1. Why does Dickens employ a first-person narrator? What are the advantages of doing so? What are the disadvantages? Do you think that David = Dickens? Why or why not? What similarities and differences do you perceive?

2. Why has Dickens set up his novel as if it were an autobiographical memoir (by David)? What does the author gain (either in technique or in content) from this choice of format?

3. What are the main unifying devices in the novel? Here are several:
     1. consistent first-person narrator presenting and interpreting the action
     2. recurrent characters (name them). Note that recurring characters have "tags" associated with them; Uriah "writhes," Mrs. Micawber hopes that "something will turn up," etc.
     3. recurrent patterns in the action
          a. loss and/or expulsion
          b. death
          c. varieties of marriage
          d. "quests" of one sort or another
What other unifying devices do you find?

4. Consider the possibility that the novel is a Bildungsroman (loosely, a novel of education or initiation). Is there a relationship between external (narrative) and internal (psychological) development in the novel?

5. Note that David repeatedly says he must "discipline" his heart. Should we see David Copperfield as "the Growth of a Disciplined Heart"? (Recall that William Wordsworth had subtitled his autobiographical epic poem, The Prelude, "The Growth of a Poet's Mind.")
--Are there any examples in the novel of "disciplined hearts"? Steerforth? Traddles? Micawber? Mr. Peggoty? Peggoty? Aunt Betsy? Murdstone? Heep?

6. In The Melancholy Man, John Lucas says that one of the most remarkable characteristics of this novel is "its feeling of inevitability," its sense of the "temporal rhythms that cumulatively establish a human life." Does this seem to be a valid assessment of the novel? On what might Lucas be basing his argument?
--Lucas also says that the sheer physical length of the novel reinforces this pattern of inevitability. Do you agree?

7. Critics often complain that the first half of the book is splendid, the second half dull. Is this an accurate or fair complaint? Can you think of any intellectual or artistic reason why Dickens might in fact have intended for the reader to perceive this sort of difference in the nature of the first and second halves of the novel?

8. Consider the surrogate parent figures with whom David deals in the novel. What attracts (or repels) him in his dealings with these characters? Do any of these people (or David's responses to them) explain David's various "loves" and his eventual marriages?

9. In what ways is the novel an extended study of the subject of "coping with adversity"? Who copes? Under what circumstances? What causes success or failure in various characters' attempts to cope?

10. What is the function in the novel of the Micawbers?

11. What is the function of Uriah Heep in the novel? Is he a complete villain? Or is he the inevitable product of a class-structured society that in fact encourages and fosters hypocritical "umbleness" as a means of advancing one's own position?

12. In what ways can we consider David Copperfield a social novel?

13. Readers generally agree that Dickens disposes of Dora a bit too conveniently, and Dickens himself seems to have admitted this. How does he overcome (or at least attempt to overcome) the rather contrived demise of Dora?

14. Is David Copperfield intended to serve as a vindication of the "Protestant work ethic"?

15. What is the point of Dickens' novel? What sort of "statements" are made by the novel, considered as a whole work? In thinking about this, consider also the many "little statements" that are made by the various particular details and episodes along the way.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens. From a daguerreotype by Mayall, c. 1853

Some Internet Resources

David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page. This award-winning website offers a wealth of information on Dickens' life, works, and cultural milieu. It is an excellent starting-point for surfing the world of Dickens. There is an excellent page on illustrations to Dickens' works, with many useful links to the viusual artists with whom Dickens worked, including most importantly Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz") (1815-1882). You will also find a great deal of linked information about London in Dickens' time, as well as an interactive, expandable map of Dickens' London.

Dickens on the Victorian Web. This is another excellent resource, packed with all sorts of links with everything relatingto Dickens and his time. Here you can find good links to Dickens and the visual arts, as well as a spectacular collection of linked resources on the political history of Dickens' England.

The Dickens Page. This is a huge and somewhat unwieldy miscellany of Dickensiana, with everything from electronic texts to press releases about Dickens sites. It is arranged in reverse chronology of postings, beginning with the most recent. This is a great place to browse, but it is probably not the place to begin any serious searching.

The Charles Dickens site on Victorian Station. This site may look unimpressive at first, since the opening page is simply a brief biographical notioce of Dickens. But explore the links at the bottom of the page for a wealth of profusely illustrated information about Victorian culture. Especially good are the links for Architecture, Arts and Literature, Interior Design, and Lifestyles.

A Dickens filmography. An extensive listing (150 titles and still growing!) of film versions of various works by, or adapted from, Dickens. The filmography is arranged in reverse chronology, beginning with the most recent and extending all the way back to 1897.

Stephen C. Behrendt, 7/25/11