David Copperfield

The journey toward maturity does not come easily for David Copperfield, as he navigates issues of identity and belonging, education and vocation, and romantic relationships. As David processes these struggles, he frequently turns to other characters as behavioral models, including his friends Tommy Traddles, Mr. Micawber, Dr. Strong, and his Aunt Betsey.

Throughout his childhood, David battles the sensation that he doesn’t belong (often with good reason). When his mother marries the fierce disciplinarian Mr. Murdstone, David lives in fear of being beaten for even the slightest misstep. When Mr. Murdstone sends David away to work in a London counting house, David worries he doesn’t fit in with the uneducated, poor boys there. David’s long, difficult journey from London to Miss Betsey’s is also a metaphorical search for the right life path. David’s warm acceptance into Miss Betsey’s home and Dr. Strong’s school are his first steps toward the right life path.

David embarks on many different careers throughout the novel, including childhood factory work, an internship to become a proctor, secretarial work for Dr. Strong, and, finally, work as a professional fiction writer. Traddles has similar vocational challenges, spending many years in poverty as a young, just starting-out lawyer; as does Mr. Micawber, who must embark on numerous moves, job changes, and even debtor’s prison before finding success in Australia. Through these various career shifts, Dickens illustrates that the path toward one’s permanent, life-sustaining vocation is seldom straightforward (and often involves a great deal of self-evaluation).

The path toward a well-balanced marriage is equally fraught for David, especially considering his impractical first choice of Dora Spenlow. David’s is infatuated with her beauty, charm, and other superficial traits that render him—in his Aunt Betsey’s words—“Blind, blind, blind!” (1,178). He finds a complex model for repairing marital strife in Dr. Strong and his young wife Annie, who face a conflict over Annie’s wayward desires for her handsome cousin Jack. Eventually, Mr. Dick mediates a therapeutic conversation between Dr. Strong and Annie, who states, “There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose” (1,542). These words help David understand his own marriage. David also learns from the complicated, mixed role model of his Aunt Betsey, who appears confident and self-assured, but is secretly married to a vagabond who financially exploits her. Dickens emphasizes that even the strongest people falter on the path toward unity “of mind and purpose.”

When David ultimately establishes a balanced relationship in his second marriage with Agnes, he finds a literal home and attains a culmination to his arduous journey. By the end of the novel, he has attained emotional—and narrative—maturity.

Like many of Dickens’ previous novels, David Copperfield examines the overlapping struggles of women and the lower class. Through the challenges faced by Clara Copperfield, Martha Endell, Little Em’ly, and the Micawbers, Dickens exposes many of the sexist and classist prejudices that defined Victorian English society.

Dickens uses the troubled second marriage of David’s mother to examine the financial and social vulnerability of young widows. He illustrates the ways in which Mr. Murdstone takes advantage of her financial desperation and naiveté, asserting his harsh views, forcing her to witness him beating her son arbitrarily, and bringing his sister into the household to help maintain psychological control. Furthermore, Mr. Murdstone marries another young widow after Clara’s death, repeating the same abusive cycle.

The linked plights of Martha and Little Em’ly—the novel’s two “fallen women’’—exemplify unjust Victorian attitudes toward female sexuality. Even though Martha and Little Emily are misled, used, and ultimately abandoned by men they were romantically attracted to, the community blames these women. With her cruel rages against Little Em’ly, Rosa Dartle serves as a mouthpiece for Victorian society, denouncing her as fallen and refusing to acknowledge Steerforth’s role:

I would have her branded on the face, dressed in rags, and cast out in the streets to starve. If I had the power to sit in judgment on her, I would see it done. See it done? I would do it! I detest her. If I ever could reproach her with her infamous condition, I would go anywhere to do so. (1,104)

Misplaced blame also highlights the injustice of the punitive debt system that psychologically imprisons Mr. Micawber’s family even when he is not physically in debtor’s prison. Hounded by collectors for debts he is unable to pay, Mr. Micawber must constantly relocate and change jobs. At a particularly dire moment, authorities seize Mr. Micawber’s meager assets, and David must work in cooperation with Peggotty to buy them back.

This kind of loving redemption through the support of friends and family is a lifeline for these struggling characters. The cooperative efforts of Traddles, Peggotty, and David continually save Mr. Micawber from losing all his resources. Little Em’ly is saved from turning to prostitution for survival when Martha assists Mr. Peggotty in her recovery. The novel stresses, however, that despite this support, the Micawbers, Martha, and Little Em’ly can only truly redeem themselves by emigrating to Australia. Though these characters find success and happiness there, they could not thrive in England under the harsh dictates of Victorian society.