NOTES 1-52
1. (15)
All of the references from David Copperfield
are
taken from the Oxford Illustrated Dickens edition:
Dickens,
Charles. The Personal History of
David
Copperfield.
Intro. R.H. Malden.
Oxford: Oxford
University
Press, 1987.
2. For further reading on the subject of
general
religious
beliefs of the Victorian period a good source
is
Walter E. Houghton's The Victorian Mind especially
the
sub-chapter "Moral Earnestness and the Religious
Crisis"
found on pages 228-262.
3. Questions on Dickens' faith still continue
in some
circles
today. Steven Rost in a recent issue of
Christian
History writes
"While certain statements about
Christ
appear orthodox, the overall picture that Dickens
paints
cannot be considered orthodox when measured by
Scripture
or the historic creeds of Christianity" (41).
4. The importance of this particular scripture
to
David
Copperfield is that it is a verse which like the
novel
emphasizes the responsibility of those who misuse
the
influence they hold over those around them.
The
fact
that Steerforth drowns without reason seems to tie
in with
Christ's comment that an individual who causes
one of
his little ones to stumble would find it better
"that
a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were
cast
into the sea" (Mark 9:42 KJV). Of
course,
Steerforth
is one of the characters whose influence is
markedly
pernicious both on Little Em'ly and David.
And
his
death by drowning differs from the drowning of the
various
relatives within the ark-home of Daniel Peggotty
in that
all of them were in pursuit of a livelihood
while
he was in pursuit of pleasure. And Ham,
who
drowns
with Steerforth, does so in an purposeful attempt
to save
another's life. Only Steerforth's
drowning
seems
especially out of sync with his role in life and
therefor
appears more providential in its source.
It is
one
more reminder that David's recollection of his life
is one
which is set upon a stage strongly controlled by
biblical
patterns.
It is interesting also that David was
born with a
caul
which was supposed to protect him from drowning,
and
perhaps this demonstrates that he will be kept from
developing
the qualities of his hero Steerforth which
led to
that young man's death in the sea after seducing
a young
girl.
5. A number of critics have noticed that even
in the
development
of David's art the emphasis of his narrative
is not
on the struggle of creation but on his monetary
rise in
fortune. Note David's own comments in
chapter
xliii:
"I have come out in another way. I
have taken
with
fear and trembling to authorship. . .Now I am
regularly
paid for them. Altogether, I am well
off. .
." (627). Guiliano and Collins
observe that this
characteristic
stands in sharp contrast with Thackeray's
semi-autobiographical
Pendennis which is "far more
informative
about the experiences and emotions of a
young
man of this period who wants to live by his pen"
(418).
6. William O. Aydelotte's comments in his article
"Marx
and Mill in Fiction" are very helpful in
reminding
the reader of the "basic insecurity" within
Dickens
because of his close brush with poverty which is
"quite
apparent in" both his life and work (55).
This
leaves
Dickens with the contradictory qualities in his
personality
of being aware of the perverse affect money
can
have on an individual's sense of self yet at the
same
time perpetually striving to attain that very
status
through wealth.
7. This vision of Em'ly as utterly separate
from the
novel's
action was obviously not the opinion of Dickens'
audience. In addition to the public response to the
novel,
it is interesting to note that the most popular
version
of David Copperfield enacted upon the Victorian
stage
was the "highly successful" play, Little Em'ly,
"which
was revived at least eight times, and which
inspired
numerous imitations and secondary piracies"
(Bolton
321).
8. The ark-like quality of Peggotty's home is
actually
hidden
in Hablot Browne's (Phiz) illustration since he
drew
the boat upside down even though in the text "the
inference
is that the vessel stood upon its keel"
(Kitton
103). In fact Fred Barnard's
illustration for
the
Household Edition of the 1870s depicts the boat
clearly
ark-like and right side up. See
Appendix,
Figure
One for examples of both.
9. Ms. Raine, a colleague of mine, wonders if
there is
any
significance in the fact that the letter "I" (which
signifies
the concept of self) is usually left out of
Em'ly's
name. My initial response is to doubt
it,
noting
Dickens' realistic rendering of the Yarmouth
accent--"I
thowt so" and "I'm a going to seek my niece
through
the wureld." On the other hand,
considering
some of
Dickens' concoctions in names--"Miss Havasham,"
"Mr.
Murdstone" or "Ebenezer Scrooge"--such a pun is not
unlikely. Much of Janet Vogel's work examines such
playing
with words. So I submit the idea of
Em'ly's
lost
"I" as lost self for the reader's consideration.
10. Note how well Em'ly fits into Dickens'
description
of a
fallen individual even to the point of being an
orphan
herself. Guiliano and Collins comment
in The
Annotated
Dickens that being without parents is "A
common
fate in this novel. . .and often, as here, an
excuse
for mistakes of misbehavior" (454).
It is true
that
many characters in David Copperfield function
either
without any parents or especially without the
guidance
of one of their own sex. David, Agnes,
Steerforth,
Traddles, Em'ly, Ham, Martha, Dora, Annie,
Mrs. Micawber, and even Uriah Heep all suffer
from the
loss of
at least one parent. However, it is
probably an
inaccurate
word choice to see this as an "excuse for
mistakes." In fact several of the above characters
function
as channels of grace in the novel--avoiding
making
poor choices themselves while helping others
correct
theirs. Instead, Dickens is within this
work
very
realistically portraying the great void which is
left
within individuals' lives when one or more parents
are
lost--especially within the sphere pertaining to the
development
of a healthy concept of self, the lack of
which
plagues so many pilgrims.
11. In spite of the earlier mentioned
discrepancy about
Daniel's
boat-home, this study will from time to time
make
references to the illustrations included with the
novel's
text. It is recognized by most critics
that, as
Jackson
puts it, "Dickens, of course, collaborated with
Hablot
Brown [Phiz] on the illustrations and approved
the
final design" (68). Thus,
especially in a study
about
Dickens' use of Christian typology, the appliance
of
visual Christian cues approved by the author is
important.
12. The line between Dickens and David becomes a
bit
blurred
here. Certainly, as has been already
mentioned,
it is
David who is recollecting his life and building
the
pattern so important to him. However,
these details
are
from Daniel's mouth and are therefore Dickens'
creation. In the final analysis, however, it must be
maintained
that this entire work by Dickens is passing
through
the artificial filter of David's perspective.
13. Dickens' depiction of Christ saying that
"The
Angels
are all children" is a rather
interesting
interpretation
of the scripture which says about
children
"of such is the Kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14).
14. It is interesting to remember, that Christ
himself
was
accused of committing sacrilege when, as recorded in
Mark
2:2-11, he offered the man sick of palsy
forgiveness
before healing. Daniel would be
paralleling
Christ
even if his character were accused of impiety.
15. The significance of Christ's writing in the
sand
found
in John 8:3-11 is vague in scripture.
Some
traditions
suggest that he wrote a list of specific sins
applicable
to the woman's accusers. Dickens in his
version
stays fairly simple: "Jesus stooped down, and
wrote
with his finger in the sand on the ground, `He
that is
without sin among you, let him throw the first
stone
at her.' As they read this, looking over one
another's
shoulder, and as He repeated the words to
them,
they went away, one by one, ashamed, until not a
man of
all the noisy crowd was left there; and Jesus
Christ
and the woman hiding her face in her hands alone
remained"
(64). An interesting note about Dickens
perception
of this event is that in his Life of our Lord
the
story of the woman caught in adultery comes right
after
the parable found in Matthew 20:1-16 of the
generous
landowner and the vineyard workers who complain
because
the landowner pays the same wage to everyone no
matter
when they were hired during the day.
This
parable,
of course, describes the shared reward all will
receive
no matter when they claim God's gift of eternal
life. After the parable Dickens comments to his
children
(in the passage already quoted in this study)
that it
is never too late to return to God's grace.
The
point
is that Dickens purposely places the parable, his
commentary,
and the incident of the woman caught in
adultery
together. For him the event seems to
have
helped
illustrate the parable of constant, open love
which
may be why--along with the sexual overtones--the
event
was utilized to help describe Em'ly.
Yet, in
point
of fact, the two source scriptures of the New
Testament
are not only not close to one another in any
gospel narrative,
they are not even found in the same
gospels.
16. Some might doubt Martha's position as a
pilgrim
within
the cycle as it has been described here,
especially
since the reader is exposed first
hand to
only the middle and latter part of her progress-
-repentant
and post repentant. Certainly it could
be
argued
that she functions in the novel primarily as a
channel
of benevolence for Em'ly and therefore could be
placed
with Daniel Peggotty and Betsey Trotwood--both of
whom
reveal some pilgrim elements in their lives while
functioning
primarily as channels of grace.
However, in
Martha's
narrative there is an emphasis on her
progression
from lost to redeemed. And, unlike
Daniel
and
Aunt Betsey, her story--told at times in past
tense--does
complete the cycle of loss and reclamation.
17. The fact that the Strong marriage is
described in
such
Edenic terms is especially potent for David since
in the
earlier narrative about his own home (before the
coming
of Murdstone) he had also used imagery suggestive
of the
first paradise. The fall from Eden will
trouble
David
in one form or another all through his history.
18. When describing Mrs. Micawber's loud verbal
affirmations
of her decision never to leave her husband,
I do
not wish to appear unaware of how funny her
character
is. There were many times when reading
her
boisterous
protestations that I said with Gertrude of
Hamlet,
"The Lady doth protest too much, me-thinks"
(III,
ii). One wonders whether she has a
better offer
in the
wings somewhere. Still, the fact
remains that
all
through the novel, in the midst of some very trying
situations,
she does remain true to her spouse. And
since
Mrs. Micawber is like her husband a lover of
language,
it may be that her affirmations of loyalty--
which
would be over-statements in other characters--are
true
reflectors of the faithful heart of Emma Micawber.
19. In Martha Endell's story, Daniel, the best
of men,
must
fill this role since he is not just innocently
aware
of Martha's condition, but instead--as Ham
comments--could
not bear to "see them two together, side
by
side, for all the treasures that's wrecked in the
sea"
(337). Such active condemnation must
stand along
with
gossip as an act of perdition. It is
notable that
Daniel
later comes to repent it: "`Martha,' said Mr.
Peggotty,
`God forbid as I should judge you.
Forbid as
I, of
all men, should do that, my girl! You
doen't
know
half the change that's come, in course of time,
upon
me, when you think it likely. . .'" (684).
20. I am endebted to my wife, Loretta A.
Rearick, for
the
reminder that in especially the protestant tradition
that
"the wages of [any] sin is death" (Rom. 6:23 KJV).
21. Milton Millhauser, according to Guiliano and
Collins,
"plausibly suggests that Dickens had changed
his
mind while writing the novel" (440), that originally
Annie
was going to really be guilty of a wrong doing.
If this
were so Millhauser believes that her betrayal or
near-betrayal
of Dr. Stone would have paralleled
Steerforth's
betrayal of Em'ly. There is some
credibility
to this. However, it seems to me that
to
have an
individual whose reputation is darkened more by
rumor
than by sin seems to just as likely tie in to
Dickens'
multiple examinations of the dangers effect
self-righteous
judgment has on those it is aimed at--
such as
its influence on Martha or on David, himself,
especially
when living under the gloomy religion of the
Murdstones.
22. It is no accident that in the cases of Annie
Strong,
Wilkins Micawber and even, in part, Mr.
Wickfield
what they are in danger of losing is centered
in the
peace of their homes. Similarly,
David's
satisfied
lifestyle at the end of his narrative focuses
around
the joys of the family hearth.
23. The earlier mentioned affinity of Dickens'
readers
to
Pilgrim's Progress would certainly have been stirred
by this
vision of Martha's intense, suicidal distress
described
on the page entitled "Giant Despair." In
Bunyan's
work, Christian and Hopeful are tempted to
self-destruction
by a terrible giant actually named
Despair. According to the narrator, after the giant
had
thrown
his captives into "a very dark dungeon, nasty and
stinking
to the spirits of these two men" (154-155), he
tells
the two pilgrims,
. . .that since they were never like
to come
out of that place, their only way
would be,
forthwith to make an end of
themselves, either
with Knife, Halter, or Poison: For
why, said
he, should you chuse life, seeing it
is
attended with so much
bitterness. (157)
Martha's
nearness to self-destruction inspired by her
terrible
surroundings and Rosa Dartle's earlier
described
tempting of Em'ly to suicide would have been
not at
all surprising to readers familiar with
Christian's
pilgrimage in which the dreadful effects of
Despair
are treated. One other echo from
Pilgrim's
Progress
which should be mentioned is that when Martha
later
rescues Em'ly from the house of prostitution,
those
who are in charge attempt to stop her.
However,
Martha
"heeded no more what they said, than if she had
had no
ears" (729). This stopping up of
the ears in the
face of
opposition also occurs in Bunyan's work both at
the
beginning of Christian's journey, for as his friends
and
family try to stop him he "put his fingers in his
ears,
and ran on crying Life! life! eternal life!" (21),
and
later when Christian and Faithful are assaulted by
the
sights and sounds of Vanity Fair, it is noted that
they "put
their fingers in their ears, and cry [ed],
`Turn
away mine eyes from beholding vanity'" (122).
Such
echoes along with the already described scriptural
references
reenforce the vision of a Christian cycle of
Loss
and Reclamation.
24. Although Wickfield is an interesting
portrait of a
man who
endangers all that is valuable to him through
substance
abuse, Dickens never supported the popular
teatotal
movement of his day. Norris Pope notes
that
Dickens'
writings reveal his "usual contempt for. . .
temperance
advocates" (76). And he quotes
Dickens' fury
about
arguments for the closing of public houses on
Sunday
because of the drunkenness they encouraged by
saying
"That a whole people. . .should be judged by, and
made to
answer and suffer for the most degraded and
miserable
among them, is a principle so shocking in its
injustice,
and so lunatic in its absurdity, that to
entertain
if for a moment is to exhibit profound
ignorance
of the English mind and character" (76).
For
Dickens
moderation was the key for most when dealing
with
alcohol consumption.
24-A.
THIS NOTE IS NOT INCLUDED WITHIN THE TEXT ON FILE
WITH
ABSTRACTS INTERNATIONAL OR IN THE URI LIBRARY: It
is,
however, the basis for my first attempted article
"Mr.
Dickens' Dirty Dick Joke."
Although Betsey Trotwood's relationship
with
Mr.
Dick is certainly one more manifestation of her
unquestionably
benevolent character in David
Copperfield,
many critics have noted her goodness has a
dark
side--an almost pathological fear and hatred of men
based,
in part, upon the abuse she experienced within
her own
marriage. What is interesting is that
her
relationship
with Mr. Dick makes complete sense within
the
parameters of such a mental scar, and it is
emphasized
by a possible pun in her charge's name.
There
is good reason to believe that Mr. Dick's name may
be one
of the first double-entendres in print in which
the
author is also referring to the male member.
The
joke of
a spinster keeping under tight control a man
whose
name is "Dick"--which she happily notes is a
shorter
version of his name--underlines the sexual
phobia
combined with unconscious attraction Aunt Betsey
struggles
under in the first part of the novel.
Most
importantly,
however, what comes from an awareness of
Miss
Trotwood's sexual fears twisted in with her un-
admitted
erotic attraction and fascination for men is an
enhanced
cognizance of how much her own nature is
redeemed
during the course of the novel's action.
One has only to look at Miss Havisham of
Great
Expectations
to realize the dark peril in which Aunt
Betsey's
hatred of men has placed her. Like Miss
Havisham,
Miss Trotwood could have wasted her life
torturing
herself and others. In many ways they
are
parallel
characters. Like the wasted bride of
Satis
House,
Miss Trotwood is a wronged woman. David
notes
that
Miss Trotwood's husband was "strongly suspected of
having
beaten Miss Betsey, and even of having once, on a
disputed
question of supplies, made some hasty but
determined
arrangements to throw her out of a two pair
of
stairs' window" (3). Also like
Miss Havisham, Aunt
Betsey's
original method of dealing with her pain is her
renunciation
of all men and an isolation to some distant
home.
The narrator's treatment of the incident
is light,
separated
as he is by the chasm of time which makes
anything
occurring before one's birth part of the world
of
"wild legend" (3) and fairy.
David gives the
illusion
that the whole matter is tied up neatly with
the conclusion
that Betsey decides to pay her husband
"off,
and effect a separation by mutual consent" (3).
But the
reader is quick to realize that the
ramifications
of this incident reverberate deep into the
David's
own experiences for his aunt is so deeply
scarred
from her experiences that she originally can not
deal
with David, the infant, except as a representative
of the
hated male species.
Betsey's antagonism to
"male-kind" appears several
times
within the text--sometimes overtly and sometimes
subtly. David is rejected by Betsey as an baby
simply
because
he is male; she even takes a swing at poor Dr.
Chillip
when he announces that David is "a boy" (12).
And
when David finally makes his pilgrimage to Dover
from
London, he learns that she has been taking in a
series
of young ladies as servants always intending to
educate
them "in a renouncement of mankind" (194).
Again
the similarity to Miss Havisham who brings up
Estella
"to wreak revenge on all the male sex" is
striking
(166).
On a more subtle yet more erotic level,
Edwin
Eigner
has pointed out that Betsey's on-going war with
Donkeys
who dare come upon a little piece of green
(which
the narrator is not at all sure is her property)
is
probably sexually motivated. David
records that "The
one
great outrage that she had, demanding to be
constantly
avenged, was the passage of a donkey over
that
immaculate spot" (195). Eigner
notes that
"Dickens'
readers, living in an age without automobiles,
might
have been familiar through observation: that the
erect
penis of the donkey is proportionally longer than
that of
any other mammal" (5). Also,
recalling how most
male
mammals react to cold, Aunt Betsey's repeated
tactics
of dowsing the donkey rider and animal with cold
water
becomes suddenly clear to the reader.
With this
in
mind, along with Betsey's brutal marriage, the verb
"avenged"
makes great sense as does her desire to
protect
"that immaculate spot." The
green has become an
allegory
for feminine purity which is forever in danger
of
being despoiled and trodden upon by "maleness." Thus,
Aunt
Betsey is trying to create an Amazon existence
without
penises in which she can say "No boys here"
(191). And considering her dislike of the male
member,
it is
probably significant that her first motion towards
the
eleven year old David is a "chop in the air with her
knife"
(191).
However, the Betsey Trotwood whom David
meets that
day in
Dover is already subtly different from the one
who
rejected the infant David years earlier.
The
alteration
is so well hidden that David does not see it;
she
seems unchangeable to him. However, she
has let a
man
into her life, a Mr. Dick.
Mr. Dick, of course, is no danger to Aunt
Betsey
erotically
because he is not a sexual being but a child
in a
man's body who flies kites and jingles coins in his
pocket. Guiliano and Collins remind the reader that
Dickens
had originally in his manuscript planned to name
Betsey's
charge Mr. Robert (143), but went instead with
the
name "Dick," a name which by the writing of David
Copperfield
he very likely knew was charged with sexual
meaning.
Of course even without going to the overt
phallus
reference,
the term "Dick" as an allusion to a man goes
back
deep in the English history. According
to
Partridge,
such general use can be found as far back as
the
late 16th century (304). However, it is
probable
that
Dickens was being even more overt.
Although the 1989, second edition of The
Oxford
English
Dictionary's first reference to "Dick" as penis
in
print is the 1891 allusion from Farmer's Slang and
its
Analogues (2:997), Eric Partridge's Dictionary of
Slang
and Unconventional English records that by 1880 it
was
already common among military men (304).
Rawson in
Wicked
Words reminds us that "the origin of the term is
obscure"
(116). So it is not difficult to
imagine that
Dickens
may have heard the "dick" used this way by the
time he
was writing David Copperfield in 1849.
However,
even
more interesting, the name "Dick" was always
connected
with Aunt Betsey's anathemas--Donkeys.
In
fact,
the original full word used by fastidious people
within
the 18th century who did not like the term "Ass"
for the
hard-working farm animal was "Donkey-Dick" which
was a
simply a name like "Dunkin" or "Dobbin" often
given
to the beast (See Mr. Micawber's song in
Copperfield
on page 171 for an example of the
familiarity
of the name). Partridge also point out,
however,
that the animal quickly gained a sexual
reputation,
noting that another way to describe a man as
being
"well hung" in the 18th century was to say "hung
like a jack donkey" (1316), or, if you
will, hung like
a
"Donkey-Dick." Also, what
many scholars seem to have
forgotten
is that a great number of solders, the source
of
Partridge's "military" reference to dick as penis,
were
originally farmers. Thus it seems
likely that the
military
use came originally from farm-boys in the
British
service. The connection of the farm
animal and
the
military references suggest not only a single source
but
also a longer history to the slang term's use than
usually
given--certainly making it well established
enough
for Dickens to have been aware of it.
Eigner also mentions in footnote eighteen
that his
colleague
John Jordan notes that Aunt Betsey's servant's
name is
Janet, the diminutive of which is "Jenny." And
"Jenny"
is an old term for a female donkey.
Thus,
within
her own home Betsey keeps two individuals whose
names
carry strong sexual overtones connected with farm
animals. That she allows this shows her sexual
fascination,
but her scar could only tolerate Mr. Dick's
presence
if he were safe. Of course, the only
thing
which
keeps Aunt Betsey (and Jenny for that matter)
sexually
safe is Mr. Dick's idiocy which makes him
prefer
the life of a child. Therefore, there
is a
special
significance to Betsey's statement about Mr Dick
to
David that "you are not to suppose that he hasn't got
a
longer name, if he chose to use it" (201). Again her
actions
reveal what may be an unconscious fascination of
hers. For those who know the etymology of some of
the
words,
the joke seems very clear.
What makes this more than just some
off-color tid-
bit
(that I'm sure some might wish had never been
revealed)
is that the sexual potency of Mr. Dick's name
in
contrast with his sexual neutrality emphasizes the
terrible
mental state in which Betsey Trotwood begins
the
novel. Understanding how twisted she is
shows not
only
how dark her mind was originally it also emphasizes
the
progress she makes. At first all Betsey
can deal
with
are women, then all she can stand are mentally
castrated
men. Yet, the letting into her home of
Mr.
Dick
encourages Aunt Betsey to become a force of good
and
push against her fear of mankind. Even
young David
comments
that the "generosity of her championship" for
Mr.
Dick builds hope in him that she may to do good for
him as
well (206). And so she does. Because David will
someday
be a man, he is by far more dangerous to
Betsey's
scarred mind than any other person in need she
has
faced since her renouncement of males, but having
been
expanded by helping Mr. Dick, she can still accept
David
the boy (Of course it helps that he is still a
sexually
safe as a child himself). However, as
David
matures
and enters into the active pursuit of the
opposite
sex, Aunt Betsey, because of her love for him,
is
finally able to pull away from her mania, and in the
end
gives David sound advice of how men and women should
live with
one another. She also develops an
awareness
of from
what she had been.
Betsey shows an understanding of how
badly she had
been
hurt when she tells her husband: "You stripped me
of the
great part of all I ever had. . .you closed my
heart
against the whole world" (688). In
particular he
had
closed her heart to all men. And also
when she
tells
David that "you and I have done one another some
good"
(638) an awareness created by the double-entendre
of Mr.
Dick's name along with Aunt Betsey's phobia helps
the
reader to realize how much good being kind to Mr.
Dick
and later David has been for Miss Betsey Trotwood.
The
world and the men in it are again open to her--even
if she
is still unable by the end of the novel to abide
Donkeys
on her green.
25. Other examples of the comic-wise character
exist
all
through David Copperfield. Micawber's
quality of
being a
wise fool has already been covered. (It
is
significant
that McCarron begins his article with the
same
scripture (1 Cor. 3:18) in which Paul advises the
one who
wishes to be prudent to "become a fool, that he
may be
wise," already used in this study's discussion of
Micawber.) However, in David's life two of his most
important
channels of grace are also wise fools.
Of his
nurse,
Peggotty, David says that he felt for her
"something
I have never felt for any other human being.
It was
a sort of comical affection too" (61).
He makes
this
confession after describing his first pivotal
experience
in loss and reclamation discussed later in
this
study. Peggotty is absolutely
invaluable for his
spiritual
health, and yet she also, in her love, makes
herself
look ridiculous trying to kiss David through a
keyhole. Similarly, Betsey Trotwood also has no
regard
to how
she looks when she is pursuing her objective to
do
good. One of the ways she completely
befuddles the
Murdstones
is by her total disregard of social niceties
in
telling them what she really thinks of them.
Betsey
is also
an extremely funny character, especially in the
war she
wages against donkeys on her lawn. And
yet her
and
Peggotty's ability to entirely forget convention to
show
love would surely have reminded some readers of
Christ
who broke all etiquette the night he gave up his
role as
Rabbi and washed his disciples feet as a
servant.
26. The woolsack is a large symbolic cushion sat
upon
by the
Lord Chancellor, "when presiding over the House
of
Lords" (Guiliano and Collins 358).
Dr. Gutchen
reminds
me that this reference means that Micawber sees
himself
as Lord Chancellor of England, the highest judge
in the
land.
27. Besides those critics already mentioned in
the
first
chapter, Graham Storey has a helpful chapter on
the use
of fairy tale elements in his book David
Copperfield:
Interweaving Truth and Fiction (92-99), and
he,
himself, gives special notice to Harry Stone's work
"David
Copperfield: The Fairy-Tale Method Perfected," in
his
Dickens and the Invisible World.
28. Besides reminding the reader of the above
point,
Guiliano
and Collins also helpfully defines a caul as
the
"thin tissue enclosing the foetus; sometimes a
fragment
of it emerges on the baby's head" (12).
The
1989,
Second Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary
in the
"b" section of the fifth definition describes
the
caul as the "amnion or inner membrane inclosing the
faetus
before birth: esp this or a portion of it
sometimes
enveloping the head of the child at birth,
superstitiously
regarded as a good omen, and supposed to
be a
preservative against drowning" (2:997).
The first
written
references goes back to 1547. Dickens'
use in
David
Copperfield is the fifth entry listed.
29. Dr. Gutchen also reminds me that Latin for
left is
"sinister."
30. An indication of how much Dickens envisions
David
hating
Murdstone, even while writing this account, is
indicated
(as Guiliano and Collins point out) by the
fact
that in both Dickens' "number plan. . .and
manuscript
the phrase [about his ill omened eyes
actually]
ran `his damned black eyes'" (31).
This would
have
been still another religious cue of Murdstone's
nature. But it is not needed with all of the other
diabolical
references within this first stage.
31. In all of the narrative David never calls
Miss
Murdstone
"aunt" and more pointedly he never calls Mr.
Murdstone
"father." Perhaps even more telling, neither
of the
Murdstones encourage him to do use these
appropriate
titles of his connection to them. This
is
just
one more example of the process of isolation which
begins
with the coming of the Murdstones into David's
life.
32. The reference to a condemned service
re-emphasizes
the
theme of death since such a service was conducted
for
those about to be executed.
33. The reduction of human beings into dogs
occurs
often
in David Copperfield. Biblically no
animal has a
more
foul and lowly reputation than a dog, demonstrated
by
scriptural references ranging from Goliath's raging
cry
"Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?" (1
Sam.
17:43 KJV) to Paul's warning to his readers to
"Beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the
concision"
(Ph'p 3:2 KJV).
Except for the one case with Mr. Dick,
dogs are
consistently
used as an image of degradation, usually
created
by one character's attitude towards another.
As
noted
here, Murdstone beats David like a dog and David
responds
like a dog by biting him. Later
Murdstone
writes
ahead to Salem House about what his step-son had
done,
and Creakle makes a placard which reads "Take care
of
him. He bites" (78). When David sees the placard he
assumes
it is about a dog. "Isn't is a dog
sir?" he
says to
his teacher, Mr. Mell, "That's to be taken care
of,
sir; that bites?" (78). The
negative effect this
has on
David's self-image will be covered later.
While
at
Salem House, David describes the way Creakle crushes
the
spirit of the boys under his control as he "cuts a
joke
before he beats him [a boy with a less than perfect
exercise],
and we laugh at it--miserable little dogs, we
laugh"
(90). David refers to Heep still later
as a
"Hound"
(369). And Miss Dartle when commanding
the, by
then,
disgraced Mr. Littimer to relate to David what he
knows
about Em'ly's escape, commands him to come forward
"as
if she were calling to some unclean beast'" (667).
In the
final scene of the Heeps' defeat, David refers to
Heep as
a "mongrel cur" who "growled" in defiance"
(759). In light of how he himself is wounded by
such
dog
treatment, David's application of the term to Heep
brings
up some disturbing questions about his state of
mind.
Only with Mr. Dick, who is compared with
a
Shepherd's
dog" (759) in this same scene and whose
loyalty
to the Doctor and Mrs. Strong is like that which
"is
borne towards man, by one of the lower animals"
(623),
is the dog image used positively. The
reason may
be that
as a channel of grace he is the great shepherd's
(Christ's)
dog. And even a dog in the service of
benevolence
is a force for good.
34. This vision of the wharf by the river as
being
Hellish
will also play a role later in Martha's story,
and
this experience of David's may explain why he, in
particular,
views the landscape Daniel and he find her
in as
especially foul. Of course it may
simply be that
the
riverside of the Themes was especially foul.
35. Edwin M. Eigner in "David Copperfield
and the
Benevolent
Spirit" also makes a good case that Betsey
Trotwood
would have been immediately recognizable to
Victorian
audiences as a generous and good figure
because
she matches "a character in the nineteenth
century
Christmas pantomimes. . .[known] as the
Benevolent
Spirit" (3). In fact, Eigner notes
that the
name
"Dame Trot" was actually a common name for this
figure.
36. This peaceful appearance seems to further
support
the
earlier mentioned connection of Mr. Dick's kite
flying
to prayer.
37. David underlines Creakle's malevolent nature
by
using
biblical typology. He recalls that he
and the
other
boys in Salem house were "Miserable little
propitiators
of a remorseless Idol, how abject we were
to him!
(90). To be guilty of idolatry is
especially
pernicious
in scripture. And because Creakle leads
his
boys
into this idolatry, his evil would be in the mind
of some
readers as great as King Jeroboam's who, because
he led
the children of Israel into idol worship is
condemned
by the chronicler to his memory accursed,
"even
to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face
of the
earth" (1 Kings 13:34 KJV). It is
not being
suggested
here that Dickens had Jeroboam specifically in
mind,
but he was aware that in biblical typology the act
of
leading children into idolatry was especially
damnable.
And his having David use such images to
describe
Creakle emphasizes the pernicious influence
David
suggests his old head-master had on his life.
38. Although the narrator undermines this
thought by
immediately
saying "I believe he only did it because
they
[skeletons] were easy" to draw, the reference is
still
before the reader's mind and is compounded with
David's
later descriptions.
39. Like the earlier mentioned scripture Psalm
24:7,
this
portion of prophesy would have been very familiar,
even to
Victorian readers (like Dickens) who did not
favor
the Old Testament, because of its role in a
powerful
chorus within Handel's Messiah.
40. Note how Steerforth in even his attack on
Traddles
attempts
to undermine Traddles own sense of self.
There
is a
similarity here and in his treatment of Mell.
Destroy
how an opponent values himself and he becomes a
less
effective threat. In this case,
however,
Steerforth
does so through sexual questions rather than
class
designations. However, that fact that
he does
approach
Traddles in this way clearly aligns him with
the
forces of perdition. As it has been
demonstrated,
one of
the basic tools employed by evil all through
David
Copperfield against David and other pilgrims is
the
undermining of the sense of self so central to their
journey.
41. Raina also points out that in spite of
David's
claim
that most people were susceptible to Steerforth's
charms,
Traddles clearly wasn't and neither will Agnes
be
later. I would point out, however, that
both
Traddles
and Agnes function in the narrator's mind in
the
rather exceptional role as pure channels of grace.
David's
description of the school makes it clear that
Traddles
is a minority of one. "The
boys" were on the
whole
were in agreement to exalt "Steerforth to the
skies"
(94). Also there is validity in Raina's
claim
that
"Traddles' response to situations that include both
David
and Traddles" means that he "functions as reliable
comment
on David throughout David Copperfield" (84).
However,
Raina's conclusion that Traddles undermines
David's
defense of being misled because of his "tender
age and
emotionally insecurity" because Traddles "is
only as
old as David and also an orphan" (84), neglects
to take
into account Murdstone's abuse and the fact that
David
is younger than Traddles, for David was quoted
earlier
comparing himself to Traddles and being "nothing
like so
old" (92).
42. Raina makes the interesting suggestion that
a good
part of
David's instant and constant dislike for Uriah
Heep is
based on class snobbishness against a man of low
rank
attempting to rise beyond his means.
Still, there
is a
lot more to Heep's villainy than a desire to
eventually
become a Wickfield's partner. And while
David,
thanks to Agnes' pleas, tries to favor Heep,
Uriah's
schemes and maneuverings confirm David's
original
negative impressions.
43. Again Raina interprets David's behavior
rather
harshly
calling this treatment of Micawber an example of
"David's
unpleasantly self-regarding and calculating
moral
intelligence" (91). However, two
truths within
the
text should be pointed out. One, David
is still
quit
young, perhaps a little over eleven years old
having
gone through one birthday in London, and so a
sense
of uncertainty in how Micawber will affect his
very
recently regained fortunes is understandable.
The
second
is that David very correctly senses that a flaw
in his
past will be of great use to the socially
manipulative
Heeps. His description of his
conversation
with
Uriah and his mother is filled with unpleasant
extracting
images as he describes himself as a "tender
young
cork" which had no "chance against a pair of
corkscrews,
or a tender young tooth against a pair of
dentists"
(255). Thus, Micawber's presence is a
real
threat,
and with that in mind it is laudable that David,
in
spite of his misgivings, still responds open handedly
to his
old debt stained acquaintance from London.
44. I am thankful to Rev. Ann Cubie Rearick for
her
insight
about the possible satanic connections to
David's
"guiding-star" reference, her clarification of
the
difference between overt evil and the angel of
light,
and her listing of biblical echoes missed even in
my
multiple readings.
45. Jackson also makes an interesting
observation that
although
there is not evidence in the actual text of a
stained
glass window in David's Edenic period, the Phiz
illustration
clearly depicts a stained glass window
behind
the pew in which David, his mother and Peggotty
are
sitting. Again the integration in
Dickens' work of
text
and illustration is supported.
46. A number of reasons have been suggested for
David's
foolish
choice to marry someone so unsuitable for an
adult
union as Dora Spenlow. Of course, just
as one of
Steerforth's
primary admirable qualities was, according
to
David, that he "was very good looking" (84), so David
is
constantly drawn to women whose appeal lies in their
obvious
attractiveness and flirtatious manner.
Little
Em'ly
is his first attachment, a child whom he describes
as
"the most beautiful little girl" who "wouldn't let me
kiss
her" (31). However there are
others like Miss
Shepherd
"with curly flaxen hair" (265), and the elder
Miss
Larkins who teasingly calls him "a bold boy" at a
formal
dance (271). All of these women
demonstrate
David's
tendency to be attracted mainly by appearance.
This emphasis on good looks would also
wave red
flags
before the eyes of Dickens' readers especially
tuned
to religious imagery since such an emphasize on
the
outer appearance has always been a quality of fallen
humanity. Many of Dickens' readers would know the
verse
"Man
looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord
looketh
on the heart" (1 Sam. 165:7 KJV).
Equally well
known
and applying specifically to women would be Paul's
admonition
that "women adorn themselves in modest
apparel,
with shamefacedness and sobriety not with
broided
hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array" (1
Tim 2:9
KJV). Thus, David's emphasis on being
captivated
by what is attractive to his eyes and not his
head
would prepare such readers for his marriage
troubles
later.
There is, of course, the psychological
fact that
David
may be, as Jackson and other critics have
suggested,
looking for the mother he lost when a child.
All
these overtly attractive women tie into the memory
which
David records of his earliest recollections that
he
knows that his mother was "proud of being so pretty"
(16). And this similarity with his mother who was
crushed
by Murdstone is crucial since it also cues the
reader
to the questionable approach David attempts when
he
later tries to "form" his own wife's mind.
47. Interestingly in Phiz's illustration Agnes'
hands
are
clasped as she looks downward. However
the
religious
feeling the reader is supposed to associate
with
her is still emphasized by the image of the cross
of St.
Paul's seen through the window just over her
shoulder
(See Figure Nine in Appendix).
48. Several critics like Raina have commented
that
David's
attachment to the fallen Steerforth shows that
he is
still attracted to the evil system which his
friend
is a part. However, as has been noted,
it is not
the
system David finds evil but its misuse in order to
abuse
individuals of a lesser rank.
Furthermore, such
complaints
do not take into account the fact that
readers
working with religious expectations would not be
surprised
that David's love endures beyond Steerforth's
fall. The entire cycle of loss and reclamation, so
often
described in this novel, functions on the premise
of the
continued worth of a fallen individual.
To
support
this belief readers attuned to Christian
typology
might point to the example of God who
"commendeth
his love toward us. . .while we were yet
sinners"
(Rom. 5:8 KJV). And there are
innumerable
examples
in the Bible of enduring love from the fallen
transgressor:
the prophet Samuel's continued morning for
his
disobedient King Saul (1 Sam. 16:1), King David's
wrenching
grief over his rebellious son, Absalom (2 Sam.
18:33),
and Christ's suggested grief for the lost
disciple
Judas (Matt. 26:38). Therefore, to such
readers
David's grief for Steerforth actually shows him
to have
a spiritually healthy heart rather than a flawed
one.
49. Guiliano and Collins note that while
Wordsworth's
Prelude,
which affirmed the healing quality of nature,
came
out "a few months before Dickens was writing this
chapter,"
it is not likely that he read it, having never
been a
"devotee of Wordsworth's poetry" (539). They do
think
it is possible that Dickens was aware of Byron's
Child
Harold whose wandering protagonist among the Alps
helped
in the process of "vulgarizing such Wordsworthian
notions"
(539). And Guiliano and Collins also
suspect
that
Dickens could have just as easily picked up the
idea
from Wordsworth's earlier published (and shorter)
work
"Tinturn Abbey."
50. Arlene Jackson makes a good point that the
last
Phiz
illustration in the Copperfield series of
engravings
is filled with Christian iconography (See
Figure
Ten in Appendix). Quoting herself from
Michael
Steig
she writes "`The two angel statuettes on the
mantel
remind us of Agnes' role for David throughout the
novel,
and their centrality here suggest her ultimate
triumph.
. .the rollicking cherubs adorning the clock
may
imply the number and angelic status of the many
children
this couple have produced in ten years.'"
She
also notes how the Christian symbol of God's house
makes
"a definite appearance on the floor of the room
where
we see that the children have been constructing a
church,
complete with cross placed on its roof" (64).
While
we may differ on the interpretation of the meaning
of these
images, I agree with Jackson that David
connects
Agnes with a church leitmotif all through the
novel.
51. As was mentioned in the first chapter,
Dickens'
faith
was a private matter. While it is
possible to see
David's
working out of loss and reclamation as a
manifestation
of Dickens' own faith, it is just as
possible
to view the system of loss and reclamation
described
in the novel as--in the term David uses to
describe
Betsey's lie--a "pious fraud."
As has been
demonstrated,
Dickens' vision of loss and reclamation
does
not rely solely on Divine intervention, but rests
heavily
upon benevolent human interaction.
Whatever
Dickens
may have believed about Providence, he would
certainly
encourage any system which helped humans treat
other
humans in a humane way.
52. For an excellent full description of the
many
manifestations
of death in David Copperfield, see
Stanley
Friedman's "Dickens' Mid-Victorian Theodicy."