David Copperfield novel: Encyclopedia II - David Copperfield novel - Story

David Copperfield novel - Story

The story is that of the growth of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity. David's father dies before he is born, and he is ill-treated by his cruel stepfather, Mr. Murdstone. He is sent to a private school, Salem House, with a ruthless headmaster, Mr Creakle. Here he befriends James Steerforth and Tommy Traddles, who in true Dickens style leave and then reappear in the later part of the novel. When David's beloved mother dies of the emotional torture inflicted on herself and her son by Mr. Murdstone and his sister (Miss Murdstone), Mr. Murdstone sends him to work in the factory which he owns. The grim reality of hand-to-mouth factory existence echoes Dickens's own travails in a blacking factory. David escapes the factory by walking all the way from London to Dover, to find his only known relative - his eccentric Aunt Betsy Trotwood - who agrees to bring him up, if only to thwart the evil Murdstones. David's aunt renames him Trotwood Copperfield, and for the rest of the novel the hero is called by either name. One effect of this double-naming is to divide the secondary characters according to when and through whom they got to know him.

The story follows David as he grows to adulthood, and the novel is enlivened by the many (now) well-known characters who enter and leave and re-enter his life. These include: his faithful nurse, Peggotty, her family, and the orphan Little Em'ly who lives with them and charms the young David; his self-serving schoolfriend, Steerforth, who seduces and dishonours Little Em'ly, triggering the novel's greatest tragedy; and his landlord's daughter and ideal "angel in the house," Agnes Wickfield, who becomes his confidante. The two most familiar characters are David's sometime mentor, the constantly in debt Mr. Wilkins Micawber, and David's enemy, the devious and fraudulent clerk, Uriah Heep, whose misdeeds are eventually discovered with Micawber's assistance. Micawber is painted as a sympathetic character, even as the author deplores his financial improvidence; and Micawber, like Dickens's own father, is briefly imprisoned for indebtedness. In classic Dickens style, the major characters get some measure of what they deserve, and few narrative threads are left hanging. David first marries the beautiful but empty-headed Dora Spenlow, but she dies early in their marriage, enabling David to do some soul-searching and eventually to marry and find true happiness with Agnes, who had secretly always loved him.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Story", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki