David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens: a summary of the plot

David Copperfield was the novel of which Charles Dickens was most fond among his works, and it is not difficult to see why. It was the first of his novels to be told in the first person, and there are many elements of it that have parallels with his own life. However, it would be a mistake to regard this novel as a hidden autobiography, because there is much in the book that is pure fiction, and it is as such that it should be judged.

The first chapter, dealing with David Copperfield’s own birth, is clearly told from hearsay, but in it we meet one of Dickens’s best female characters, the redoubtable but eccentric Aunt Betsey Trotwood, who comes to help David’s widowed mother at the time of his birth, but who leaves without a word when told that he is a boy and not the girl that she had always assumed he would be.

During his first few years David is blissfully happy with his mother, her maidservant Peggotty, and later with Peggotty’s family who are fishermen who live in a converted upturned boat on the beach at Great Yarmouth. Peggoty’s brother, Daniel Peggotty, looks after the children of his brothers, both lost at sea, and “Young Em’ly” becomes David’s childhood sweetheart.

However, things take a darker turn when David’s mother, who is easily manipulated, is persuaded to marry Mr Murdstone, who moves in together with his sister. The Murdstones are convinced that David has not been properly brought up by his free-spirited and kindly mother and do everything they can to reform his character. He is sent away to school, where his fellow pupils include Tommy Traddles and James Steerforth, for whom David acquires a devoted attachment.

When David’s mother dies in childbirth, he is taken from school and sent to work in the wine warehouse of Murdstone and Grinby. This is a remarkable episode in that the description of the location (by the River Thames) and work involved (pasting labels on bottles) directly parallels the work that the young Charles Dickens was forced to do at a similar age, an experience that scarred him mentally for life and which he told no-one about, not even his wife, except for the strong hints dropped here in “David Copperfield”. These hints were missed entirely by his contemporary readers.

At this juncture we meet another of Dickens’s best-drawn characters, the kind-hearted but always impecunious Mr Micawber, who provides lodgings for David during his time at Murdstone and Grinby. The portrait of Mr Micawber, who tries to support a growing family by borrowing money that he can never pay back, and is eternally optimistic that “something will turn up”, owes a huge amount to Dickens’s recollections of his own father, John Dickens. The two men, one real and the other fictional, both spent a period in a debtors’ prison through their inability to live within their means.

David runs away to Dover, where Betsey Trotwood, David’s only living relative, lives in a cliff-top cottage with Mr Dick, a slow-witted gentleman whom Betsey had rescued from mistreatment by his own family. Betsey reveals the softer side to her character as she takes David under her wing, making sure that he lacks for nothing, despite being a boy. However, she insists on calling him “Trotwood” rather than David.

When the Murdstones come looking for David, they are sent packing by Betsey, being given no more respect than the donkeys that trespass on her lawn.

David is sent to school in Canterbury, where he lodges with Mr Wickfield, who is Betsey’s legal and financial adviser. Mr Wickfield has a level-headed daughter, Agnes, and a clerk, Uriah Heep, who soon develops an abiding mistrust of David, partly because he regards David as his rival in love for Agnes, although Agnes never gives Uriah any encouragement, and David comes to regard her as a sister rather than a potential lover.

Uriah Heep is one of Dickens’s greatest villainous creations. He is secretive and scheming, hiding his true purposes under a cover of obsessive humility. As the story progresses it becomes clear that Uriah has a hold on Mr Wickfield, who turns to drink as Uriah becomes increasingly powerful.

The book contains a number of unlikely coincidences, one of which involves Mr Micawber turning up in Canterbury and happening to spot David at the home of Uriah and his mother, where David had gone in an attempt to try to bridge the gap between himself and Uriah. This brings Micawber into contact with Uriah, which is important for the final working out of the plot.

David visits Yarmouth again, this time accompanied by his old friend Steerforth, but things go disastrously wrong when Steerforth abducts Em’ly. This leads to Daniel Peggotty setting off on a long journey across Europe in search of his niece.

Betsey Trotwood pays a huge sum of money to enable David to train as an articled clerk under Mr Spenlow, whose daughter Dora takes David’s eye. When he announces that he wishes to marry Dora, her father takes great exception, and marriage is only possible after Mr Spenlow’s sudden death.

Betsey suddenly loses all her money under mysterious circumstances, so David has to abandon his aspirations for a legal career. He therefore seeks to better himself by learning shorthand so that he can work as a Parliamentary reporter, which is exactly what Dickens himself did. Like Dickens, David also starts writing stories which gradually attract public notice. While living in London he once again meets Mr Micawber, whose lodger is now Tommy Traddles, David’s old schoolfriend.

When David marries Dora, who proves to have no idea of how to run a household, he takes a small house in the suburbs and finds another close by for Betsey and Mr Dick.

Mr Micawber finds employment with Uriah Heep and slowly begins to unearth Heep’s business practices. Tommy Traddles, who is training to be a lawyer, is eventually able to recover Betsey Trotwood’s money, and Micawber denounces Heep as a villain who is consequently soon arrested for fraud.

David suffers a personal tragedy when Dora dies after a long illness, but he also helps to reunite Em’ly with Daniel Peggotty, who had discovered on his travels that Steerforth abandoned her in Italy and returned to England, as has Em’ly.

In the most dramatic scene of the book a yacht founders in a storm at Yarmouth. Ham Peggotty, Em’ly’s cousin and former fiancé, sets off to rescue the sailors, but is drowned in the attempt, along with the master of the boat who turns out to be Steerforth. The hero and the villain are washed ashore together.

The Micawber family and Em’ly emigrate to Australia. David becomes a successful writer and eventually marries Agnes.

There are many other notable characters in the book who play supporting roles. Among them may be mentioned Barkis, the carrier who uses the young David as his go-between to woo Peggotty, but who proves to be very tight with his money after they are married. There is Creakle, the schoolmaster in the “Wackford Squeers” mould who later retires from teaching and becomes an enlightened magistrate. Also worth a mention is Rosa Dartle, who has been cruelly treated by Steerforth but still loves him with a fierce passion from afar. 

The wealth of characters, plus a number of sub-plots that only touch on the main story in passing, mean that there are long intervals in the book when certain characters disappear from view only to turn up again many pages later. This may be considered a weakness of “David Copperfield” from a modern standpoint, but the characters in question are so well drawn that their re-appearance does not leave the reader trying to remember who they were. Many people, as well as the author, have come to regard “David Copperfield” as their favourite Dickens novel.

© John Welford