David Copperfield
(Charles Dickens)

Birth—David Copperfield is Charles Dickens’s semi-autobiographical account that begins with the story of a young boy whose father dies before he is born. His great-aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood, who is now the head of the family and who came to witness the birth, is disappointed that David is a boy. She bashes the doctor in the head with her bonnet, leaves, and is never heard from again, giving everyone the impression that she is both eccentric and difficult.

Early childhood—After a while, David’s pretty, softhearted mother marries a man who is harsh and abusive. She does this secretly without consulting David, who is whisked away with his nurse, called Peggotty, to Yarmouth, where he stays for two weeks with her family at her brother’s boathouse. There he meets Mr. Peggotty (Peggotty’s brother), Ham, Little Emily, and Mrs. Gummidge. All three (Ham, Emily, and Mrs. Gummidge) were either orphaned or widowed, and Mr. Peggotty being related to them in some way, he took them in out of the goodness of his heart.

David is sent away to school—When David returns home, he finds his mother married to Mr. Murdstone, a man he seriously dislikes. Together with his sister Jane, who moves in with them, Mr. Murdstone tries to break both his young wife’s and her son’s spirits, almost beating David to death at one point. Shortly after that incident, when David is about nine, Mr. Murdstone sends him to an equally abusive school, Salem House. At school, he meets James Steerforth and Thomas Traddles, both of whom feature strongly in his later life. When David returns home for Christmas vacation, he finds his mother has given birth to a baby boy but also notices that she is obviously frail. After an arduous month at home, he returns to school, not realizing that it will be the last time he sees his mother.

David is shipped off to work and runs away to his aunt—On his birthday in March, David receives word that both his mother and her baby have died. He is sent back home, where he is completely neglected and finally shipped off to London to work in a wine-shipping warehouse part-owned by the Murdstones. He rooms with Mr. Micawber, a quaint, verbose gentleman who, together with his wife and four children, is in constant dire straits financially. The Micawbers end up in debtors’ prison but are released under the Insolvent Debtors’ Act and head off for new adventures. Arrangements are made for David to room somewhere else, but by now he has made up his mind to run away to his great-aunt, though he is unsure of his reception. He asks Peggotty to lend him a half-crown, which is promptly stolen, along with his belongings. The result is that he has to walk from London to Dover, selling pieces of clothing along the way so that he can eat. He finally arrives at Aunt Betsey’s looking like a little vagabond. Fortunately, Aunt Betsey, after recovering from her initial shock, believes his story and takes him in. Together with Mr. Dick, a weak-minded but kind and friendly gentleman who is her protégé, Aunt Betsey becomes David’s guardian, raising, educating, guiding, and providing for him.

David is sent to a good school in Canterbury—From Dover, David is sent to Canterbury, where the school he attends is the opposite of Salem House. He rooms with the Wickfields, Mr. Wickfield being Aunt Betsey’s legal and financial advisor. Mr. Wickfield’s wife died years ago, but he has a young daughter, Agnes, who is David’s age and who becomes his lifelong best friend and his future (second) wife. It’s at this point, too, that David meets Uriah Heep, the slithery, slimy archvillain of the story. But right now, Uriah Heep is Mr. Wickfield’s fifteen-year-old legal apprentice—a generous move on Mr. Wickfield’s part, given Uriah’s poor background and the fact that apprenticeships usually cost money.

In Canterbury, David grows into a fine young gentleman and scholar under the tutelage of Dr. Strong, the kind, gentle principal, whose great preoccupation in life is the Greek dictionary he is working on. Dr. Strong’s practical absentmindedness is compensated for by his lovely, young wife Annie, who looks after his more down-to-earth needs. Their relationship and the difficulties created by her careless childhood friend, Jack Maldon, as well as other people’s suspicions is one of the subplots of the story. In the end, the seeming rift is mended through Mr. Dick’s loving perception and ingenuity.

David takes a short trip to decide on a career and meets an old friend—When David graduates from school, having achieved head boy status, Aunt Betsey sends him on a month-long trip to London and Yarmouth so that he can look around and decide on a future career. It’s at this point that he coincidentally meets Steerforth again and they pick up where they left off with what had been a growing friendship. Steerforth was the most influential person at Salem House—someone who had it all and led a seemingly charmed existence. He also had a great deal of personal power, with the ability to easily shape any situation to his advantage. With everything coming so easily to him, life was nothing more than a game, and it apparently never occurred to him that other people had feelings and lives of their own.

Seeing Steerforth led to an invitation to Steerforth’s home, where David met Steerforth’s mother and her companion, Rosa Dartle, an edgy woman who was secretly in love with Steerforth and resented whatever got in the way of that (though her feelings never got beyond the day-dream stage). After that, David and Steerforth both went to Yarmouth together, where Steerforth met the Peggottys. Ham and Emily had just become engaged, but Emily, who always had dreams of being a lady, was fascinated by Steerforth, who was equally taken by her beauty and charm. That provided the beginning to another of the story’s many subplots, in which Emily disappears with Steerforth, prompting Mr. Peggotty, her uncle, to set out on a long journey to find and rescue her.

David decides to become an apprentice at the Doctors’ Commons—His month’s journey being ended, and on his aunt’s and Steerforth’s prompting, David decides to become a legal apprentice at the Doctors’ Commons, a stuffy but prestigious group of lawyers known for their gentility and good salaries. His aunt, who has met him in London, sets him up with a river-view apartment in chambers at the Adelphi, leaving David to realize how far he has come in the world since he used to roam the Adelphi’s lower arches as a poor, abandoned young boy.

David and Traddles meet again and become good friends—This is an exciting but lonely period in David’s life, since it’s the first time he is exploring the world on his own as an adult. It’s during this time, too, through several coincidences, that he meets both Dora Spenlow, his future first wife, and Traddles, his former schoolmate at Salem House. David discovers that Traddles is coincidentally rooming with the Micawbers, so that brings them back into David’s life, though he also met them previously—again coincidentally—during his stay in Canterbury.

Dora Spenlow—Dora Spenlow is the young, beautiful, and charming daughter of Mr. Spenlow, the advocate who introduces David to the Doctors’ Commons and who oversees his apprenticeship. When David meets Dora at Mr. Spenlow’s home, it is love at first sight for him, and she seems to like him, too, though he’s not sure in what way or how much. Being young and uncertain, he moons and pines away for months before confessing his feelings for her. It turns out that she feels the same way, and they embark on a secret courtship. Eventually, her father finds out, to his dismay, and forbids David from continuing to see her. But it quickly becomes a moot point when his father suddenly dies. After Dora mourns for some time, Dora and David have a fairytale wedding, and their married life begins. Unfortunately, it does not turn out as David hoped. They love each other dearly, but Dora is hopeless when it comes to practical matters or anything vaguely serious, and after trying various things to help her grow in that direction, David finally gives up but finds himself unfulfilled. That, too, becomes a moot point, when Dora’s health begins to weaken after a failed childbirth. She gradually fades and dies at a young age, though she is cheerful, playful, and loving to the last.

More changes—In the meantime, several changes have taken in place in David’s life. Back before David’s marriage, Aunt Betsey and Mr. Dick arrive in David’s apartment one day with all their belongings. Aunt Betsey announces that she is financially ruined and that they will need to stay with David for a while. This obviously comes as a shock to everyone, but it has many positive results. Both David and Mr. Dick are determined to help Aunt Betsey, so David studies stenography and takes a secretarial job with Dr. Strong, who has since moved to Highgate outside of London. That means long days, starting at 5 a.m. and going till midnight, since in between his job and studies, he is still working on his legal apprenticeship. On Traddles’s advice, Mr. Dick tries his hand at copying and excels at it, which gives him a great feeling of accomplishment, especially since it now means (in his mind) that Aunt Betsey won’t starve. It’s during this time that David and Dora marry, and both the young couple and Aunt Betsey move to nearby cottages in Highgate, where they live until Dora dies.

Subplots—In fact, it’s difficult to tell exactly when that happens, because so many subplots unravel within that time frame. There was Barkis’s death (Barkis was the cart driver Peggotty married after David’s mother died); Steerforth’s disappearance with Emily and her eventual reappearance, with the help of the desolate Martha and the faithful Mr. Peggotty; the horrendous Yarmouth storm that killed Steerforth in a shipwreck; the Micawbers’ various ups and downs; Uriah Heep’s coercive partnership with Mr. Wickfield and its eventual exposure by Mr. Micawber; and finally, the decision by a number of parties, including the Micawbers, Mr. Peggotty, and Emily to emigrate to Australia. These are only some of the subplots that unfold throughout the novel, but the point in listing them here is that when David finally sets out on his journey following Dora’s death, his sense of loss is much greater than just the loss of one person, difficult as that is to bear.

David goes on a long journey—The short period of time between Dora’s death and the emigrant ship’s departure was probably one of the most intense experiences of loss and change in David’s entire lifetime, so that by the time he left on his own journey, he was too numb to consciously process his grief. He spent nine months traveling through Europe in this state, until he finally settled for a while a Swiss valley. In those pure, calming surroundings, his soul began to awaken again, and for the first time, he allowed himself to fully grieve.

Before Dora’s decease and David’s journey abroad, David had also tried his hand at writing, with good success, so that he was able to quit his stenography work. He had formed regular, disciplined writing habits that ensured his success, but during his traveling and mourning phase, he stopped for a while. Now he decided to take a few more months before starting again, but in the meantime, he began to reconnect with people, especially Agnes, who had written him a letter full of hope and faith in his choices—a letter that would have a strong effect on him. He resolved to become what she saw, and he wrote to tell her so.

Three months later, David started to write again and to make friends locally, splitting his time between the valley and Geneva. He even finished a novel, which he sent to Traddles, who had it published for him. Three years after the onset of his journey, David was ready to return to England. In that time, he had also recognized that his feelings for Agnes, who had always been his best friend, were now something more. But he wondered if he could express that to her and if she felt the same way. In his confusion, he felt that he had missed his chance, but if nothing else, at least, he could be to her what she had always been to him—a friend and confidant.

Return to England—Back in England, David discovers that Traddles and Sophy, his fiancée, have finally married after a ten-year engagement, and his doubts about his friend’s success in the legal field are allayed when he sees Traddles’s joy, generosity, and steady patience in action, strengthened by the same qualities in his wife. As yet, David is unable to express his feelings to Agnes, but fortunately, Aunt Betsey has sensed something between them and gently but subtly pushes him in that direction. Agnes has the same difficulties expressing herself on this issue, but it finally all bursts forth when David, realizing he has misinterpreted her silence, confesses the full extent of his love for her. She returns the feeling and, after breaking the news to Aunt Betsey, Mr. Dick, and Peggotty (who now lives with them), Agnes and David are married two weeks later. Eventually, they move to London, have a family, and David continues with his successful writing career.

A variety of endings—The last two chapters are a synopsis of what has happened to the different characters who have paraded through the book. In the next-to-last chapter, Mr. Peggotty returns for his final visit to England before going back to Australia for good. Through him, we learn what has happened to all the emigrants and find that it’s generally good news. The exception is Emily, who has a hint of sadness about her, though she’s contented and cheerful when around her uncle.

The final chapter details the fates of those who remained in England. Before these two chapters, we learned that Uriah Heep and Littimer, Steerforth’s former personal servant, are both making the most of their time in jail, prior to transportation. The rest of the characters have all evolved according to their choices and characters, continuing in the same way they always lived, for better or worse. But the outstanding light and love of David’s life is Agnes, and she will remain so throughout his time on earth.