History Literature / DavidCopperfield

Trivia/Literature/DavidCopperfield

Trivia. David Coppefield

** Betsey Trotwood is Professor McGonagall.

* DoesHeHaveABrother: Steerforth asks David if he has a sister.

* VictorianBritain 'and'' VictorianLondon

* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome In the 1935 film, Aunt Betsy gives an EPIC one to Mr. Murdstone and his sister when they try to take David from her.]]

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove:
** But it doesn't go quite according to plan, what with his paramour breaking down into sobs, David trying to calm her down, and her yippy dog barking his head off the entire time.

* TheAtoner: Little Emily after escaping from Steerforth.

* BreakTheCutie: Murdstone's verging-on-MindRape campaign to teach Clara (and later his unnamed second wife) 'firmness of character', apparently out of some kind of sadistic fetish (one his sister Jane clearly shares, [[{{Squick}} making things that much weirder]]).
** Later, when Aunt Betsey points out David might be starting down this path with Dora, he immediately [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone flips out.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Aunt Betsey does this to Murdstone when the latter tries to reclaim David from her care.

** Mr. Dick: "She [Miss Betsey) is the most wonderful woman in the world!"

** A drunken old pawnbroker: "Goroo!Oh, goroooooo!"
** Mr. Micawber is fond of mentioning something turning up.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Most of the major plot twists involve characters just ''happening'' to walk past doorways or meet on the street. In the heart of London! As if we needed another sign we're in a DickensNovel ...

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* LikeBrotherAndSister: David and Agnes - according to David, that is.

* LoveMartyr: Emily, to Steerforth. She somewhat got better in the end.
* LoveTriangle: A few, but the main one is Agnes/David/Dora.
** Other include Ham/Emily/Steerforth, Emily/Steerforth/Rosa Dartle, Uriah/Agnes/David, and for a time, we're led to believe [[YourCheatingHeart Dr.Strong/Annie/Jack Maldon]] is one.

* MayDecemberRomance: Several instances including Wickfield and his late wife, Clara with both David Copperfield Sr. and Mr. Murdstone, Dr. Strong and Annie. Again, a very common RealLife situation in this time period, in which young women were seen as needing the 'protection' of an older, wealthy man.

* MoralityPet: Steerforth is a cad, but he's usually really nice to David, so if you realize early on, their relationship can seem like this. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Some interpret]] that Steerforth hopes David will become his MoralityChain.

* ThePresidentsDaughter: Agnes again, since Heep wants her as much for the power it will bring him as anything else.
** Dora is this to David, being his boss's daughter; half his daydreams at that point (the ones that don't involve her) are about his boss, Mr. Spenlow: "Here are twenty thousand pounds, be happy!"

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: \Mr. Micawber, after being blackmailed by Uriah into helping him forge documents and exploited past endurance, finally exposes all his misdeeds in truly epic fashion.

* SecondLove: David and Agnes - well, his at least.

* StepfordSmiler: Miss Mowcher turns a Type A prototype after Dickens switches gears from TheGrotesque (she hides her depression under laughs, even at her own expense),
** It's possible to read Agnes Wickfield as a ''very'' determined version of this.

Little David's father dies ''before'' he's even born, and his mother Clara dies about eight years later, leaving him in the care of Mr. Edward Murdstone, his [[WickedStepmother evil stepfather]]. Murdstone in turn heartlessly turns little Davey out into the big bad world, first in a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors in which he's beaten and humiliated on a regular basis, then to earn his own living in a factory. While navigating VictorianLondon at the tender age of ten or so, David boards with the Micawbers, a good-natured but completely irresponsible family who make him pawn the silver to buy supper and eventually end up in debtor's prison.

Little David's father had died before he was born, and his mother Clara dies about eight years later, leaving him in the care of Mr. Edward Murdstone, his [[WickedStepmother evil stepfather]]. Murdstone in turn heartlessly turns little Davey out into the big bad world, first in a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors in which he's beaten and humiliated on a regular basis, then to earn his own living in a factory. While navigating VictorianLondon at the tender age of ten or so, David boards with the Micawbers, a good-natured but completely irresponsible family who make him pawn the silver to buy supper and eventually end up in debtor's prison.

''David Copperfield'' is a story about a boy (the title character) growing up. His mother Clara dies early on, leaving him in the care of Mr. Edward Murdstone, his [[WickedStepmother evil stepfather]]. Murdstone in turn heartlessly turns little Davey out into the big bad world, first in a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors in which he's beaten and humiliated on a regular basis, then to earn his own living in a factory. While navigating VictorianLondon at the tender age of ten or so, David boards with the Micawbers, a good-natured but completely irresponsible family who make him pawn the silver to buy supper and eventually end up in debtor's prison.

A lot of Charles Dickens's books stem from direct experience, but ''David Copperfield'' is his most autobiographical tale, and his 'favourite child' among his works. David's seemingly over-the-top anguish at being so degraded by factory work has its roots in Dickens' own trauma, when at ten his father similarly yanked him out of school and sent him out to augment the family finances (Mr. Micawber is by all accounts an only slightly exaggerated portrait of John Dickens). Writing many years later, as a world-honoured and beloved man, he confided to friends that merely revisiting those memories caused him nearly insupportable pain.

** Who says she doesn't hate him?

* MayDecemberRomance: Several instances including Wickfield and his late wife, David Copperfield Sr. and Clara, Dr. Strong and Annie, and Mr. Murdstone and Clara. Again, a very common RealLife situation in this time period, in which young women were seen as needing the 'protection' of an older, wealthy man.

* MoralityPet: Steerforth is a cad, but he's usually really nice to David, so if you realize early on, their relationship can seem like this. Some interpret that Steerforth hopes David will become his MoralityChain.

* VictorianBritain
* VictorianLondon

* TheThreeFacesofEve: The three women David loves over the course of the story: Agnes is the wife, Dora the child, and Em'ly the Seductress.

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Little Emily after escaping from Steerforth.]]

* ChristmasCake: Rosa Dartle. Milked for all the drama it's worth. David thinks of her as "dilapidated, like a house, from being so long to let".

* DeadGuyJunior: David is named after his late father, and renamed by Aunt Betsey (to 'Trotwood') after the girl he wasn't. Also, [[spoiler: one of David and Agnes's daughters is named Dora.]]
* DeathByChildbirth: [[spoiler: Dora]], albeit this is referred to only very obliquely in the text. Also, [[spoiler: Clara]] dies just a few weeks after giving birth to [[spoiler: her and Edward Murdstone]]'s child, and Agnes Wickfield's mother is impled to have died giving birth to her, heightening her father's melancholy and her own sense of guilty responsibility to him in turn. In an era well prior to modern hygenic let alone obstetric techniques, all this was very much TruthInTelevision.

* DisproportionateRestitution: In exchange for [[spoiler: having seduced her, taken her from her loving family, dragged her all over Europe as his pet, completely broken her sense of self-worth, and broken her heart, Steerforth offers Em'ly marriage to his odious, much-older, and fully cooperative manservant, Littimer, as a consolation prize. Em'ly doesn't go for it.]]

* FirstLove: This trope is an important element in the story, [[spoiler: used both ways, since David marries his first love, Dora, only to realise that they are not well-suited. He loves her but she can't be a partner to him. Upon her death, he marries Agnes, who considered ''him'' to be her first love, and who had loved him the whole time. A rare case of both the unhappy FirstLove type and the triumphant FirstLove type, for Agnes, who ultimately ends up marrying David - in one story.]]

* TheGrotesque: Miss Mowcher, the dwarf hairdresser ("Ain't I volatile?!"). Originally, Dickens was going to make her an [[RedRightHand amoral little creep]], but quickly switched gears after her real-life inspiration complained

* HappilyMarried: Peggotty and Barkis and Tommy Traddles and Sophy. Also [[spoiler: David and Agnes.]]

* HypercompetentSidekick: Littimer to Steerforth [[spoiler: until he runs away with his master's money, gets arrested, and becomes Uriah's rival for the position of Most Valued Prisoner.]]

* {{Irony}}: Ham [[spoiler: dies trying (and failing) to save Steerforth, the man he swore to kill because he stole and subsequently ruined his fiancee.]]

* LikeBrotherAndSister: David and Agnes [[spoiler:- according to David, that is.]]

* MeaningfulName: It's a safe bet that anyone named 'Murdstone' isn't going be a major fount of human kindness. See also 'Blunderstone', David's hometown, and Heep, used to spectacular effect by Micawber [[spoiler:in exposing him. ("You - you - HEEP of infamy!!")]]

* ParentalMarriageVeto: Spenlow's putting the squash on his daughter Dora's romance with newly-penniless David. [[spoiler: Right before he actually ''dies''.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler: Mr. Micawber, after being blackmailed by Uriah into helping him forge documents and exploited past endurance, finally exposes all his misdeeds in truly epic fashion.]]

* ShipperOnDeck: [[spoiler: Miss Mills for David and Dora. As well, the 1935 film makes it clear that Aunt Betsey and Agnes are shipping Agnes/David ''long'' before David himself is]].

* [[spoiler: VictoriousChildhoodFriend: David grew up with Agnes and views her as his "sister", unaware of her true feelings even though they're obvious to pretty much everyone but him.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: Uriah, who has spent the whole book pretending to be "umble" to disguise his greedy, spiteful, obsessive nature, only shows his true colors during his final confrontation with [[spoiler: Mr. Micawber]].

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: But it doesn't go quite according to plan, what with his paramour breaking down into sobs, David trying to calm her down, and her yippy dog barking his head off the entire time.

''David Copperfield'' is a story about a boy (the title character) growing up. His mother Clara dies early on, leaving him in the care of Mr. Edward Murdstone, his [[WickedStepmother evil stepfather]]. Murdstone in turn heartlessly turns little Davey out into the big bad world, first in a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors in which he's beaten up and humiliated on a regular basis, then to earn his own living in a factory. While navigating VictorianLondon at the tender age of ten or so, David boards with the Micawbers, a good-natured but completely irresponsible family who make him pawn the silver to buy supper and eventually end up in debtor's prison.

* AdultChild: Mr. Dick is very simple and kind, and relates well with the young David. On a more tragic note, there's also David' fluffy-headed mother Clara, whom Aunt Betsey accurately sums up as 'That poor, simple, loving Baby'.
** Also Dora, David's self-confessed "child-wife". Despite what you might think, it ''doesn't'' refer to her age.

* NotSoDifferent: Uriah Heep points out the similarites between himself and David, freaking David right out.

''David Copperfield'' is a story about a boy (the title character) growing up. His AdultChild mother Clara dies early on, leaving him in the care of Mr. Edward Murdstone, his [[WickedStepmother evil stepfather]]. Murdstone in turn heartlessly turns little Davey out into the big bad world, first in a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors in which he's beaten up and humiliated on a regular basis, then to earn his own living in a factory. While navigating VictorianLondon at the tender age of ten or so, David boards with the Micawbers, a good-natured but completely irresponsible family who make him pawn the silver to buy supper and eventually end up in debtor's prison.

** later, David does the same thing to Dora.

* DeadGuyJunior: David is named after his late father, and renamed by Aunt Betsey (to 'Trotwood') after the girl he wasn't.

* DoesHeHaveABrother?: Steerforth asks David if he has a sister.

* FunetikAksent: several of the lower class characters, and especially Uriah Heep ("We're very umble, mother and me...")

* HappilyMarried: Peggotty and Barkis and Tommy Traddles and Sophy. Also [[spoiler: David and Agnes]]

* KickTheDog: Oh God, Steerforth kicks pups horribly hard. First, when as a 14-years-old he insults Mr. Mell for trying to do his work and helps Mr. Creakle get him fired. Years later, he seduces David's childhood friend Emily when she's about to get married to her stepbrother Cam and they run away. And later we find out that he ''[[BastardBoyfriend abuses]]'' her during the time they're together.

* NiceGuy: Tommy Traddles