Mediating Reality Through a Child’s Eyes: David Copperfield

David Copperfield is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens, first

published as a series in 1849–50, and as a book in 1850. The novel held
a special place in Dickens’s heart. In the preface to the 1867 edition,
Dickens wrote, “like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a
favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield.”1:
The book is most notable for its childhood chapters, “an
enchanting vein which he had never quite found before and which he
was never to find again,” according to the critic Edmund Wilson. It incorporates material
from the autobiography he had recently begun but soon abandoned and is written in the first
person, a new technique for him. Dickens relates early personal experiences that had great
significance to him— David’s account of his childhood ordeal working in his stepfather’s
warehouse, and his training as a journalist and parliamentary reporter certainly represents
Dickens’s own life experience.
A complex exploration of psychological development, David Copperfield succeeds
to combine fairy tale elements with the open-ended form of the Bildungsroman.2
The fatherless child’s idyllic infancy is put to an end by the patriarchal “firmness” of
his stepfather, Mr. Murdstone. David’s suffering is traced through early childhood years, his
marriage to the childish Dora, and his assumption of a mature middle-class identity as he
finally learns to tame his “undisciplined heart”.
But Copperfield is foremost a novel about memory. Amidst the tumultuous rise and
fall of the London cityscape (obsessively cataloged in the novel), Copperfield’s memory
preserves the links to his past and brings continuity and coherence to his life while the
sudden recollection of the past charges the present with meaning. David narrates his story as
an adult, relaying the impressions he had from a youthful point of view. It is easy to remark
how David’s perception of the world deepens as he comes of age. We see David’s initial
innocence in contrast with his interpretation of events and our own understanding of them. In
David’s first-person narration, Dickens conveys the wisdom of the older man through the
eyes of a child. David’s complex character allows for contradiction and development over
the course of the novel.
 Though David is trusting and kind, he also has moments of cruelty, like the scene in
which he intentionally distresses Mr. Dick by explaining Miss Betsey’s dire situation to him.
David displays great tenderness – his main character trait, as in the moment when he realizes his
love for Agnes for the first time. David, especially as a young man in love, can be foolish and
romantic. As he grows up, however, he develops a more mature point of view and searches for a
lover who will challenge him and help him grow. David fully matures as an adult when he
expresses the sentiment that he values Agnes’s calm tranquil over all else in his life.
As the title of the first chapter announces, “I Am Born” The beginning of the novel
starts where any really complete account of someone's life begins, at the main character's birth.
David is born to a young widow, Mrs. Copperfield. Already in the first chapter, we can see that
David has been born into a fractured family. His father has died and his great-aunt refuses to be
his godmother because David is a boy instead of a girl. His mother is childlike and easily
wounded, therefore not a strong parent figure.3 The drama of David suffering starts with the
day of his birth, he was born on Friday at night and it is designed by the women of the
village that he would be unlucky in life, as is prove when Dickens affirms this in the first
chapter of the novel:

In consideration to the day and hours of my birth, it was declared by the nurse and by
some sage women in the neighbourhood who had taken a lively interest in me several
months before there was any possibility of our becoming personally acquainted, first, that
I was destined to be unlucky in life. (“David Copperfield”, Ch. I, p.3)

From this quote, it becomes obvious that David's suffering could be led by the early
beginning of his life when the old woman in the village stated that the baby was born on
Friday, thus unfortunate in his future life. However, David was born with a membrane that
covers the head of infant that means he would be fortunate in life (Dickens 736). As a small
boy, David had to live without his father, ‘My father's eyes had closed upon the light of this
world six Months, when mine opened on it’. (“David Copperfield”, Ch. I, p.)
Unusual relationships rather than happy marriages are experienced by young David
from childhood. His mother’s second marriage proves as miserable and she soon she dies
leaving her son entirely helpless. The unwanted child is intentionally neglected. Therefore,
he will confront many obstacles and difficulties that will reduce his happiness and make him
suffer in his life. The child is dependent upon adults who tend to misunderstand him.
David's family life starts out precariously when a dark-haired, handsome, stern
gentleman enters his mother's life. This is Mr. Murdstone, and David is the last to know that Mr.
Murdstone has designs on David's mother. David is sent away to visit his housekeeper's family
for two weeks, and when he comes back, his mom is married. David’s stepfather brings his sister
into the house, a strict person no colder nor warmer than Mr. Murdstone, who only contributes to
treating David cruelly.
During one beating that David has to endure, he bites Mr. Murdstone’s hand and is sent
away for school, where the youngster is put through very raucous conditions, completely
inappropriate for a child. Peggotty takes David to visit her family in Yarmouth, where David
meets Peggotty’s brother, Mr. Peggotty, and his two adopted children, Ham and Little Em’ly.
Mr. Peggotty’s family lives in a boat turned upside down—a space they share with Mrs.
Gummidge, the widowed wife of Mr. Peggotty’s brother. After this visit, David attends school at
Salem House, which is run by Mr. Creakle. David befriends and idolizes an egotistical young
man named James Steerforth.
David spends three months in Salem House unhappy, but the worst thing being the sign
that he had to wear round his neck engraved with “take care of him, he bites”. David expresses
the suffering that he feels about the placard as he said in:

What I suffered from that placard, nobody can imagine. Whether it was possible
for people to see me or not, I always fancied that somebody was reading it. It was no
relief to turn round and find nobody... a cruel man with the wooden leg, aggravated my
sufferings. He was in authority; and if he ever saw me leaning against a tree, or a wall,
or the house he roared out from his lodge – door in a stupendous voice, “hello, you sir!
You, Copperfield! Show that badge conspicuous, or I will report you! (…) that everybody,
in a word, who came backwards and forwards to the house of a morning when I was
ordered to walk there, read that I was to be taken care of, for I bit. (David Copperfield,
Ch. V, p. 68)

Although David keeps rolling through this circle of pure torture, he is patient and
expresses the benefit that he got from this school with all the obstacles that he faces there, from a
mature point of view:

In a school carried on by sheer cruelty, whether it is presided over by a dunce or not,

there is not likely to be much learnt I believe our boys were, generally, as ignorant a set
as any schoolboy in existence; they were too much troubled and knocked about to learn;
they could no more do that to advantage, than anyone can do anything to advantage in
a life of constant misfortune, torment, and worry. (David Copperfield, Ch. VII, p. 80)
 There is a power and authority in the adult world which tries to impose its standards and
values upon the child to such an extent that happiness in childhood is rare, brief and precarious.
It is in his loneliness, his sufferings and his vulnerability in a world he cannot understand or
control that one of the most important strands of Dickens 's conception of the child is found.
However, memory also proves to be a source of anguish.

“I now approach a period of my life, which I can never lose the remembrance of, while
I remember anything; and the recollection of which has often, without my invocation,
come before me like a ghost, and haunted happier times.”

David’s mother passes away and he returns home, only to be neglected as well as
mistreated by the Murdstones. He works at Mr. Murdstone’s wine-bottling business and moves
in with Mr. Micawber, who mismanages his finances. Mr. Micawber leaves London to escape
his creditors and David is left alone, so he decides to seek help from his father’s sister, Miss
Betsey Trotwood, his only living relative. She takes him in on the advice of her mentally
unstable friend, Mr. Dick and takes David under her wing. Miss Betsey sends David to a school
run by a man named Doctor Strong. David moves in with Mr. Wickfield and his daughter,
Agnes, while he attends school and they become best friends. Among Wickfield’s boarders is
Uriah Heep, a snakelike young man who often involves himself in matters that are none of his
business.
David graduates and goes to Yarmouth to visit Peggotty, who is now married to Mr.
Barkis, the carrier. David reflects on what profession he should pursue. This is the moment when
the novel is no longer viewed from a juvenile perspective. As argumented, one of the main
stakeholders that the characters’ personalities revolve around is childhood. Flowers represent
simplicity and innocence. For example, Steerforth nicknames David “Daisy” because David is
naive. David brings Dora flowers on her birthday, so Dora forever paints flowers on her little
canvas.
When David returns to the Wickfields’ house and the Heeps leave, he discovers that
the old flowers are in the room, which indicates that the room has been returned to its previous
state of simplicity and innocence. In each of these cases, flowers stand as images of rebirth and
health—a significance that points to a springlike quality in characters associated with their
blossoms. Flowers indicate fresh perspective and thought and often recall moments of frivolity
and release.
“Children find everything in nothing, men find nothing in everything.” (Giacomo
Leopardi).4 The perspective that children have on reality – including David Copperfield, might
be juvenile, but it is the richest, most complex, creative and inventive way of thinking. Other
than that, it is also characterized by its high intensity of the effect it has on the kid’s attitude and
future development. This is the moment when we reduce the long, laborious, scientific
explanation to something simple: feelings. As an infant, feelings are much more intense, as they
are being experienced for the very first times, therefore it is likely that childhood memories that
come with strong emotions, planted in the brain of a young, fragile Copperfield, to have
repercussions in what concerns his maturity.

Bibliography:
Source image:
https://www.google.com/search?q=david+copperfield+by+charles+dickens&client=firefox-b-
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=1366&bih=654#imgrc=wnMXW6mzMyZOvM [accesed 27.01.2019]
1
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens [web] in 3 January 2019 availabled at
https://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/novels/david-copperfield/
2
David Copperfield -novel by Dickens article Written By: Jenny Bourne Taylorin 3 January
2019 availabled at https://www.britannica.com/topic/David-Copperfield-novel
3
Shmoop Editorial Team. “David Copperfield Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis.” Shmoop
University, Inc. Last modified November 11, 2008. Accessed January 3, 2019.
https://www.shmoop.com/david-copperfield/rags-to-riches-plot.html.
4
Giacomo. Leopardi, “Zibaldone di pensieri“ https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7255690-
children-find-everything-in-nothing-men-find-nothing-in-everything