David Copperfield Study Guide
The story of a neglected boy written by Charles Dickens breaks the hearts and glues them together for generations. The novel covers the life of David from early childhood to the middle age, when he reflects on his life, thinking about his biggest gains and losses and the dearest people life gave to him.
The total unfairness of life and the complete recklessness of the adults who just throw David out of their lives contrasts so much with his determination, good temper and desire to study and become a proper member of society. David is portrayed like an average boy in dire conditions - but he is everyone but average. Just think about the incredible amount of efforts young David that allowed him to endure everything that life have thrown at him and become a self-made (and very self-aware) man.
After surviving the horrible boarding school, he finally finds at least some relief - just to have a short period of rest before his adolescence, first romantic feelings and the overall turmoil with the relationships with women. Despite the feelings that tear him apart, he always stays faithful to his word and his own moral code. Even if his choices look wrong for the first glance, David’s belief in what he considers right prevails and in the end, we realize that every single choice was just another step to the success he achieves in the end.
“David Copperfield” is the story of the willpower, determination, optimism against all the odds and, what is important, about right and wrong choices. It teaches us that there is no mistake that could not be fixed and that we alone are responsible for our successes and failures - which can be hard to swallow until we realize that we are also responsible for turning our failures into the successes and capable of it.
Author: Frank Frazier
New Essays
Family relationships are key to both 'Romeo and Juliet' written by William Shakespeare in the sixteenth century and 'David Copperfield' written by Charles Dickens in the nineteenth century. Both are set in patriarchal societies which seem to demonstrate changing relationships in families caused by...
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” — — “My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been...
The Novel of Upbringing in the Creative Oeuvre of Charles Dickens (based on the analysis of David Copperfield) 1. The development of the novel of upbringing in the English literature. The emergence of the literary genre of the novel of upbringing (Germ. Bildungsroman) in the English literature was...
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Plight of the Weak Throughout David Copperfield, the powerful abuse the weak and helpless. Dickens focuses on orphans, women, and the mentally disabled to show that exploitation—not pity or...