What a delightful novel! What an astounding array of characters. It is remarkable how Dickens does not leave out even one strand unraveled or no character rounded off towards the end. When I finished the novel, I felt I had had a repast. Dickens is truly at the height of his powers; be it the tragic, the comic, the tragic-comic, the ironical or the melodramatic. I would say his place is safe and secure after William Shakespeare in English literature. More than anything what amazes me is his inventiveness and his gigantic ability to flesh out characters, situations and descriptions.
The story line or the plot is something of a Bildungsroman or growing up of David Copperfield as young Copperfield is taken in by his step-father Mr.Murdstone who tyrannizes his mother and treats David with scorn and hatred. When his mother dies along with his baby brother, David loses the one strand that holds him emotionally. On the beach at Yarmouth in the company of Mr.Peggotty, Emily and Ham, to where he is sent, David finds happiness and joy in the company of simple folk. The contrast between what money can buy and what it cannot seems to be at the heart of the novel.” Kindness is apparently absent where wealth is dominant” Murdstone, David Copperfield, Micawber, Uriah Heep and James Steerforth are all in need of money. Those who have it, seek it more while those who don’t have it seek it to stay afloat.
I could relate to the scene in which David Copperfield runs way to his aunt Betsey Trotwood in Dover and pleads with her not to turn him out to Mr. Murdstone. There are a number of memorable characters in the novel. Mr.Peggoty, Miss.Peggoty, Ham, Mr. Micawber, Miss. Betsey, Mr. Traddles. It is not difficult to decipher something of Dickens in David Copperfield as the novelist apart from being the designer and ordainer of the fortunes of his characters had his own fortunes in life to contend with. David Copperfield is a strong autobiographical novel and Dickens calling the book his ‘Darling,’ says it is a “complicated weaving of truth and invention”
There is a long line of memorable female characters too; Miss. Murdstone, Mrs. Strong, Dora, Peggoty, Julia, Miss Wickfield, Miss Betsey Trotwood, Emily, Mrs. Micawber and others. How Dickens could shape and shade each one of these characters, some of who are as different as chalk and cheese, tells us something about the fantastic power of this towering craftsman of fiction. But Dickens is the social novelist who has always touched upon the problems of the society. His graceful and compassionate pen touches upon several social evils that existed in those days; The problems of marriage, insolvency, alcoholism, the seduction of innocent women and the general problem of schooling which is represented in many novels of Charles Dickens are touched upon here. Summing up one would like to say, three novels of Dickens; Nicholas Nickleby, Great Expectations and David Copperfield have common themes and open up the world of the child and growing up in a way that has not been eclipsed ever since. ( To be continued)