Some Personal Observations On "David Copperfield!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                        "David Copperfield is the boys' 'Jane Eyre'."  Both involve titular characters embarking on voyages of self-awareness, but where Bronte internalizes, Dickens is more external.  David's observations lead him gradually to a self-awareness by the book's end, having had his life hitherto surrounded by characters with more self-awareness than David or themselves realize.  But the reader does.

                                            The novel is also one of figures shadowing one another.  In his 1843 work, "A Christmas Carol," a spirit reminds Scrooge, "these are the shadows of things that have been."  This is applicable to "David Copperfield, where sometimes characters shadow and overlap each other.

                                              Consider--

                                             David Copperfield, Sr. and Junior--The latter is dead before the story begins. It is the reverse of David, Jr. losing Dora.  And speaking of Dora--

                                             Clara Copperfield--Dora--Agnes Wickfield--A triptych, with each shadowing the other.  Clara, having been a governess, is a bit more self-reliant than Dora, yet cannot see through Mr. Murdstone till too late.  Dora, when she enters the story, has Murdstone's sister, Jane, as a hired companion, and dislikes her, because she has Jane's number.  As for Dora, the reason her death affects me so much is because it parallels my mother's passing, in 1979.  In the novel, Dora's dog, Jip, dies right before she does; in real life my father and I, with my mother terminally ill in the hospital, had to have our fourteen-year-old dog put down, due to kidney failure.  At the time, I remember saying this period was like my living a Dickens novel.  As it was.  As for Agnes Wickfield, I used to consider her Literature's Greatest Enabler; on this sixth reading I gained more of an understanding into Agnes' compassion for her father; it is not until Uriah Heep grasps power that Wickfield is virtually destroyed through alcoholism.,

                                     As for Uriah Heep, he and Mr. Murdstone, are the most despicable characters in the novel, if not all of literature.  They are shadowed, or counter balanced, by the goodness of Wilkins Micawber, Mr. Dick, and Dan Peggotty.   Aunt Betsey Trotwood is shadowed by Jane Murdstone, whose line, "I never heard anything so elegant!" is priceless.  As is Dora saying "Jip must have a mutton chop every day at noon, or he will die."  Who could resist Dora? 

                                      All, at some point, reveal their self-awareness to David, who eventually picks up on it.  When, on her death bed, Dora requests to speak to Agnes alone, even a first-time reader knows what that talk will be about, and why.  Agnes warns David of the dangers of his friend, James Steerforth, something David learns too late for himself, thus ruining, through no intention on his part, the lives of so many people.  Mrs. Steerforth and Rosa Dartle are rivals vying for the same thing--Steerforth--with both losing him due to arrogance on the mother's part, and jealousy and resentment on Rosa's.

                                        When Uriah finally drops his pretenses, he is vile as can be.  How satisfying it is when Micawber lets him have it.  Same with Aunt Betsey, when she lets the Murdstones have it.  Even Mr. Dick admits to David that he is "simple," and if it weren't for Aunt Betsey, he would be shut up in an asylum.  Each character more self-aware than David grasps.  Even Steerforth, who knows the ruination he is about to cause, yet tells David to think "only the best" of him.

                                           How about Little Em'ly and Martha Endell?  The latter represents the former's future, especially when both end up in London, Martha as a suicidal prostitute, but who manages to pull back and save Em'ly from becoming such, delivering her to loving uncle, Dan Peggotty!

                                            If Dickens used shadows here and in "A Christmas Carol," I have to wonder about some of his other works, which I intend to re-examine.  The beauty and heartbreak of "David Copperfield are worth the reading; the characters as live as having popped off the page.

                                             David is a mirror of our male selves, passing from childhood to youth and adulthood, with joys and regrets along the way.  The older I am when reading it, the more it becomes a template to reflect on my life.  And should for others.

                                               Carson McCullers wrote "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter."  Dickens' iconic novel takes David from what is termed "the undisciplined heart" to a more disciplined one.

                                                      And, in loving tribute, one of Agnes and David's daughters is named Dora!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!