David Copperfield (Criticism)

Criticism

Wendy Perkins

Perkins is a professor of American and English literature and film. In this essay, she focuses on the darker characters in the novel and their effect on David Copperfield.

Several of the characters in David Copperfield, like Mr. Macawber and Peggotty, are so memorable because they are lovable and warm-hearted, offering support and comfort as they help David in his journey to adulthood. They also are valuable to him as they help counter the effects of the darker characters in the novel. Dickens provides a rather pessimistic view of human nature in his depiction of Mr. Murdstone, Mr. Creakle, James Steerforth, and Uriah Heep, who impede David's journey to selfhood and expose him to a world of cruelty and corruption. In his portrayal of these four men, Dickens explores how character can be negatively shaped through experience, especially when restrictive social mores and unregulated social institutions are part of that experience.

David's idyllic childhood ends when his mother marries Mr. Murdstone, which introduces David to the very worst in human nature. Dickens never provides any background information about Murdstone or about Creakle that might provide clues to the formation of their characters as he does with Steerforth and Heep. Thus, he suggests, the first two men are inherently evil through some defect in their character. This defect has a devastating effect on David.

Murdstone is a controlling, brutal man who David notes, "ordered me like a dog, and I obeyed like a dog." Murdstone initially tries to hide his true self when he insists to David that he wants to be "best friends in the world" in order to persuade Clara to think that he will be a good father. But even though David has never come into contact with such evil before, he is an observant child and so is suspicious of this man who has "an eye that has no depth in it to be looked into." David understands that a kind word would have made him respect Murdstone, but his stepfather only offers platitudes before he marries Clara and gains control of the household.

Besides causing him to live in constant fear of being verbally and physically abused, Murdstone, along with his sister, denies David his childhood, first by not allowing him any free time to play at his home and then by forcing him into servitude in the London warehouse. David becomes "sullen, dull, and dogged" under Murdstone's tyranny. He escapes only through the adventure books his father left him that, he claims, "kept alive my fancy, and my hope of something beyond that place and time."

Murdstone unleashes his cruelty on David's mother as well, taking advantage of Clara's pliant nature in order to control David and the household. He admits that his goal is to form Clara's character, along with David's. When she does not conform to his demands, he threatens to stop loving her, knowing that she could not bear this. He is unconcerned that pushing her to separate herself from her son breaks her heart along with her spirit, which leads to an early death.

Murdstone forces David to encounter another person who is as evil as he is when he sends him to boarding school. Mr. Creakle, who runs Salem House, enjoys the power he has over the boys as Murdstone enjoyed the power he had over Clara and David. Creakle gloats to David, "when I say I'll do a thing, I do it, and when I say I will have a thing done, I will have it done." His nature is as cruel as Murdstone's. David notes that "he had a delight in cutting at the boys, which was like the satisfaction of a craving appetite." Creakle compounds David's misery until he is able to establish a sense of community with the other boys at school.

The most popular boy in that community is James Steerforth, who decides that he will accept David as a friend. Steerforth, along with Uriah Heep, are more complex characters than Murdstone and Creakle, representing Dickens's belief that environment also has a profound effect on character and that a dark nature can emerge regardless of which class has nurtured it.

Steerforth is the most charming boy at school, a quality that he retains throughout his life. David notices Steerforth because of his attractiveness and bearing, but his loyalty to his new friend is forged when Steerforth is sympathetic to David's having to wear the "I bite" sign around school. He appears just as charming when David introduces him to the Peggottys and easily makes Em'ly fall in love with him.

Steerforth's true character, however, emerges soon after he and David become friends. David is thrilled to be so privileged as to be chosen to bunk next to Steerforth, not complaining when the older boy selfishly insists that he tell adventure stories long into the night, preventing him from getting much sleep. Steerforth's cruel streak appears during an altercation with Mr. Mell, one of the teachers at Salem House. Refusing to follow Mr. Mell's direction, the arrogant Steerforth reveals his class bigotry as well as his lack of compassion when he refuses to recognize Mr. Mell as a gentleman and calls attention to the impoverished condition of his mother, which eventually gets Mr. Mell dismissed from his position at the school. David is too blinded by his devotion to Steerforth to recognize the boy's cruel treatment of Mr. Mell, but Traddles notices it and declares, "Shame, J. Steerforth! Too bad!"

Steerforth's bigotry emerges in his response to the Peggottys, even after he spends many evenings with them, enjoying their company. He later refers to them disparagingly as "that sort of people" and claims, "there's a pretty wide separation between them and us. They have not very fine natures." David's lack of maturity and continued innocence cause him to assume that Steerford's words were spoken merely in jest. David's lack of a clear sense of self prompts him to overlook Steerforth's condescension toward him as well. The older boy never treats David as his equal and takes to calling him "Daisy" in London because of his obvious innocence. Agnes clearly sees that David "has made a dangerous friend," but her dear friend is still too blinded by his trusting nature to accept her warning.

As his relationship with Em'ly develops, Steerforth does show signs of guilt but quickly blames his behavior on not having been raised by a father. He fails to note that David did not have a father either, except a very cruel one. But Dickens does suggest that Steerforth's environment shapes his character when he introduces his mother who cruelly dismisses Mr. Peggotty and his obvious distress over Em'ly's situation. She shows no concern for Em'ly, only for herself and her son, who she is sure will be ruined if he marries Em'ly.

Miss Dartle presents the most compelling evidence of Mrs. Steerforth's influence on her son's character when she attacks the elderly woman after Steerforth's death. She insists that Steerforth was ruined by his mother's "pampering of his pride and passion," declaring, "from his cradle [you] reared him to be what he was, and stunted what he should have been" by encouraging his arrogance and selfishness.

When Em'ly runs off with Steerforth, David is forced to recognize his friend's damaged nature. He understands that there is something wrong with Uriah, however, as soon as he meets him. In Uriah, Dickens has created a true grotesque, whose appearance and mannerisms become an outward expression of the evil within. Initially, David tries not to judge him by his "cadaverous face" or the "snaky twistings of his throat and body," which occur "when he wanted to express enthusiasm, which was very ugly." Yet Dickens turns Uriah's evil into a supernatural force that cannot be overlooked: When David first meets Uriah, he sees the boy blowing into a horse's nostrils, "as if he were putting some spell upon him."

Uriah has learned to hide his true self through a veneer of "umbleness," which, he insists, defines him and his mother. He is able to manipulate others, especially Mr. Wickfield, through careful study of their weaknesses and by pretending that he would never assume to try to move above his class, maneuvers designed to gain their trust. His subtle watchfulness even works on David, who distrusts him immediately but does not initially realize that Uriah is taking advantage of David's "juvenile frankness."

When his true character emerges after Traddles exposes his criminal activities, Uriah reveals that, as was the case with Steerforth, his experiences have shaped him. In Uriah's case, the social system that created rigid rules making it almost impossible to move above one's class taught him how to gain power over people and so take the revenge that the system fostered within his heart. Uriah explains that he and his family were taught "a deal of umbleness" and were forced "to be umble to this person, and umble to that and always to know our place and abase ourselves before our betters." His father reinforced this behavior, thinking that it was the best way for his son to "get on." Uriah admits that this training enabled him to gain a measure of power: "I got to know what umbleness did and I took to it. I ate umble pie with an appetite." After this admission, David acknowledges, "I had never doubted his meanness, his craft and malice; but I fully comprehended now what a base, unrelenting and revengeful spirit, must have been engendered by this early, and this long, suppression."

Dickens's pessimistic view of human nature, as evidenced by the cruel actions of these four characters who have such a profound effect on David's life, is tempered by the goodness and compassion of his friends and family, who are often able to repair the damage that these four have accomplished. The novel also provides a forum for Dickens's views of the inherent nature of evil as well as a critique of a society that enables and shapes this darker side of humanity.

Source: Wendy Perkins, Critical Essay on David Copperfield, in Novels for Students, Thomson Gale, 2007.

What Do I Read Next?

• Dickens's Great Expectations (1860-1861) focuses on the coming of age of Pip, an orphan who must face the harsh realities of life in Victorian England. The novel is available from Random House (2006).
• A remarkable form of social protest is Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" (1729), which suggests an outrageous solution to the famine in Ireland: babies should be eaten. This essay, along with other short works by Swift, is available in A Modest Proposal and Other Prose, from Barnes and Noble (2004).
• Daniel Pool's What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist, the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth- Century England (1993) examines the public and private world of the Victorians, including their customs, rituals, occupations, and living conditions.
• Sally Mitchell's Daily Life in Victorian England (1996) focuses on a variety of lifestyles during this period from country gentry to urban slum dwellers.