DAVID COPPERFIELD, Charles Dickens

David Copperfield was written in the middle of nineteenth century (1849-50). It pictures
middle and lower middle class life in agricultural districts of England and in London, in
terms of keen social and moral clashes. The novel David Copperfield is a fictionalized
autobiography, reflecting aspects of the authors personal experience. From the cultural
point of view, the David Copperfield correspond to the Early Victorian period, which is
characterized by realism. The aim of the early Victorian novel is to represent life as it
really is, to create a fictional world which the reader accepts as real. Both characters and
events were judged by an omniscient narrator who expressed the dominant moral views
of the time. From the historical point of view, the novel David Copperfield was
influenced by the Industrial Revolution, which transformed the social landscape
dramatically. The industrial progress enabled capitalists and manufacturers to collect
great fortunes. As a result, the gap between rich and poor remained wide. Attracted by the
opportunities promised by the technological progress, a great amount of people came
from the rural areas to the cities. This migration overpopulated the already crowded
cities, bringing much more poverty, diseases and hazardous life conditions. Charles
Dickens observed these phenomena of the Industrial Revolution and used them to paint
the novel David Copperfield.