'David Copperfield' is a novel of "Passionate jealousy
sniveling hypocrisy cold hearted fraud, sexual degradation, selfish
exploitation and much more; but the final impression is one of joy
tempered and mellowed wisdom" Discuss.
David Copperfield is probably one of the most successful novels of all time. I believe
it has inspired many readers to a full life with great success. The novel itself is so
real that it has even been said to be 'more real than life' I am one of those who agree
and I will try and explain why in the following essay . The terms used to describe David
Copperfield in the question are all very true in their own respect. This is basically
because Dickens chose to write about life and in life all these terms apply.
By the time that Dickens began writing David Copperfield he was already a profound
author with great popularity. I believe he wanted to portray life as best he could, he
wanted to show what life was to him: and what better way than a biography closely related
to Dickens himself. We could call it a 'Novel of personal memory' but we have to keep in
mind the full original title: 'The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and
Observation of David Copperfield, the Younger, of Bluderstone Rookery. (Which he never
meant to published on any account.) This complete title strongly suggests that this is
one man's story written for himself. It was also supposed to 'never have been published
on any account.' Later in chap 42 this condition is repeated: 'this manuscript is
intended for no eyes but mine.' Of course this is part of the fiction, after all we are
reading David's story ourselves when we reach this sentence. What is David Copperfield
about? I pose myself this question to help illustrate how much of an autobi
ography this book really is, the simplest answer is of course that it is about David
Copperfield himself and his development as a man. Although after having read several
biography's done on the author Charles Dickens, I was led to believe that this book is
very near Dickens own life, for example his father, John Dickens does seem to have been a
warm and pleasant father, but his lack of responsibility, especially with money, later
led his family into serious difficulties. This is very much like Mr.Micawber. Infact his
unhappy loves in life were portrayed also, similarly he wanted to become a journalist and
later as David Copperfield a well-known author.
Referring back to the discussion title I'd like to give a few examples that show how the
terms applied actually relate to the novel. 'Passionate jealousy,' this can be seen
majorly in Uriah Heep who throughout the entire novel displays a strong jealousy towards
David. Hidden behind his 'umbleness he despises society and is very disagreeable
therefore he applies to most negative words used in the discussion title. One example of
his jealousy was when he thought that David was trying to steal the love he dreamed of:
Agnes. So Heep forced his own mother to spy on David. Another character who came across
as having passionate jealousy was Ms.Dartle who loved Steerforth dearly all her life even
though he had been cruel to her and even ruined her beautiful face by breaking her nose
when he was younger. When Steerforth fled with lill'Emily, Ms.Dartle took it to heart
that Em'ly had stolen her Steerforth. There was a lot of jealousy from Rosa Dartle's
part.
'Sniveling hypocrisy,' again we see Heep classified under this category but more so
there are two other very evil characters which are very hypocritical: Mr.Creakle, the
cruel headmaster of Salem house school. Initially he is the cruelest most disrespectful
headmaster alive but towards the end of the novel he has turned into a very nice, polite
warden at a jailhouse who has respect even for the greatest criminals such as Heep and
Littimer, Steerforth's despicable servant. Similarly Mr. Murdstone seems at the beginning
to be very polite and a great gentleman; until he gets what he wants! He marries rich
young widowed women whom he slowly destroys with his odious 'firmness'
'Cold-hearted fraud' this is probably the most serious offense that is committed in
David Copperfield because it actually means: trickery or scheme to deceive. In other
words it is a crime, there were only a few occasions where this occurred and mostly they
were to do with Heep: firstly the way the evil and slimy character deceived Mr. Wickfield
accounts on several occasions with the faking of his signature to transfer documents,
once he even managed to take all of Aunt Betsey's money that was supposed to have been
her life savings and 'all' she had. Also under serious offense we see Littimer's name
appearing once again for his robbery to the bank of England, it is even suggested that
both Heep and Littimer were in on things together. But luckily, with the help of Mr. Dick
and the spiritous Miss. Mowcher they are both caught and put into Mr. Creakle's prison.
'Sexual degradation' is also portrayed and again I'd like to step back and point out how
important it is that we understand that these describing terms apply to real life, and
therefore if they come up in Dickens biographical novel, he has been successful in
describing how 'real' life is like. Mainly the characters who acted with sexual
degradation are: Steerforth towards Emily by lying to her and basically tearing her away
from her home, and Murdstone towards David's mother.
'Selfish exploitation' is done by quite a lot of characters mainly: Steerforth-thinks
he's at the top, Heep-disguised beneath his 'umbleness he's actually very conceited, Jack
Maldon-the way he thinks only of himself and takes full advantage of Doctor Strong's
caring heart, the Old Soldier (Annie's mother)-again taking selfish advantage of Doctor
Strong, and lastly Mr. Murdstone-thinking only for what's best for him; he even abandoned
David to his Aunt Betsey whom was a complete stranger for him, just because he wanted to
get poor David out of his life. Would an unselfish step-father do that?
The initial title also says that: 'the final impression is one of joy tempered and
mellowed with wisdom.' This is very true and it is what has given this book the success
that it has: when we begin to read David Copperfield we start to feel as if the bad luck
is all happening to him, his mother re-marries a cruel man, he goes to an awful school,
his mother, he has to work unfairly ect... Steerforth's servant Littimer once calls
David 'young innocence' (chapter 32). This name is appropriate. David is sensitive,
honest and loving as a child, and remains so all his life. He is intelligent and
observant, but he learns the harder facts of life very slowly. That is why we can say all
those describing terms about this novel are correct and that is why we can say it ends
marvellously with great expected achievment from david. In fact, also because it was
written as a series rather than a novel, Dickens manages to settle everything left
hanging between characters, in the last chapter. So in conclusion I can say that
I profoundly agree with the initial statement because it properly describes this
masterpiece of life.
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