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 fiancĂ©, 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
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