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in the 1830s when approximately one hundred were elected to the first reform-focused
Parliament in England.
At the core of this philosophy was the belief in "the greatest happiness for the greatest
number," a phrase borrowed from Joseph Priestley, a late eighteenth-century Unitarian
theologian, which appeared in Bentham's Introduction to the Principles of Morals and
Legislation. In Victorian People and Ideas, Richard D. Altick explains:
utilitarianism was wholly hedonistic; it made no allowance for the promptings of
conscience, or for the forces of generosity, mercy, compassion, selfsacrifice, love.
Benthamite ethics had nothing to do with Christian morality.
At the heart of this belief was the supposition that self-interest should be one's primary
concern and that happiness could be attained by avoiding pain and seeking pleasure,
qualities that emerge in James Steerforth's character.
Evangelicalism
Another important middle-class movement in the nineteenth century was evangelicalism,
a form of Protestant pietism. Evangelicalism focused less on doctrine and more on the
day-to-day lives and eventual salvation of its followers. It set rigid patterns of conduct for
its practitioners to follow in order that they might find atonement for their sins. Altick
notes that "the Evangelical's anxious eye was forever fixed upon the eternal microscope
which searched for every moral blemish and reported every motion of the soul." Edward
Murdstone and his sister's treatment of David provides good examples of this type of
rigid, moralistic code.
Both utilitarian and evangelical movements, however, are also noted for their
involvement in humanitarian activities during the Victorian period and especially for their
calls for social reforms. Benthamites supported universal suffrage and education while
the evangelicals successfully fought for amelioration of brutal prison conditions.
A Victorian Woman's Place
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women (like men) were confined to the
classes in which they were born, unless their fathers or husbands moved up or down in
the social hierarchy. The strict rules for each social class defined women and determined
their lives. Women in the upper classes had the leisure to become educated; however, like
their counterparts in the lower classes, upper-class women were not expected to think for
themselves and were not often listened to when they did. Urges for independence and
self-determination were suppressed in women from all classes. The strict social morality
of the period demanded that middle-class women and those in classes above exhibit the
standards of polite femininity, culminating in the ideals of marriage and motherhood.
David Copperfield both reenforces (David's mother, Dora) and challenges (Betsey
Trotwood) the period's attitudes toward women. Most female characters, however,
operate within the confines of the middle class. Miss Trotwood's quick mind and
independent spirit is tolerated because she is considered eccentric and is a widow.
Realism
Realism as a movement first appeared in Paris in the early 1800s as an effort to insure
that art would not merely imitate life but would instead be an exact representation of it. In
this sense, realistic works could be considered the literature of truth. Realism became a
popular form of painting, for example in works by Gustave Courbet, and some literature
in the mid-nineteenth century, for example in the novels of Gustave Flaubert. Novelists in
this movement turned away from what they considered the artificiality of romanticism to
a focus on the commonplace in the context of everyday contemporary life. They rejected
idealism and the celebration of the imagination typical of romantic novels and instead
took a serious look at believable characters and their often problematic social
interactions.
In order to accomplish this goal, realist novels focus on the commonplace and eliminate
the unlikely coincidences and excessive emotionalism characteristic of romanticism.
Novelists such as Thomas Hardy discarded traditional sentimental elements as they
chronicled the strengths and weaknesses of ordinary people confronting difficult personal
and social problems. Writers who embraced realism use setting and plot details that
reflect their characters' daily lives and realistic dialogue that replicates as far as possible
the natural speech patterns of individuals in various classes.
One realistic part of David Copperfield is Dickens's portrait of the harsh conditions in
London among the lower classes. Dickens was one of the first to chronicle in his fiction
the monotonous, harsh, and sordid life of this group of people. Some scholars, however,
determine that the endings of his novels, including the ending of David Copperfield,
follow the romantic tradition.