablot 0night <rowne from the
first edition of David Copperfield.
Cover, first serial edition of )*F6
G(gnes Wickfield, David"s
second wifeG
by !rank eynolds
David falls for Dora
Spenlow
by !rank eynolds
!reddie <artholomew, the
first boy who portrays
David Copperfield, in a
Gnon#silentG movie.