Skip to main content

How is Charles Dickens' David Copperfield a story about growing up?

One of the best ways you can tell that this is a story about growing up is by reading the first sentence, which I think is one of the best openings in all of literature.



Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. 



Don’t we all want to be the heroes of our own lives?  That would be the idea, wouldn’t it?  This sentence really demonstrates Dickens’ idealism and mindset when he wrote this book.  Dickens was obsessed with childhood.  Many of his books have child protagonists, and he was one of the first novelists to focus on growing up.  In David Copperfield, we follow David from a miserable childhood to a fairly successful adulthood, but not without some bumps in the road.


First of all, growing up in a Dickens book usually means you will lose one or both parents.  David lost both.  His father died, and then his mother remarried a horrible stepfather who sent him away to a horrible school, and then his mother died.  David’s mother was weak, mentally and physically.  He never had much of a relationship with her.


There are always also going to be colorful characters in the child’s life.  In this case, there is Pegotty, David’s nurse.  She takes care of him when he is young and stays an important figure in his life.  Her family is also important to him, meaning Dan, Ham, and Em’ly.  David learns about morality through what happens to Em’ly, when a man he looked up to as a friend since childhood, Steerforth, betrays her.


Micawber is another interesting influence in David’s journey to growing up.  I think from Micawber, David learned to manage money carefully.  Micawber didn’t.  He was always waiting for something to turn up.  He was endlessly optimistic and blatantly unluckily and irresponsible.  Betsy Trotwood, David’s great-aunt, was kind to him and supported him well.


This leaves Dora and Agnes.  Part of growing up is learning about the opposite sex.  David had some issues in that area.  He fell head over heels in love with Dora, but while she was pretty and silly, she was also weak and died young.  Agnes was everything Dora was not.  She was steadfast and true, and David married her after Dora died.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more