If you wanted to give a different ending to the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, what would it be and why?

What has always bothered me about David Copperfield is that it is too idealistic. Dickens presents a picture of David marrying a girl who is really all wrong for him, but then David is released from the situation when she dies in childbirth. Dora is immortalized as the perfect young beauty. It always seemed to me that Dickens just dispatched the wrong girl so that David could rectify his mistake and marry the girl he should have married in the first place, Agnes.

In Victorian times, divorce was not an option. It would have been scandalous. David marries the silly, pretty Dora Spenlow because he is infatuated with her. It is not a deep love. He has more of a connection with Agnes. Yet Agnes is not the stunning beauty that Dora is, so he doesn’t see it. He marries Dora. Then when Dora dies, he goes and marries the more comfortable Agnes.

David did love Dora, in his own way. He says she captured him.

I heard a voice say, 'Mr. Copperfield, my daughter Dora, and my daughter Dora's confidential friend!' It was, no doubt, Mr. Spenlow's voice, but I didn't know it, and I didn't care whose it was. All was over in a moment. I had fulfilled my destiny. I was a captive and a slave. I loved Dora Spenlow to distraction! (Ch. 26)

However, she frustrated him too. She could not keep house, and she was very weak. This is why Dickens has her die in childbirth, as David’s own mother did. This is somewhat poetic, even though it is sad. David came full circle, marrying his mother. Freud would have something to say about that.

When Dora dies, David moves on to Agnes Wickfield. Agnes is everything Dora is not. She is intelligent, compassionate, and motherly. She is the perfect girl for the needy David. Yet she seems like his second choice, because he had already married Dora.

I was never unmindful of Agnes, and she never left that sanctuary in my thoughts ... I loved her none the less; I thought of her as the same benignant, gentle angel in my life… (Ch. 28)

If David had married Agnes to begin with, it would have been a marriage of comfort and friendship as well as love. The entire situation with Dora is unrealistic. I think that this different ending would make the book less dramatic, but more satisfying.

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 ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

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