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
Revolution was, Dickens made sure that the public remembered the middle class.
For 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 experience that left a deep and painful impression upon
him. His 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). His
mother was neglectful. Dickens and his wife had ten children before separating bitterly.
And Dickens didn't seem to like being a father any more than being a husband.
In 1863, Dickens experienced a year of tragedy, losing both his mother and his 22-year-
old son Walter, who was stationed in India. His health by this time was beginning to fail,
largely thanks to his insistence on overworking himself. He was still writing prolifically,
and editing All the Year Round, and giving lectures and readings around the United
Kingdom.
The last novel Dickens completed before his death was Our Mutual Friend, which
was finished in 1865. He started work on The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a mystery novel
intended to run in twelve parts. Halfway through, however, Dickens suffered a stroke. He
died at his London home on 9 June 1870, at age 58, and was buried in the Poet's Corner
at Westminster Abbey. Just prior to his death, Dickens had recently performed an
emotional reading of the murder of Nancy in the character of Oliver Twist's Bill Sikes.
Friends 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
The 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, Mrs. Copperfield.
Already in the first chapter, we can see that David has been born into a fractured family.
His father has died and his great-aunt refuses to be his godmother because David is a boy
instead of a girl. And 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. This is Mr.
Murdstone, and David is the last to know that Mr. Murdstone 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. And his room isn't even in the same
place! Now he lives down the hall from his mother. Mr. Murdstone and his awful sister
immediately start scolding David's mother for being too affectionate with her son. They
bully and oppress David, and make him feel like he is the worst boy in the world. All in
all, his family life is going down the tubes.
But of course, things can always get worse. It's not bad enough that the
Murdstones are first verbally and then physically abusive. They send David away to a
terrible boarding school, where he is frequently whipped by his headmaster. And then,
worst of all, David is away from home when his mother and infant baby brother die. At
this point, all ties between David and the Murdstones seem broken. Mr. Murdstone sends
his defenseless ten-year old stepson into London to work in his factory. So now, David is
about as far from a happy family as he can possibly get: he is an orphan living alone in
London, with no future and no prospect for improving his life.
So, David's in a really bad place. He's got nothing to lose, so he risks everything
on a last-ditch effort to befriend his great aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood. David writes to
Peggotty, his old nurse, and finds out that Miss Betsey is living in Dover, which is about
seventy miles from London. David sets out on the road. After a mishap with a thief, he
has to start selling his clothes piece by piece so that he can eat on his way. Finally, he
turns up at his aunt's house, and she takes David in. When the Murdstones come to collect
David, she sends them away with a few words about what jerks they are. So now, David
has a family: a mother figure in Miss Betsey, and a delightful brother figure in her other
ward, Mr. Dick.
It looks like David has been given everything he has ever wanted. But 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
Miss Betsey goes broke, David has enough skills and dedication to support her. No,
David creates his own obstacle to happiness. His affectionate heart leads him to fall in
love with a lady who is completely not right for him, Miss Dora Spenlow. And he's a
stubborn, honorable guy, so he marries her and tries to make it work. We know that he's
had sparks with Agnes Wickfield since around the time he first met her when he was
around 11, but now there's Dora in the way. How will this get resolved? David realizes
that he doesn't want to be married to Dora after he marries her. And he also knows there's
nothing he can do about it. He tries to change her, to make her more serious, but it hurts
her feelings. So he gives up and resigns himself to being as happy as he can be with the
wrong woman. And he's genuinely sad when she starts to get sick and eventually dies.
But and we hate to say this, because it sounds mean it's also convenient that
Dora dies, because it resolves David's plot line. To find his happy ending, David needs to
marry Agnes, 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 Agnes. Even weirder, Dickens makes Dora ask Agnes to marry David while Dora
is on her death bed. So, 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 Agnes, the woman he's meant to be with. The conclusion is
everything that happens after that plot resolution: after David and Agnes marry, they set
up house and Agnes bears David many children. They name one of their children Betsey
Trotwood Copperfield, so Miss Betsey finally gets the goddaughter she was expecting
when David was born. All of David's sons like to fly kites with Mr. Dick. And all is right
with David's world.
3. Setting
Time
19th century (David is born in 1820)
Place
England (Blunderstone, London, Canterbury, Yarmouth, Dover)
Switzerland
Australia
4. Characters
Protagonist
David Copperfield is the main character and narrator of this novel, so he is
definitely our protagonist.
Antagonist
Mr. Murdstone is clearly the enemy of David's early days. Mr. Murdstone horns in
on David's happy, peaceful relationship with his mother. He humiliates David
until he feels stupid, lonely, and isolated from the world.
Uriah Heep gets his claws into nearly everything in this book
Other characters
Tommy Traddles and James Steerforth don't have much to do with each other once
they grow up. But they're both really important to David, and they both know him
from the same period in his life, his awful schooldays at Salem House.
Agnes nurtures an unrequited love for David for many years but never tells him,
helping and advising him through his infatuation and marriage to Dora. After
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 Mr. Spenlow who becomes
David's first wife. She 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 quite happy.
5. Themes
Suffering
Poverty
Youth
Family
Love
Society and Class
Education
6. Symbols
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
 Movies based on David Copperfield

David Copperfield 1969 David Copperfield 1999

David Copperfield 2000 David Copperfield - 1935

Illustration by Hablot Knight Browne from the Cover, first serial edition of 1849
first edition of David Copperfield.

"Agnes Wickfield, David's "David falls for Dora Freddie Bartholomew, the
second wife" Spenlow" first boy who portrays
by Frank Reynolds by Frank Reynolds David Copperfield, in a
"non-silent" movie.