《大卫

Charles Dickens is a great master of critical realism in nineteenth century. His works have great influence on world literature. In his works, he depicted the social life of Victorian Age in nineteenth century, and exposed social phenomenon. His works gave strong smack of social reality. His favorite work David Copperfield has been recognized as Bildungsroman.

By analyzing David Copperfield from the perspective of Bildungsroman，this thesis mainly deals with the process of the growth of David Copperfield, which reflects the realization of individual ideal in the Victorian Age. The thesis is made up of four parts. The first chapter is introduction of Dickens, the main achievements of David Copperfield at home and aboard in recent years and the thesis statement. The second part chapter briefly introduces the concept of Bildungsroman. The third chapter makes a general overview of realization of David‘s ideal. The fourth chapter draws the conclusion that the growth connection with knowledge, money, social standing and love and marriage in Victorian Age. This thesis was significant for us to study the relationship between one‘s growth and social background.

Keywords: Charles Dickens; David Copperfield; Bildungsroman;

摘 要

查尔斯•狄更斯是十九世纪伟大的批判现实主义作家。他的作品对世界的文学产生了巨大而深远的影响。他的作品表现了英国十九世纪维多利亚时期的社会生活，揭露了该时期繁华背后下的黑暗与罪恶，深刻批判了资本主义世界的糜烂与道德沦丧。他的作品《大卫•科波菲尔》是一部成长小说，通过这部小说我们将了解这一时期的个人理想主义。

本文力图通过对成长小说和大卫•科波菲尔个人理想实现过程的研究，讨论维多利亚时期个人理想的实现。本论文共分四部分。论文的第一部分介绍作者狄更斯，近年来国内外学者对《大卫•科波菲尔》研究的文献综述及文章论述。第二部分介绍成长小说。第三个部分写大卫•科波菲尔遭遇的事件及个人理想的实现。第四部分综述维多利亚时期知识、金钱、社会地位、爱情婚姻与个人理想的联系。本论文对研究个人成长与社会背景间的关系具有重要意义。

关键词：查尔斯•狄更斯；《大卫•科波菲尔》；成长小说；

Table of Contents

I. Introduction............................................................................................................................1

1.1 An Introduction to Charles Dickens..............................................................................1 1.2 Thesis Statement ...........................................................................................................5 II. The Concept of Bildungsroman...........................................................................................6

2.1 The Origin of Bildungsroman........................................................................................6 2.2 The Definition of the Bildungsroman............................................................................7 2.3 The Characteristics of the Bildungsroman.....................................................................8 III. The Process of the Realization of David’s Ideal..............................................................10

3.1 Cruel Mr. Murdstone and Clara‘s Death.......................................................................10 3.2 Salem House – A Boarding School...............................................................................10

3.3 Working in the Warehouse............................................................................................11 3.4 David‘s ―Friend‖, James Steerforth..............................................................................11 3.5 Dora‘s Death.................................................................................................................12 3.6 Greedy Heep.................................................................................................................13 3.7 David‘s Autocriticism...................................................................................................13 3.8 Achievement of Money, Social Standing, Love and Marriage.....................................14 IV. Conclusion...........................................................................................................................15 Works Cited...............................................................................................................................16

I. Introduction

Charles Dickens is one of the greatest English writers during the period of the Victorian. The vivid description of his novels in nineteenth century England in his work is accurate and profound. He influences many novelists from the late Victorian even to now. This part includes his life, the literature review of David Copperfield and the thesis statement.

1.1 An Introduction to Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is generally considered to be the most important English novelist of the

nineteenth century. He completed many novels and short stories in his over 30 years‘ writing career. Millions of readers, with various origins and ages and tastes, have taken enormous pleasure in his work. They craved for each new part of his serialized novels, which were never out of print.

Charles Dickens was born in 1812, at Landport in Portsea. His father, John Dickens was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. He was the second child of John and Elizabeth. When he was four, his family moved to Chathan. At the age of eleven, they moved to Camden Town. In 1824, his father was imprisoned because of financial problem, and shortly the rest of his family joined him except Charles who was sent to work ten hours every day in the Warren's Blacking Warehouse. He suffered pain and tortured under the cruel working condition. Those experiences later influenced his fiction and became the foundation of his work. Maybe it is the reason why most of Dickens‘ works focus on the bottom of the society. Thanks to a legacy, the family inherited a large amount of money and the Dickens were granted release from prison. He attended the Wellington House Academy and became a political journalist. His first real novel, The Pickwick Papers, an overnight success, was published in 1836. This work was regarded as the first representative of Victorian Age. Then he finished Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and The Old Curiosity Shop. After finishing Barnaby Rudge in 1841, he went to America, where he wrote American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit. After the travel to America,

he finished A Christmas Carol which made a great impact on America and England. From 1844 to 1846, Dickens travelled to the European continent. When he arrived in Switzerland, he began to work on Dombey and Son. In 1849, David Copperfield was published, which is known as an autobiography. After that, his novels became more serious in theme and more critical than his early works, such as Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home, and couldn‘t finish his first whodunit Edwin Drood. He was laid to rest in the Poets‘ Corner of Westminster Abbey.

As the greatest critical Realism England writer, Charles Dickens not only described capitalism society and ironic capitalist at that time, but also revealed the greed and hypocrisy of the governing class. He strongly expressed his sympathy for the poor people.

1.2 Thesis Statement

Based on the literature review above, this thesis attempts to analyze David Copperfield from the perspective of Bildungsroman. It mainly deals with the process of the growth of David Copperfield, which reflects the individual ideal in the Victorian Age. As a period of dynamic change and recurrent social unrest, the growing gulf between the rich and the poor greatly enlarged. As a result, the middle class members tried to establish a society based on their moral values rather than on one‘s birth. David Copperfield reveals the upward movement of the middle class from the insignificance to successful social recognition with hard work and morality. David Copperfield is the only positive protagonist who units the middle class moral values and his class status in Dickens‘ second period‘s novels. Although evil captures some powerful reigns such as economic strength and social statue, morality still exists in humble ones and would win in the end.

II. The Concept of Bildungsroman

In order to get a better understanding of David Copperfield as a Bildungsroman, this part is mainly about the origin, definition, and characteristics of Bildungsroman.

2.1 The Origin of Bildungsroman

Bildungsroman, as a literary genre, first originated in Germany in the late 18th century, is one of the significant German contributions to the world literature. Wilhelm Meister‘s Apprenticeship is generally regarded as the prototypical text of this genre. ―Bildungsroman‖ is a German word, which is a compound of ―Bildung‖ and ―Roman‖. ―Bildung‖ is synonymous with shaping in English and ―Roman‖ is of French origin which simply means ―Roman‖(Buckley, 1974: 13 – 14). The full meaning of the combination of ―Bildung‖ and ―Roman‖ is ―novel of formation‖ .The term was first used in Goethe‘s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (Abrams, 2003: 193). Influenced by the Bildungsroman of Goethe‘s hero, critics of that time defined the Bildungsroman as a kind of novel that was about a youth‘s development. It is not until the philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey applied the term in his essay on Friedrick Schleiermacher in 1870 that the concept of Bildungsroman gained much wide acceptance.

In 1824, Thomas Carlyle translated Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre into English and imitated it in his Sartor Resartus. Since then，the concept of the Bildungsroman spread from Germany to England. Although English Bildungsroman resembles its German counterpart, there are some differences between them. The English Bildungsroman typically emphasizes the preliminary fear of the outside world as a menace for individual identity, while the Goethian ideal of harmony, as a delicate compromise of heterogeneous commitments, focuses

on the Ego‘s internal dynamics. The English Bildungsroman is considered to be ―less sensitive to major historical changes than the continental one, in the respect of the stability of narrative conventions and basic cultural assumptions‖ (Moretti, 1987: 182).The English Bildungsroman often involved the protagonist‘s move from the country to the city, it was more concerned with the religions skepticism, and it ended less optimistically than the German Bildungsroman.

The rise of the Bildungsroman in English led to the emergence of several novels that are generally considered examples of the Bildungsroman genre. such as George Eliot‘s The Mill on the Floss(1860), Charles Dickens‘s Great Expectations(1861), Jane Austen‘s Emma(1815), Charlotte Bronte‘s Jane Eyre(1847), Henry James‘s Roderick Hudson(1875), Henry James‘s Ambassadors(1903) and James Joyce‘s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man(1916),etc.

In European country, people tend to use the Bildungsroman as the basic term. However, in America, Bildungsroman has used to be translated as ―Novel of youth‖, ―Novel of adolescence‖, ―Novel of life‖, ―Growing – up – novel‖ or ―Coming – of – age novel‖. ―Novel of youth‖ or ―Novel of adolescence‖ is more inclusive in semantic field.‖

2.2 The Definition of the Bildungsroman

Many critics have made some definitions of the Bildungsroman. There are some typical academic standard definitions below:

Susanne Howe defined the Bildungsroman as ―Novel of all around development containing ‗a more or less conscious attempt on the part of the hero to integrate his powers, to cultivate himself by his experience.‘‖ (Susanne Howe, 1966: 49). Kontje defined the hero of a Bildungsroman as ―engages in the double task of self-integration and integration into society‖. Under ideal circumstances, the first implies the second: the mature hero becomes a useful and satisfied citizen‖(Kontje, 1992: 12).The famous theoretician, Abrams, interprets the term ―Bildungsroman‖ and ―Entwicklungsroman‖ as ―the subject of this kind of novels is the development of the protagonist‘s mind and character, in the passage from childhood through varied experiences – and often through a spiritual crisis – into maturity, which usually involves recognition of one‘s identity and role in the world.‖(Abrams, 2005: 193)

Based on several critical definitions about this genre, Mordecai Marcus made a further research and summarized them into two groups: the first group describes initiation as a passage of the young from ignorance about the external world to some vital knowledge; the second group describes initiation as an important self – discovery and resulting adjustment to life or society. In his book, what is an Initiation Story, he finally provided an effective definition for initiation story: ―young protagonist experiencing a significant change of knowledge about the world or self, or a change of character, or of both and this change must lead him towards an adult world. It may or may not contain some form of ritual, but it should give some evidence that the change is at least likely to have permanent effects.‖(Modecai Marcus, 1969: 222).

2.3 The Characteristics of the Bildungsroman

Generally speaking, the Bildungsroman often indicates that the hero/heroine undergoes many life changing events, and usually he/she is a young person who gains maturity from the experiences.

The first characteristic is that the narration of the Bildungsroman should include the protagonists‘ growth, and the protagonists are adolescents between the age of thirteen and twenty. Most of scholars thought that the protagonists of the Bildungsroman are often youths, but it is not always the case. For instance, Toni Morrison‘s Song of Solomon is a typical black Bildungsroman. The protagonist, Milkman Dead has developed through his personal growth in his thirties.

The second characteristic is that the content of the Bildungsroman should embrace the protagonist‘s personal experiences. In the Bildungsroman, the protagonist may experience some unfortunate events that compel him/her to embark upon a journey of seeking their own identity. Normally, the journey of the protagonist is long and arduous, and full of tension and conflicts.

The third characteristic is that the structure of the Bildungsroman falls into a regular pattern: innocence – temptation – leaving home – confusion – ordeal – loss of innocence – epiphany – recognition of life and identity, which is called the protagonist‘s ―spiritual

journey‖.

The last characteristic is that the Bildungsroman normally ends with self – realization. The protagonist will achieve the recognition of society, life and identity after experiencing difficulties and hardships. However, the protagonist of the Bildungsroman is a dynamic one, sometimes the protagonist has completely defected while not yet reaching maturity in some novels, but the narrator as the minor role or beholder may obtain deep insights through the protagonist‘s experiences.

The above is the summarization of the common characteristics of the Bildungsroman. However, each stage of novel writing has its unique characters, plot and cultural background, and the Bildungsroman has constantly been changing over times, many variants of the Bildungsroman are presented continuously, and endows the Bildungsroman with vitality and infinite extension.

Based on the definition and theory of the Bildungsroman, we can see David Copperfield touches upon the theme of one‘s initiation. Firstly, in the novel, the author describes a vivid life of David from his childhood in Suffolk to his adult life in London, which covers the David‘s growth process. Secondly, the content of this novel involved David‘s inner conflict and personal experiences. In addition, this novel follows the pattern of the Bildungsroman: innocence – temptation – leaving home –confusion – ordeal – loss of innocence – epiphany – recognition of life and identity. Thus, the David Copperfield is undoubtedly a typical Bildungsroman.

This novel presents itself as an autobiography with the mature David Copperfield writing his life story beginning with what he has been told about his birth.

III. The Process of the Realization of David’s Ideal

The structure of the bildungsroman involves a movement from naive innocence and total inexperience through a series of mishaps and apprenticeships toward a more mature state of experienced knowledge about the world and self – confidence. David Copperfield is born six months after his father‘s death and spends his early childhood with his immature mother，Clara Copperfield，and their close servant Clara Peggotty, until six years old. However, his mother marries Mr. Murdstone. Since then, his life has been changed.

3.1 Cruel Mr. Murdstone and Clara’s Death

David‘s innocent and childish mother is deceived by Mr. Murdstone‘s appearance and his sweet words. However, he is a tyrannical and cruel person and he is good at disguising himself. After their marriage, Mr. Murdstone‘s sister Jane Murdstone enters their family soon. She deprives Clara of the privilege of being in charge of the family property in the name of assisting her managing the household and relieving her of the troubles. What is worse, their goal is to control Clara as well as David in addition to occupying their possession.

They ask Clara to be ―firm‖ with David. The Murdstones cause David to live in constant terror of being verbally and physically abused. He always thrashes David for falling behind with his studies. But the mother feels only crushed in the face of his son being constantly physically abused by the Murdstones‘ hardness, which he declares as ―firmness‖. They only attempt to improve Clara‘s character by their own wishful thinking so as to take a complete control of her, but they aren‘t concerned at all about her feelings. The forced separation from her cherished son breaks her heart along with her spirit, which finally leads to her early death.

3.2 Salem House – A Boarding School

In the novel, the school described as a ―desolate place‖, ―scraps of old copybooks and

exercises, little the floor.‖ and that ―there is a strange unwholesome smell upon the room, like mildewed corduroys, sweet apples wanting air, and rotten books.‖ and that ―there could not well be more ink splashed about it.‖(Charles Dickens, 2001: 128)

Mr. Creakle is a friend of Mr. Murdstone. The harsh headmaster of young David‘s boarding school who is assisted by Tungay. He singles out David for extra torment. He uses a cane to beat disobedient students, he is very strict during lessons, and finds an almost sadist pleasure in making the children suffer by hitting their hands with a ruler. Because of that, the pupils are scared and even develop a mere hatred against Mr. Creakle.

David wears a sign on his back that reads ―Take care of him. He bites.‖ It is done pretence of educating David, but in reality is only a punishment and a psychological torture for the incident Mr. Murdstone and by wearing this placard, the child feels exposed to others and suffers from a great mental strain, which pushes him so far that he starts to believe that he really ―bites‖ and is haunted by it even in his dreams.

3.3 Working in the Warehouse

Since the death of his mother, his stepfather sees no longer any reason for sending David to school, and as he wants to get rid of David anyway, he sends David to work in his own warehouse called ―Murdstone and Ginby‖. David has to work under the conditions are very bad. He describes his place of employment as a ―crazy old house‖, ‖abutting with water‖, ―mud‖, ‖overrun with rats‖.

David works long hours, receives little to eat and endures several unpleasant clerks. David often suffered not only from physical, but also from mental destruction and psychological damage, because of the horrible conditions.

Suffering great anguish, young David makes his first important decision that switches his life to normal: escape from the warehouse to Miss Betsey Trotwood, his eccentric, kind – hearted aunt.

3.4 David’s “Friend”, James Steerforth

James Steerforth is a friend of David who has known him since his first days at Salem House, he has romantic and charming disposition. David‘s blind worship for him leads to his overlooking Steerforth‘s condescension toward him as well.

Steerforth never treats David as his equal. In London, he calls David ―Daisy‖ just because of his obvious innocence. Agnes warns David that Steerforth is his bad angel, but he won‘t listen. Steerforth makes his appearance as an image of a helpful friend in the eyes of innocent David. Finally, he proves to be lacking in character by seducing and later abandoning Emily.

Steerforth shows his upper class prejudice against the poor as well as his lack of sympathy Steerforth‘s contempt for the laboring class people is also reflected by his attitude towards the Peggottys. Even after he has spent many happy evenings with them, he still refers to them contemptuously as ―that sort of people‖, considering that there is a pretty wide separation between him and the Peggottys and they don‘t have very fine natures. Because his mislead, the peggottys encounter a huge disaster.

3.5 Dora’s Death

David falls in love with Dora at first sight. However, their different social classes cause their tragic ending. Dora was brought up in an upper class home without a mother. She had always been cared for by nurses and specially hired personnel and from early childhood on. Dora‘s nature is very sensitive and easily hurt. After Mr. Spenlow dead, Dora and David get married. David‘s marriage with Dora completely derives from his true love out of the bottom of his heart, so he indeed hopes to bring his dear wife Dora happiness.

In David‘s eyes, in fact, he needs a wife who should take good care of him, in addition, who can support him in his career. But Dora, his child-wife can‘t qualify to be a good wife, instead, she needs David to look after her in many ways. After she gives a stillborn baby, she is ill.

Dora finally dies. David finds his love for Dora is too selfish, which is probably the true reason leads to her death. David begins to suffer from confusion about his life, and even shows some negative points of humanity

3.6 Greedy Heep

Uriah Heep is Mr. Wichfield‘s assistant, who always seems to be humble and sincere in company with his superiors as to make Mr.Wickfield ignorant of his evil plot to occupy his property as well as his cherished daughter. David dislikes him and feels there is something wrong with Heep as soon as he meets him judging by his disgusting appearance such as ―cadaverous face‖, and ―a clammy hand‖.

With greedy desire for power and fortune, he has been pretending to be a loyal assistant of Mr. Wickfield at first. However, he takes advantage of Mr. Wickfield‘s weakness to seize his power. He obtains Mr. Wickfield‘s signature by forcing him to deal with official business when he is in a drunk and confused condition. Then he misuses the signature to prepare false documents to draw out a large sum of money. For this reason, his aunt ruins.

When he is studying to be a proctor, his aunt‘s bankruptcy drags him into hard life again. In order to earn bread for the family, David takes three jobs at the same time: a trainee in the law office in the day; a secretary for Doctor Strong in the morning and evening; practicing shorthand at night. Though it is a hard and struggling experience, he is benefited. The sense of responsibility for the family grows; perseverance and patient and continuous energy begin to be matured within him. This hard time grant him the strong part of his character that he believes to be the source of his success.

But it is a pity that David never penetrates Heep‘s true self of greed and treachery until Mr. Micawber and Tommy Traddles expose his wickedness.

3.7 David’s Autocriticism

After all of these sufferings, David decides to go away from London. He knows that he is struck and gets hurt. He lost love, friendship, and interest.

At first, he could distinguish little else but a heavy sense of loss and sorrow. He began to know he was selfish, he felt sad deeply in his confusion, his puerile, his indiscriminately. He has realized that he failed to distinguish right from wrong and confuse truth and falsehood before. He proceeded restless from place to place with no purpose and no sustaining soul. He

went across those beauty senery which helped him come out of those shadow. During his travel, he received a letter from Agnes with encourage and trust.

Agnes‘ affection helped David turn his affliction to good, exalt and strenghten his emotion, and restore his health. David found he love Agnes so much, however, he thought he has lost her love and his want of something never to be realized.

He worked patiently and hard to finish his story, and sent it to Traddles to public. As he advanced in the excution of writing, he felt it more and more, and aroused his utmost energues to do it well. So far, he thought of returning home.

3.8 Achievement of Money, Social Standing, Love and Marriage

Before his back home, David has improved his store of knowledge, as well as his reputation. Traddles arranged for his novel publication very advantageously for him. He once told ―the tidings of my growing reputation began to reach me from travellers whom I encountered by chance.‖(Charles Dickens, 2001: 1115)

Three years after the emigrant ship left, David decides to return home. Although he was convinced that Agnes doesn‘t love him, he tells Agnes how much he loves her. He said to Agnes ―I went away, dear Agnes, loving you. I stayed away, loving you. I returned home, loving you!‖ (Charles Dickens, 2001: 1177) However, the excellent woman with a modest, orderly, placid manner always loves him and faithfully waits for his return. She told David what she always had been to him, she still was, wholly unaltered. ―She laid her gentle hands upon David‘s shoulders, and looked calmly in his face‖ and sad to him ―I loved you all my life!‖ (Charles Dickens, 2001: 1178)

At the end of this novel, all kinds of people seem have a comedy ending with their struggling good humanity. David advances in fame and fortune, his domestic joy was perfect, he had been married with Agnes ten happy years and has three children in their house in London. During David‘s growing – up process from innocence to maturity, he loses his first wife Dora, but he marries his true angel Agnes. He loses his mother and has a hard childhood, but he finally becomes a successful writer. He is seduced by his ―friend‖ Steerforth, but he recognizes the dark sides of Steerforth‘s human nature.

IV. Conclusion

There was a huge gap between the rich and poor, a huge contrast developed between the higher and the lower social classes. People who have money and a higher social standing often enjoy more privileges in social and public life than people from a lower social class do. Good birth, good education, refined and cultivated behaviors, leisurely comfortable and moral life were distinctive features of a gentleman as well as what the middle class were longing for and imitating. David Copperfield reveals the upward movement of the middle class from the insignificance to successful social recognition with hard work and morality.

In David Copperfield, Dickens tries to illustrate the process of realization of individual ideal in nineteenth century. At the same time, Dickens exposed the growth connecting with knowledge, money, social standing, love and marriage.

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