Coursework theme: The analysis of David Copperfielt,by Charles Dickens Introduction

Chapter II. An Analysis and Study of the Works of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
2.1. An analysis by David Copperfilt by Charles Dickens
Social problems is a condition in society that is considered harmful or undesirable by society as a whole, based on existing social values and in respect of which it is believed that amelioration is possible.
In this case, the researcher interested in analyzing one of popular novels, i.e. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, one of the great English novelists of the Victorian era. The researcher is analysis on social problems. She chooses this because it can increases her knowledge and experience about human problems. David Copperfield is partly autobiographical of the life of the writer himself and this novel is often considered to be Dickens’ great novel. Furthermore, there are many kinds of social problems happen in this story.
Then, this research is aimed at finding the kind of social problems happened in David Copperfield. The researcher limits her study only on the social problems occurred in English society in the nineteenth century as shown in the novel. They are gap between social class, poverty, discrimination in education, and unfair treatment in working class.
To give clear description of how this study is conducted the researcher uses literary criticism as her research design in the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. She uses structural approach. Structural approach is an approach that is used to analyze a literary work by interpreting and focusing on the text alone, apart from the author and reader.
Furthermore, in this novel the researcher finds some social problems such as gap between social class, poverty, discrimination in education, and unfair treatment in working class.
Social class is divided into rich and poor. Social class in Victorian period as it described in the novel is still much more strictly divided into rich and poor, we can see the differences of this society or gap between social class by observing their house and position. The rich people in David Copperfield is represented by the Steerforths with their luxurious house and good position in society, so that they can do anything what they like. As a rich woman Mrs. Steerforth is very proud. She never allows Emily to become her daughter-in-law because of their position is different in society. Emily just poor woman and it is impossible if Emily marriage with her sons. Mrs. Steerforth thinks that if Emily marriage with Steerforth it could irretrievably blights her son's career and ruins his prospects. On the contrary, the Micawbers as representative of poor people live in poverty. They stay in a house which is very scantily furnished. Mr. Micawber never has any money to buy food or furniture for his house.
Then, poverty problems in David Copperfield represented by the life of Martha Endell, David Copperfield, and Mr. Micawber. We can know it by observing their dwellings and food. Martha lives in a slum area of London, among the rubbish of the riverside. Her poverty has caused physical and psychological effects for her. David’s dwelling in Murdstone and Grinby’s warehouse, when he is forced to work there by his stepfather, is very bad. The house is dirty and overrun with rats. As a working class boy David is paid very low. Because of this low wage, he eats insufficiently and unsatisfactorily food. Then we can see poverty from Mr. Micawber, who is poor people, but he is very improvident. Poverty makes him always loan money from other peoples, but he never can to pay his debt. One morning, Mr. Micawbers faces to difficulties crisis again because of he cannot pay his debt. He carried over to the King’s Bench Prison in the Borrough.
In this novel the discrimination in education still happen at Salem House School. From Steerforth and Traddles we can see. They are come from different class. James Steerforth, one of student in Salem House who is come from rich family always gets a good treatment and good position in that school. He always gets different service rather than other student who comes
from poor family. He never gets punishment from his wrong. On the contrary, Tommy Traddles who is unlucky boy and come from poor family always get punishment from his headmaster. He always gets bad treatment from him.
Working class consists of adults and children, men and boys. David Copperfield experiences the unpleasant situation, when he is forced to work at warehouse for long hours; it is about twelve hours with low wage, only six shilling a week. These long hours of work and low salary are the most general problems of early industrial working class.
Dickens's masterpieces handled to show respective points as compared with other writers’ works which were created at that time. Moreover, in his book “Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist” (Studies in English Literature chapter 16) an Indian scholar Chaudhuri B.P. (1992) defines Dicken’s works as following: Dickens has a unique position in English literature for his special form of selfexpression in prose, fiction. Dickens’s artistic method, his choice of material and his manner of rendering that material, is Dickens’s style. (p. 32) This article analyses the depiction of orphan hood and the inner world of the orphan hero in the novel “David Copperfield”. As the author himself always said, David Copperfield evoked emotions in him unlike any other work that he created [5]. The initial purpose of Dickens was to write an autobiographical novel; therefore, many events of the novel are similar to his own life. From the research of the novel one can notice exact scenes from the author’s own life, more clearly, the events connected with David’s life at Murdstone and Grinby’s warehouse are quite the same as the years of Dickens in Warren Shoe Factory, with only one difference, the name Mr. Micawber was used instead of Dicken’s father. David also experiences the same difficulties of life and starts working at the early age as his step-father forces him to do this. Dickens successfully illustrates the adversities that orphans experienced and the main drawbacks are embodied in terms of education, social and working class, poverty and etc. Deep analysis shows the similarities between Dicken’s works as Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, particularly in creating the characters and describing events. All of these protagonists witness unfair attitude of society or people surrounding them. On the other hand, they receive help and support from distant relative, in some cases even from a stranger.
Although David’s father dies six months earlier from his birth, David has a happy childhood with his mother, until she marries to a tyrannical and wicked man, at David’s seventh age. After this event he starts to experience a number of hardships, and spends the most of his life struggling to find his place in the world [4, 221]. Alike to novels about orphanhood the hero suffers from the unkind treatment of a stepfather. As an evidence to our words we can take the following lines where the cruel punishments of Mr Murdstone have been described: I caught the hand with which he held me in my mouth, between my teeth, and bit it through. It sets my teeth on edge to think of it. He beat me then, as if he would have beaten me to death. Above all the noise we made, I heard them running up the stairs, and crying out -I heard my mother crying out -and Peggotty. [1,45] After severely beating the poor boy, Mr Murdstone locks the door and leaves David in a very bad condition. The writer describes the sufferings of the child with such vivid images that they seem to be alive in the eyes of the reader. In the descriptions below we can easily witness this: Then he was gone; and the door was locked outside; and I was lying, fevered and hot, and torn, and sore, and raging in my puny way, upon the floor. [1,45] Unfortunately, at the age of nine David becomes completely orphan as his mother dies while giving birth to her baby. From this moment there can be felt how alone and helpless David was, as if there was no one in the world except him. The oppressions of the step father become more and more unbearable. He forces the poor little boy to do hard work having no affection on him. Instead of educating David Mr. Murdstone manipulated him for earning money, as it can be seen in the following passage: I suppose you know, David, that I am not rich. At any rate, you know it now. You have received some considerable education already. Education is costly; and even if it were not, and I could afford it, I am of opinion that it would not be at all advantageous to you be kept at a school. That is before you, is a fight with the world; and the sooner you begin it, the better [ 1,134] Thereby, Mr.Murdstone sends David away to the Murdstone and Grinby's warehouse easily in order to get rid of taking care of an orphan boy, however, after a while, David tries to find way to escape from the factory, where the owners manipulate his hard work in spite of the fact that he was hungry all the time. At least, he runs away to create his own path, his own destiny. The next events in his life are closely connected with his only known relative eccentric and kind-hearted aunt Betsey Trotwood, his great-aunt from his father’s side. David spends several years with his aunt having peaceful life, she even supports him to study in a better school, where he possesses the opportunity of having good education. Analyzes prove that Charles Dickens was able to create another successful novel in the style of a bildungsroman, as “Great expectations”. In “David Copperfield”, as in his other works, we see that the orphan hero did not lose his identity and kept his pure heart, despite the hardships and injustices.
The story is told in the first person by a middle-aged David Copperfield, who is looking back on his life. David is born in Blunderstone, Suffolk, six months after the death of his father, and he is raised by his mother and her devoted housekeeper, Clara Peggotty. As a young child, he spends a few days with Peggotty at the home of her brother, Mr. Peggotty, in Yarmouth, which Mr. Peggotty shares with Ham and Emily, his orphaned nephew and niece, respectively. When the visit ends, David learns that his mother has married the cruel and controlling Mr. Edward Murdstone. That evening Murdstone’s sister also moves in and assumes the management of the household.
One day Mr. Murdstone takes David to his bedroom to beat him, and David bites his hand. After that, the eight-year-old David is sent to a boarding school run by the sadistic Mr. Creakle. There David becomes friends with the kind and steadfast Tommy Traddles and with the charismatic and entitled James Steerforth. Partway through David’s second semester at the school, his mother dies shortly after giving birth to a son, who also perishes. After that, Peggotty is dismissed, and she marries Barkis, who drives a wagon. David is not returned to school, and at the age of 10 he is sent to work at Murdstone’s wine-bottling factory in London. He lodges at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Micawber, a generous couple who are constantly facing financial disaster. Eventually, Mr. Micawber is sent to debtors’ prison, after which David runs away to Dover to find his great-aunt, the self-sufficient Miss Betsey Trotwood, and, on the advice of her simpleminded and good-hearted boarder, Mr. Dick, she takes him in.
Miss Betsey arranges for David to go to a school run by Doctor Strong and to stay with her business manager, Mr. Wickfield, and his daughter, Agnes. Working for Mr. Wickfield is an off-putting teenaged clerk named Uriah Heep. After David completes his schooling, he goes to visit Peggotty. On the way to Yarmouth, David encounters Steerforth, and together they visit Peggotty and Mr. Peggotty. Emily’s engagement to Ham is announced, but she appears interested in Steerforth
After agreeing to Miss Betsey’s idea that he should become a proctor (a type of attorney), David begins an apprenticeship at the London office of Spenlow and Jorkins. He maintains his friendship with Steerforth, though Agnes Wickfield disapproves. He is reacquainted with Uriah Heep, who is about to become Wickfield’s partner and who intends to marry Agnes. One day Spenlow invites David to his home, and David becomes infatuated with Spenlow’s childlike daughter, Dora.
David finds that Traddles is now a boarder with Mr. and Mrs. Micawber. Upon learning that Barkis is on the point of death, he returns to Yarmouth. After Barkis’s funeral, Emily runs away with Steerforth, and Mr. Peggotty vows to find her. David returns to London and becomes engaged to Dora. Miss Betsey unexpectedly arrives with the news that she has been financially ruined as a result of Uriah Heep’s partnership with Wickfield. To add to his income, David begins working for Doctor Strong as a secretary, and at Traddles’s suggestion he starts reporting on parliamentary debates for newspapers; later he also writes fiction.
Uriah Heep hires Mr. Micawber as a clerk. Eventually, David marries Dora. After she suffers a miscarriage, she never regains her strength and she dies. During this time Emily returns to London after being abandoned in Naples by Steerforth. One day Mr. Micawber, in concert with David and Traddles (who is now a lawyer), confronts Uriah Heep with detailed evidence that he has been cheating Wickfield and was responsible for Miss Betsey’s losses; Heep is required to return the money. Plans are then made for Mr. and Mrs. Micawber to join Mr. Peggotty and Emily when they immigrate to Australia to make a fresh start. Ahead of the departure, David goes to Yarmouth to deliver a letter from Emily to Ham, but a dangerous storm arises. Several ships are lost, and one shipwreck occurs close enough to shore that Ham tries to swim out and save the last two survivors. Ham drowns, and, when the body of one of the sailors is washed ashore, it proves to be Steerforth. David spends the next three years in continental Europe, and, when he returns, he marries Agnes.
Analysis
A complex exploration of psychological development, David Copperfield—a favourite of Sigmund Freud—succeeds in combining elements of fairy tale with the open-ended form of the bildungsroman. The fatherless child’s idyllic infancy is abruptly shattered by the patriarchal “firmness” of his stepfather, Mr. Murdstone. David’s suffering is traced through his early years, his marriage to his “child-wife,” Dora, and his assumption of a mature middle-class identity as he finally learns to tame his “undisciplined heart.” The narrative evokes the act of recollection while investigating the nature of memory itself. David’s development is set beside other fatherless sons, while the punitive Mr. Murdstone is counterposed to the carnivalesque Mr. Micawber.
Dickens also probed the anxieties that surround the relationships between class and gender. This is particularly evident in the seduction of working-class Emily by Steerforth and in the designs on the saintly Agnes by Uriah Heep as well as in David’s move from the infantilized sexuality of Dora to the domesticated rationality of Agnes in his own quest for a family.
Notable adaptations of David Copperfield included a 1935 film starring Freddie Bartholomew, Basil Rathbone, Lionel Barrymore, and W.C. Fields; a 1970 British television movie featuring performances by Ron Moody, Ralph Richardson, Michael Redgrave, and Laurence Olivier; and a well-regarded 1999 BBC miniseries starring Daniel Radcliffe.

2.2. Works by Charles Dickens focused on the works of David Copperfield

Poverty is a recurring feature of Dickens work. The semi-autobiographical David Copperfield describes David's early life in a factory similar to Dickens' own experience. Linked to this is the VIctorian attitude to poverty as symbolised by the workhouses. Dickens was bitterly opposed to such an approach. He highlights this in Oliver Twist and in Scrooge's references to the workhouses in A Christmas Carol
Debt also features heavily in Dickens' work reflecting again his own experiences because of his father's debts. At that time debtors were held in prisons until they could pay off their debts. This could last for years. Examples dealing with this issue would be Mr Micawber in David Copperfield and William Dorrit in Little Dorrit held in the Marshalsea debtors prison.
Dickens was also heavily critical of the excesses of industrialisation and capitalism and the values which they reflected. This can be seen in Martin Chuzzlewit when Martin loses everything in a fraudulent scheme in the USA (Dickens was not a fan of America). Also in the same novel Montague Tigg rises from a ne'er do well to a very successful businessman on the back of a massive fraud.
Dickens was also highly critical of attitudes towards education for example Wackford Squeers master of Dotheboys Hall in Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield's experiences at Salem House at the hands of Mr Creakle and Mr Tungay.
Finally Dickens was heavily critical of the legal system, the most famous example being the case of Jarndyce versus Jarndyce in Bleak House. Other famous lawyers include Spenlow and Jorkins in David Copperfield and Jaggers in Bleak House.