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2 Adaptations 3 External links |
The story is that of a boy, David Copperfield, who is orphaned by his father and subsequently ill-treated by his cruel stepfather, Mr. Murdstone. When David's mother dies of the emotional torture inflicted on herself and her son by Mr. and Miss Murdstone, Mr. Murdstone sends him to work in the factory which he owns. The grim reality of hand-to-mouth factory existence echoes Dickens's own travails in a blacking factory. David escapes the factory by walking all the way from London to Canterbury, to find his only known relative - his eccentric Aunt Betsy Trotwood - who agrees to bring him up, if only to thwart the evil Miss Murdstone. David's aunt renames him Trotwood Copperfield, and for the rest of the novel the hero is called by either name. One effect of this double-naming is to divide the secondary characters according to when and through whom they got to know him.
The story follows David as he grows to adulthood, and the novel is enlivened by the many (now) well-known characters who enter and leave and re-enter his life. These include: his nurse, Peggotty, her family, and the orphan Little Em'ly who lives with them and charms the young David; his schoolfriend, Steerforth, who seduces and dishonors Little Em'ly, triggering the novel's greatest tragedy; and his childhood companion, Agnes Wickfield, the ideal "angel in the house". The two most famous characters are David's mentor, the constantly in debt Mr. Wilkins Micawber, and David's enemy, the devious and fraudulent clerk, Uriah Heep, whose misdeeds are eventually discovered with Micawber's assistance. Micawber is sympathetically painted, and, like Dickens's own father, was imprisoned for indebtedness. In classic Dickens style, the major characters get some measure of what they deserve, and few narrative threads are left hanging. David first marries the beautiful but empty-headed Dora Spenlow, but she dies fairly quickly and David marries and finds true happiness with Agnes, who has never ceased to love him.
Story
Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilersAdaptations
David Copperfield has been filmed on several occasions:
Numerous television adaptations of the work have also been created.External links