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Home , Autobiographical novel, Copperfield (musical), David Copperfield

DAVID AND Abstract THE : THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO This paper aims to analyze the ways in which employed the CHARLES DICKENS’ S literary genre of the Bildungsroman to 1 REPUTATION depict his ’s life. successfully enhanced 2 Dickens’s reputation and provided a new Sakchai Lunlaporn perspective for readers of Bildungs . There are several features such as illustrations, a first-person narrative, heroism and his association with other characters that make this different from ก other novels in this genre and these literary devices center upon his search for ก กก a true identity and his career. These กก features enliven Dickens’s and contributed to its favourable reception of กกก this novel and they also indicate Dickens’s ability to blend forms and cultivate his ก ก reputation in this novel.

ก ก Introduction กก Of the many beloved characters of Charles กก Dickens, David Copperfield stands high ก because of his life that the portrayal of David’s life adopts the influence of the ก Bildungsroman to illustrate it under the environment of the nineteenth century. Many years after the appearance of David, กกกก people saw in the depiction of this young กกก boy not only the vision of a miserable life that evoked sympathy but also a life that reflected reality to its readers in the Victorian world. David Copperfield and his life story has also appealed to readers in later centuries as the novel allows them to witness life in the nineteenth century and the way in which David struggles to

1 survive in that society. กก กก กก This story of a young boy in search of his 2 (ก ) M.A. Student, Department of identity in circumstances familiar to its English, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn readers’ personal fragmented memories University, Bangkok, Thailand made it more interesting to the serials’

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readership. Dickens’s enthusiasm for many incidents from Dickens’s own portraying heroism remained and David is personal life. This article will examine set to pursue adventures in a world his Dickens’s use of the genre of the readers were acquainted with to ensure Bildungsroman as a device to depict that that they would follow the serialization successfully depicts the life of David with enthusiasm. The ludicrous incidents Copperfield. occurring to David offer to readers the discovery that they themselves are David Copperfield and the “something of a Copperfield themselves”, Victorian Bildungsroman displaying “the value of self-denial and patience, quiet endurance of unavoidable novel ills, strenuous effort against ills remediable” (43). The extent to which Prior to his writing of David David’s story penetrated the market Copperfield, Dickens had already depended much, therefore, on Dickens’s written seven novels that had earned him ability to make his contemporary popular a resounding reception and placed his culture accessible to his readers in the name among Britain’s most famous form of an . writers. David Copperfield employs the influential German form of the When Dickens began writing David Bildungsroman that became an Copperfield in 1849 readers would appropriate device for Dickens’s probably have recognized its author as the intention to write an autobiographical writer of the story of Mr. Esquire and his novel. Generally, the Bildungsroman is, Pickwick Club in according to Penguin Dictionary of (1837) or the story of the poor orphan boy Literary Terms & Literary Theory in (1839). Eventually, he was (1999), the literary device of dealing greatly hailed for the success of David with one person’s, especially the Copperfield (1850) and became more protagonist’s, formative years or successful as a writer. As John Forster, spiritual education. David Copperfield’s Dickens’s close friend and personal Bildung and are biographer put it “Dickens never stood so intermingled together in a form that high in reputation as at the completion of deviates from its original tradition and Copperfield” (Forster 2004: 42). Indeed, from its English early adoption in David Copperfield established Dickens’s Fielding, Sterne and Goldsmith. reputation through the story of the young According to this definition, David is David which is similar to that of young going through the process of learning by Oliver in that they are both young boy trial-and-error in his personal experience whose lives have been as the protagonist who is a Victorian deprived of boyhood happiness by fate. man searching for his true character. However, David is hugely different because he is particularly in search of his With its overt characteristic of a Bildung true identity to become a grown man, novel, Dickens absorbed the general whereas Oliver is simply struggling to notion into his new novel’s title. During survive in circumstances beyond his his search for new ideas for his next control in a cruel society and part of the novel, the decision to write a new novel’s success lies in it employment of came from John Forster’s suggestion to

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him to write from his own life employed or experience. He accepted this advice Phiz, the famous illustrator who had enthusiastically and was at ease writing worked with him many times, to this story simply because many events illustrate two plates for each volume. were from his personal first-hand The serials with two plates of illustration experience. After many attempts at and advertisements were an illustrated finding a suitable name, he eventually Bildungsroman novel. The relationship entitled his new work: The Personal between text and illustrations is strongly History, Adventures, Experience, & connected as Stephen Lutman argues on Observation of David Copperfield the the ground that the tie between text and Younger of Blunderstone . illustrations are strongly bound: (Which He never meant to be Published The illustrations were developed on any Account), later shortened to The during the course of writing the Personal History of David Copperfield, novels, and having grown with indicating what David would have to the text can be described as provide for his readers in his account of having an organic relationship to his self-improvement. Ostensibly, it, rather than the more Dickens chose this epithet for his novel mechanical relationship of in order to lay out the entire story for the illustrations added to a finished protagonist to lead his readers to witness work. (1980: 198) his formation within the Victorian concept of self-development. Another The statement above demonstrates the reason, Dickens wanted to assert the impact of illustrations on the nineteenth point at which this story was going to be century habit of reading with “a syndrome specifically the personal history of of related visual and literary forms of David Copperfield, not Dickens’s own which the novel is a part, rather than the history; even though, readers would find historical oddity of a single collaboration analogous references to Dickens’s between illustrations and ” (197). experiences. Therefore, David is For instance, the apparent clue Phiz used employed to narrate the entire novel by to indicate this process is the depiction of adopting the device of first person David’s legs. In plate four, “The friendly narrative. waiter and I,” David is sitting on a chair with his legs in the air; whereas, in plate Dickens’s insertion of illustrations was, number thirteen, “Somebody turns up,” on the one hand, to give them the Phiz depicts David on a chair at the pleasure of plates as in the other novels; Heeps’ house, this time his legs are longer on the other hand, illustrations worked and are able to reach the table stretcher. with the author’s intention of depicting By the time David reaches his mature David’s self-development. His intention stage, the illustrations of his physical to include illustrations in each volume stature has to be developed accordingly. was to delight his readers in their Phiz thus improved his drawing to depict reading and make the novel recognizable David with changes in his clothes, in the on stalls and in libraries with the general aspect of the Victorian middle illustration of the front cover that was class man. David’s changes in his clothes the same throughout the run in twenty points to the fact that David as the numbers of serialization. Dickens protagonist is moving towards personal

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betterment. The big change in his clothes opening statement that “Whether I shall comes especially during the time he meets turn out to be the hero of my own life, or his aunt with ragged clothes and gets to whether that station will be held by wear new ones after his aunt has accepted anybody else, these pages must show” (1). him into the house. This is the exercise It, first of all, evokes a sense of heroism Dickens conferred on both Phiz and where David has to struggle with the David to preserve David’s middle class dangerous events of his life and conquer status in the illustrations as well as to them. His heroic mantle is simply adopted maintain the mutual relationship between that to permit his audience to witness what the text and illustrations at the same time. he encounters and the way he overcomes it. The subtlety of Phiz in his illustration is Nevertheless, Dickens differentiates his that it can be read complementarily with hero from traditional notions where the hero the text or read separately but never loses belongs to a princely class with touch with the plot of story of the novel. extraordinarily precocious abilities whose Phiz made it clear in his decision to depict occupation is war or dangerous adventure. David’s development in the said two ways Instead Dickens creates David as a hero that illustrations had to conform to the whose background is that of the common market interests that the author cultivated man of the from a middle in this way and the significant relationship class family. The ultimate achievement of to its theme of the protagonist’s David as a hero is to narrate his life-story improvement. and to be capable of self-determination. This expectation is completed by the time Several overt features that emphasize David himself finishes the last chapter of David as the novel of Bildungsroman his book. The general premise of David as a genre are, as well as the illustrations, hero is implied in the statement declaring the notion in novel of heroism and the his personal definition of heroism: “the hero of… pages” (1). In other words, it is seen development in David use of language through this statement that David will and the first-person narrative. Two resolutely pursue his career as a writer and devices contribute to the protagonist because he will complete the searching after his career as a Bildungsroman novel, the final period when along the way of his growing in the he reaches the stage of life as a writer with world. They specifically demonstrate the his wife demonstrating how he has become coherence of David’s appropriateness to a hero in his own way; a hero that brings the become a writer through his recalling his pages to life. The intention of Dickens is to memories in letters. create David by defusing the general qualities of hero and, consequently, David David Copperfield reflects notions of as the novelist in the story becomes the hero heroism in a common man whose main overcoming obstacles to write these pages. task is the quest for his identity. Yet, all In other words, heroism according to the features of the work are in accordance Dickens’s definition is about achieving his with nineteenth-century attitudes and the success in a novelistic career, resulting in employment of the Bildungsroman. This his fantasy of placing himself in a novel does not recount the tale from the position of success that will lead to the perspective of a knight or a person from firm settling of his life in a way that is the noble family but that of a middle class more secure than his previous phases in man. This notion is declared in David’s

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the story. Because, David Copperfield is pursuing a writing career that requires the craft of literary skills, the way he presents his narrative implies, concurrently with his physical development, his developing process of crafting his skills in language.

Figure 1: The friendly waiter and I

Figure 2: Somebody turns up

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As discussed earlier, David emerges as also shows the process of how David is the hero of his story by being authorized learning to master the language through to control the narrative himself and his admission of confusion, as says he establishing his story up to the direction borrows a word from how English is that can contribute to the Bildungs novel. spoken in Scotland. By detecting how he Implicitly, the narrative technique articulates the death of his father, through observes the phases of his growth through associations of words like “closed eyes,” the development of his language. This “grave-stone,” or “churchyard” indicates technique resembles the human process of a reflection of his vague understanding of language acquisition. A child is only death. The separation of the graveyard capable of forming simple sentences which is being “bolted and locked before developing the adult ability to against” (2) in darkness and the living articulate its thoughts with a more world seems to suggest that it is far from complex language structure than children. possible to unite the two worlds together Similarly, the tracing of David use of in his mind. The particular changes in his language is complemented by a narrative are slight and almost serialization that implements the progress unnoticeable at the more mature stage, of David’s growth in one serial, and when however, he subconsciously asserts his the new serial released, David is in confident knowledge of the world as well another phase of his language as the more complex structure of his development. This technique of language language as he speaks of his situation: “I development subtly guides readers to know enough of the world now, to have notice each of his phases as being more almost lost the capacity of being much mature—David himself is conscious of surprised by anything” (149). Implicitly, this as well. As a child, he recalls: David exerts the more important progress of his growth through his understanding I was born at Blunderstone, in of the world because he was only at the , or “thereby,” as they say tender age of ten when he was sent to in Scotland. I was a posthumous explore it. In the last part, the narrative child. My father’s eyes had closed attempts to mark the mature age of about upon the light of this world six twenty-eight: “I could not forget that the months, when mine opened on it. feeling with which she now regarded me There is something strange to me, had grown up in my own free choice and even now, in the reflection that he course” (797). Another phase of David’s never saw me; and something language development is seen when he is stranger yet in the shadowy living with Dora. According to David: remembrance that I have of my first childish associations with his …I will only add, to what I have white grave-stone in the already written of my churchyard, and of the perseverance at this time of my indefinable compassion I used to life, and of a patient and feel for it lying out alone there in continuous energy which then the dark night,…(2) began to be matured within me, and which I know to be the strong This passage demonstrates how David is part of my character, if it have able to construct simple phrases and any strength at all, that there, on sentences as a child. On the other hand, it looking back, I find the source of

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my success…Heaven knows I of mastering a much more complex write this, in no spirit of self- structure of language and to express those laudation…My meaning simply structures in a more sophisticated way. is, that whatever I have tried to do This passage demonstrates his complex in life, I have tried with all my situation and he unravels it into a finely heart to do well… (590) constructed form of language. That Dickens subtly depicts his protagonist’s This paragraph marks the difference in growth through this method suggests his David’s use of language in terms of its own ingenuity. David himself needs to maturity from that which he used when he contribute to both his life and his was a child. The construction of language expected task as a protagonist of this in this paragraph is becoming more novel of growth. The mastery of language complex with the insertion of David’s marks the mental structure of the confidence of his consciousness of life protagonist reaching his maturity when he and his inclination to write his life story— is capable of mastering language in the task fully requires literacy skills. Later preparation for his career of writing. on, we witness another aspect of his eventual ability to master his use of In addition to the subtlety of depicting language. David expresses the sentiment David’s growth through his capacity to that: master language, a notable feature of The knowledge came upon me, David’s story is that it is communicated not quickly, but little by little, and through a first-person narrative grain by grain. The desolate throughout the book. This feature feeling with which I went abroad, implicitly marks the objective of making deepened and widened hourly. At this the story of David himself, and to first was a heavy sense of loss distance the author from intervening in and sorrow, wherein I could David’s story. This enterprise differs from distinguish little else. By that in which divides half of imperceptible degrees, it became the narrative into a first person narrator a hopeless consciousness of all and gives the other half to a third person that I had lost—love, friendship, narrator. It is similar to Great interest; of all that had been Expectations in the sense that David shattered—my first trust, my first Copperfield also relies on Bildungs’ affection, the whole airy castle of conventions and autobiographical my life; of all that remained—a elements. The act of turning these pages ruined blank and waste, lying into equivalent deeds of the hero requires wide around me, unbroken, to the David’s careful attention to blend the dark horizon. (792-3) stories so that they will not confuse his David’s expression reminds readers of his readers. Without any interruptions by a resolution to live the rest of his life as a third person narrator, David can freely grown man who has experienced the recall his story from his childhood and world sufficiently. He is capable of make it his own story. In other words, by penetrating into his own mind better than allowing his protagonist to lead the reader when he was young, and this stage himself through the events in his life story reflects in terms of language complexity implicitly suggests that he is the “hero of that this statement illustrates his capacity his own life” who independently controls

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his life rather than being under the theme of “undisciplined heart” to be author’s influence. David’s first person supplementarily developed by way of works as a consequence of his David gaining experiences. David identity formation. These three points in acquires his social education and moulds generating David maturity contribute to his self through the crucial process of the fact that this is not only a Bildungs trial-and-error. This is the crucial element novel, but the Bildung of a writer. As in the Bildungs novel when he is chasing such, the language technique that Dickens after remedies to his errors when he employed here is distinguished for that allegedly commits mistakes. David’s particular reason. However, there are mistakes can all be categorised under the various ways of reading this novel as a theme of “undisciplined heart,” whether Bildungs novel such as the way David they be mistakes with his friends or learns to grow up and discipline himself lovers. The “undisciplined heart” is a by associating with other characters. heart that represents the inexperienced existence of David who is supposed to In keeping with the Bildung’s general understand and learn from those who have notion, Dickens allows David to learn to experienced lives, and also from his own grow up by facing various dilemmas, experiences. Carl Bandelin states that obstacles, mistakes and conflicts. To David is required to “acquire the ability to “come of age” David inevitably has to set live creatively and humanely in the out on a journey in which difficulties and world” (1976: 601). The first incident that dilemmas are aspects that will shape and marks his misunderstanding over how to improve his character and personality judge people tending to misjudge them by according to the Victorian bourgeois their external presentations is presented to values of self-development. The him by the Murdstones. When the Bildungsroman of David, the protagonist, Murdstones are introduced into David’s is completed by his search for his identity life, they appear to dislike him from the and his maturing into a grown man. very start and they also show their intense However, this novel aims to retell the hatred towards him explicitly. story of a common young Victorian boy, Consequently, he tends to misjudge so, the journey is dismissive of chivalric people by association with whatever deeds. Dickens maintains what was appears before his eyes. The explicitness similar to the quest of a noble knight in of the Murdstones’ hatred of him is the old sense, but simplified it into the associated with his conclusion that what high and low in life that David is questing the eyes see is what people intend to do after. Therefore, David acquiesces to the with him. This misunderstanding of Victorian social and moral expectation of people leads David to judge the bad to be development. In other words, he is good, thereby displaying a lack of required to discipline himself and profound knowledge of the world. When discipline his “undisciplined heart” (664), Mr Murdstone sends him to school in a recurrent theme, when he commits and he meets such friends as mistakes and learns to remedy them. Steerforth and Traddles, he befriends Steerforth, misjudging that all his actions Regarding the significance of stem from the boy’s genuine good Bildungsroman in portraying the intentions. On the other hand, he dislikes protagonist’s progress in life, it allows the Traddles, the clumsy boy from a working-

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class family and completely unlike the existence in accordance with the concepts upper-middle class Steerforth boy who of the Bildungsroman. John Lucas displays good etiquette in his conduct. suggests that the story of David Eventually, Steerforth turns out to be a Copperfield is characterised by its false friend and becomes the evidence to “feeling of inevitability…of temporal reaffirm David’s naïve judgment of rhythms that cumulatively establish a people. Now the roles are reversed and, human life” (169). According to Lucas, instead, it is the disliked Traddles who the “temporal rhythms” are the inevitable becomes his lifelong friend. First and effects of “successive patterns persuade foremost, David’s misjudgment of people us of the ceaseless process of loss and emphasises his lack of experience and he renewal, change and continuity,” (169). is asked to educate himself and not to Generally, the pattern of his high and low commit the same mistakes in the future. situations emphasizes the temporal To experience the world and gain rhythm as when David loses his mother knowledge, David inevitably associates and her love but then, when he finds his himself with those experienced characters aunt, his lost love is regained. Once again, as well as applying his early mistakes to his life undergoes a change when David the more complex situation of embarking marries Agnes after the death of Dora. All on the quest for a suitable love life. these components of his life contribute to Stephen Lutman observes the significance David’s story in his fictional of David as the narrator who has to autobiography that is full of change and subdue his desires and educate his continuity. “undisciplined heart”: contending that “if David knows himself too well, or realises Generally speaking, to associate with or consciously the wider significance of the to learn from other experienced characters other characters, he can no longer emphasizes David’s character as an discover himself and develop” (206). ordinary person and it is a universal force Lutman points out that David develops his in stabilizing his being during the time of identity by depending largely on his his growing process. David starts off in circumstances and the people around him. his early phase and he admits his childhood inability, even in his David’s misjudging of his friends is his recollection of his memories: “I could first episode of trial-and-error to which he observe, in little pieces, as it were; but as finds a solution at the end, yet, it is only a to making a net of a number of these beginning after which he will face another pieces, and catching anybody in it, that pivotal incident of choosing a wife; was, as yet beyond me” (21). He states his choosing between the one he loves and need to try “to get a better understanding the one who loves him. The trial-and- of myself and be a better man” (797). error of David searching for a wife Hillis Miller suggests that “David has, significantly relates to his early loss of during his childhood of neglect and love. David first experience occurs during misuse, been acutely aware in himself of a his childhood when he is forced to lose a gap in being” (1958: 157). He is aware of perfect love life and make quest for new this position of lacking in the knowledge one. The parallel between the search for to construct his inner being. David affirms love and his pursuit of a career as a writer the perspective towards his being of a brings David very close to defining his nobody; “what a blank space I seemed,

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which everybody overlooked, and yet was as being an ineffective kind of love that in everybody’s way” (115). He, thus, will cause “so much misery” and she needs to form for himself an identity and regards this love as “blind, blind, blind!” move on to stage of maturity by filling up (489) affection. David marries Dora, with “a number of these pieces” of earning his aunt’s disapproval, only memories by his relation with others. The because he is smitten by her without extent to which Miller has observed knowing that love alone can lead him to David’s relationship with others signifies destruction. Their family situation, as a the bridge that connects David to other result of all burdens falling on David characters. The association with other alone, worsens, and, what makes things characters is significant, as Miller even worse is that, David cannot find any observes, because “David’s life, then, is assistance in reading his writing. After the the search for some relationship to death of Dora, David realises that he still another person which will support his life, cannot discipline his heart. His fill up the emptiness within him, and give achievement in completing his heroic him a substantial identity” (1958: 157). quest seems to have collapsed when this There is no possibility for David to catastrophe occurs. Inevitably, David is exclude himself from Miller’s statement tempted by his lack of true love to look on his formation. In general, his intimate for another woman suitable to be his wife. relation with characters such as his E. K. Brown suggests that the “theme of mother, the maid and his aunt mistaken love follows and provides the Betsey will be discussed because their thread for the middle part of the novel” assertive roles of bringing him up. (1990: 787). Eventually, he finds Agnes whose ability is superior to Dora’s in Of course, the sign that indicates David’s many ways; Agnes is capable of doing growth is not his mastery of the household chores, and she also has a complexity of language alone but includes soaring spirit that assists David in reading his capacity to learn to live with other and comment on his work. The experienced people. The account of contrasting roles of these two characters David’s association with others can be emphasizes to the point that David is in illustrated through his search for a search of a Victorian wife who in every suitable relationship. Apparently, this aspect corresponds to the norm of the search centres on trial-and-error where is society and, at the same time, is capable David is destined to lose his confidence of managing matters in the new world of because he usually commits a mistake the Victorian period, for instance, Agnes before learning to achieve the true is able to read and comment on David’s experience. David’s second lesson of work. mistaking is when he makes the wrong decision in marrying Dora. They marry Among all the female characters, the when they both are young and naïve, central character in David’s life is Agnes especially Dora, who is merely a spoiled whose role is significant in his growth and child devoid of the ability “to sustain him development both to maturity and in and improve him” (489). She is incapable terms of his career. David meets Agnes of doing anything and leaves David when he goes to attend Dr. Strong’s anxiously concerned about their family. academy and resides with Agnes’s father, His aunt recognizes this sentimental love Mr. Wickfield, until he finishes school. At

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first, he fails to see the goodness in decision to live his life with Agnes is his Agnes’s nature; whereas Agnes likes him aunt; all those times she has been but suppresses her affection for David. observing and seeing what is good and She is also supportive of him in suitable for David but keeps silent out of whatsoever he does, even in his courtship respect for her nephew’s decision. After with Dora. Agnes embodies the qualities all of these events occurring to David which can not be found in Dora. She has persuade him of Agnes as the angelic the image of an angel as well as that of figure that he witnessed during his housekeeper: “She had a little basket- lodging at her house. And it is this time trifle hanging at her side, with keys in it; that the image becomes complete in and looked as staid and as discreet a reality since previously was only an housekeeper as the old house could have” alluring image. Dickens requires that (217). Even though she realises her David eventually finds the woman who insignificance in the eyes of David who will help him making progress in his life sees her as no more than a sister, Agnes is and his expectations and persuade his aunt still genuinely concerned about him. For that he has achieved the status of a mature instance, she tries to persuade him to Victorian man. beware the devious character of Steerforth when David indicates an affection It is through his two marriages that David towards him even though she knows that learns about the true married life he needs David is not pleased with her advice. to have and, more importantly, to quash After the death of his first wife, his aunt his aunt’s concerns. Although his advises him to go back to Agnes. He disagreement with his aunt’s advice follows her advice and finds out that signifies his obstinate disobedience, it Agnes has been waiting for him for all also implies his failure to see what the that time. This leads to the confusing and experienced person can see. Therefore, reluctant situation when David goes on to his failure in finding the first suitable wife marry Agnes and he admits that “There is represents David and his immature stage nothing for it, but to turn back and begin and, as he realises his disastrous decision, all over again. It was very hard, but I he moves forward to the new phase of turned back, though with a heavy heart, being the experienced David when and began laboriously and methodically married to Agnes. Once David is capable to plod over the same tedious ground at a of learning of knowing his heart and snail’s pace” (531). It turns out that Agnes committing to the right wife, he is the opposite of Dora whose undergoes the epiphanic moment of his understanding of the household or of life. Nevertheless, the crucial element in being a good wife is absent. Regarding shaping David’s perspective on the real David is seeking to discipline his heart, world is his association with other Agnes stands there as representative of a characters, regardless of who they are. In woman of disciplined heart. When David the more realistic world of David, there is marries her, his life becomes easier, with another form of love of a mother and a such convenience in the marriage that it surrogate, in this case, existing to allows him more time to work on his establish a more firm stance for David’s writing and Agnes is able to keep house existence. This kind of love is similar to superbly and assists him in reading his the way Dickens employs the work. The person who approves of his juxtaposition of contrasting characters to

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represent how one form is superior to the conversation between them accentuates other and has David cope with his view the childish helplessness of Clara and towards them. Consequently, there is not confirms Miss Betsey’s disapproval of her only the tender love of a mother that brother’s marriage to David’s mother on David aspires to but also the more grounds of her inadequacies and complex have for him of his aunt, his weaknesses. To the marriage of David’s surrogate mother. parents, she reacts disapprovingly, “David Copperfield all over!...David Copperfield There is not only the give-and-take kind from head to foot!” (6). This suggests the of love that shapes David’s life as the lack of ability in household responsibility important element of his growth, of David’s mother and how his father however, the love that he gains from his pampered her as a child rather than a mother and the house maid is also another wife. As predicted, the marriage proves to form that he experiences. This is a love be unsuccessful and becomes the first considered to be more beneficial to him hapless incident in David’s childhood that that, no matter what, he is still able to is impressed on his memory. As a result, cultivate it without the cost of the first David has never seen a marriage that ends kind of affection. David reflects a similar successfully, not even his aunt’s marriage, attitude towards the two first most though she exceeds Clara’s ability to important characters of his childhood for manage her life. Of these two characters, the duration of his childhood noting their David can take on the tender love and significance: “Looking back, as I was care from his mother and the strong spirit saying, into the blank of my infancy, the of his aunt who lives her life first objects I can remember as standing independently. This is another example out by themselves from a confusion of for David to witness that which is things, are my mother and Peggotty” (13). different from the love of his mother. Among the female characters in his life, David thus regards his innocent childhood After his childhood ends David begins his love for his mother as the most prominent next phase with Miss Betsey who source to support and sustain him, disappeared shortly after David’s birth. psychologically and emotionally. Yet Miss Betsey seems a little strange in her Clara Copperfield occupies only a few obsession with baby girls and not for a chapters of the novel. In the same way she boy like David. The nephew is reunited represents the short-lived moment of with his aunt again after he escapes from childhood happiness for David when she the blacking factory, desperately appears as an angel, in terms of her searching for her, and is accepted under appearance and her tenderness to him. her guardianship. During his hardships, However, the characteristics of being her peculiar personality is gradually childlike, fragile and helpless dominate overshadowed by his sole hope to survive her characterisation in this story, rather from the cruelty of life; and she is the than her angelic goodness. David remarks only relative left to him. His life under his that her vulnerable characteristic makes aunt’s patronage gradually improves since her comparatively like ““a wax doll”” (3). he has the chance to go to school again It is when his aunt comes to his birth and and make his way to a writing career, confronts his mother, that Clara’s eventually; all this is dependent on the character is revealed. Much of the provision of Miss Betsey. Not only does

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she offer her nephew financial support, naïvety, would not destroy him she also provides sound advice as a spontaneously or take him to a person who has experienced the failure of catastrophic end but David has to show married life and has been able to cope his capacity to master life skills not only with it. She tells him that he should to survive but to gain more experiences consider the love of Agnes for him after and move away to achieve the phase of having overlooked it. Her role as a the experienced man. He admits at the supportive aunt is available in various blissful moment that “I had advanced in circumstances and even when she fame and fortune, my domestic joy was becomes bankrupt she still supports him perfect, I had been married ten happy until she has only one penny left. She is years” (844). The triumphant incidents of more or less an identical character to David Copperfield as the heroic narrator Agnes who understands and is capable of direct to Dickens’s success as the author managing everything from household of this story as well. matters to business ability. She is the mature Agnes. More significantly, she is Conclusion whose role is to provide advice and guide David in the appropriate Undeniably, the publication of the first direction. David’s aunt is distinguished in edition of David Copperfield resulted in a the way that she failed in her marriage great change to Dickens’s career in the and thus she sees, more than Agnes can, sense that it made the autobiographical through her experience and confidentially novel more appealing via the discussed advises her nephew. Although she never literary devices. Consequently, sale rates appears as an angel to David as Agnes rose higher than his previous publications. does, her kindness towards David and her Dickens was not the inventor of any of support regardless of her circumstances these devices, neither was he the first to all contribute to create the role of a use them, but with his capacity to mother surrogate to David. The role in incorporate them with his narrative, they which distinguishes her far more contributed to his fame and David endearing than what she supposes to be in Copperfield’s popularity among the David’s first opinion of her. readers. The publication of David Copperfield in serialized form created a David depends on these female characters community who shared the story they for one reason. They typically give him read and in this way the community physical and spiritual nurturing but, for circulated the story of David Copperfield another reason, they provide lessons for to a wider group of readers, even to a him, specifically lessons that shape him longer period. Also, Dickens’ pervasive into a grown up person. From a mother key concept of inserting plates of who is weak and unable to manage things illustrations was to entice his readers. He to an aunt whose own married life has would not have enjoyed his reputation as failed, to the first wife who resembles his much as this if he had not modified the mother in many aspects, and, lastly, the Bildung conventional form into his own wife, Agnes for whom David cannot find convenient form as appeared in the novel. anyone to match; without these females, Moreover, the role of his narrative he would not be capable of learning to see importantly attracted his readers in a way his naïvety. To live forever with his that it made the struggles of David more

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empathetic. These literary devices Eliot, Simon. 2001. The business discussed earlier would not have of Victorian publishing. In contribute to Dickens’s success without Cambridge Companion to the his ability to create such enticing narrative Victorian Novel, edited by to narrate David’s life story and David Deirdre David, pp. 37-60. Copperfield would have turned out to be Cambridge: Cambridge the unread autobiographical novel. University Press.

Acknowledgements Forster, John. 2004. The Life of Charles Dickens. In A This article is a part of a Master’s Thesis Routledge Literary Sourcebook entitled The Popularity of Charles on Charles Dickens’s David Dickens’s Novels as Reflected in Their Copperfield, edited by Richard Textual and Media Representations: A J. Dunn, pp. 42- 43. New York: Study of David Copperfield, Bleak House Routledge. and . I would like to express my gratitude to Assist. Prof. Dr. Kincaid, James R. 2004. David Carina Chotirawe and Assist. Prof. Simon Copperfield: Laughter and J. P. Wright. Point of View. In A Routledge Literary Sourcebook on Charles Dickens’s David, References pp.49-52. New York: Routledge. Bandelin, Carl. 1976. David Copperfield: A Third Lutman, Stephen. 1980. Reading Interesting Penitent. Studies in Illustrations: Pictures in David English Literature, 1500-1900 Copperfield. In Reading the 16.4: 601-611. Victorian novel: Detail into form, edited by Ian Gregor, pp. Brown, E. K. 1990. The Art of 68-70. London: Vision press. The Crowded Novel. In David Copperfield: A Norton Mays, Kelly J. 2005. The Critical Edition, edited by Publishing World. In A Jerome H. Buckley, pp. 786- Companion to the Victorian 794. New York: Norton & Novel, edited by Patrick Company. Brantlinger and William B. Thesing, pp. 11-30. Malden; Cuddon, J. A. 1999. Penguin Blackwell Publishing. Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory. London: Miller, Hillis. 1958. Charles Penguin. Dickens: The World of his Novels. London: Oxford Dickens, Charles. 2008. David University Press. Copperfield. Oxford: .

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Sanders, Andrew. 2008. Introduction. David Copperfield. By Charles Dickens. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. vii-xx

My friendly waiter and I. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.victorianweb.org/ victorian/art/illustration/phiz/d c/5.html Somebody turns up. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.victorianweb.org/ victorian/art/illustration/phiz/d c/14.html

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