History Literature / DavidCopperfield

* LoveTriangle: A few, but the main one is Agnes/David/Dora. Others 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.

* FlatCharacter: Mrs. Micawber is a textbook example of this trope in use. Her sole character trait is her devotion to her husband, but [[Adminstrivia/TropesAreTools she still plays an important role in a narrative that focuses on the plight of the working class.]]

* HappilyAdopted: David runs to his aunt Betsey, who takes him in and turns his life around.
%% * HappilyMarried: Peggotty and Barkis and Tommy Traddles and Sophy. Also David and Agnes.

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

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Exemplified by Agnes, also Dora on her deathbed.
* IWillWaitForYou: Sophy will wait for Traddles to be financially able to marry her.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Betsy Trotwood can be...difficult to approach with all her stubborn eccentricities, but at the core, she is kind and good-natured.

* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Uriah toward Wickfield; also, in one vivid scene, Rosa Dartle's response to poor Emily.
* KindlyHousekeeper: Peggotty.
* KissingCousins: Ham and Emily were ''going'' to be this.

* MeaningfulName: Hoo boy. This is Dickens, so it's reasonable to assume ''every'' name in the story is significant in one way or another.

*** The "field" in his name also lends itself to "Daisy," Steerforth's AffectionateNickname for him.
** As Aunt Betsey lampshades repeatedly, no one named "Murdstone" is going to be a fount of human kindness.

* MoralityPet: David to Steerforth. Steerforth typically carries on relationships only as long as he believes they will benefit him, yet he seems to manifest a genuine attachment to David, especially in their young adulthood before meeting the Peggottys and Little Em'ly, when Steerforth stands to gain [[HoYay (arguably)]] nothing from the relationship. Indeed, Mrs. Steerforth maintains that "he feels an unusual friendship for you, and ... you may rely on his protection." Some, including Mrs. Steerforth, believe that James hopes David will become his MoralityChain.

* MrMuffykins: Dora's little dog, Jip, has several of these qualities.
* NiceGuy: Tommy Traddles, Ham, and usually David himself.

* ObliviousToLove: David. And David.

* PlatonicLifePartners: Aunt Betsey and Mr. Dick.
* ThePlotReaper: It gets to Dora, and to some extent Clara Copperfield.
* ProperLady: Agnes Wickfield.
* ProtagonistTitle

* RichBoredom: Steerforth to a tee. He doesn't ''have'' to do anything, and as a result, he flits from one fancy to the next without truly accomplishing anything.

* SadistTeacher: Mr. Creakle.

* SecondLove: David, for Agnes--although a case can be made that the first, Dora, was only boyish infatuation.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Mr Micawber. Oh god, Mr Micawber.

* TruthInTelevision: Dickens based many instances on elements of his own life and real London people/occurrences at the time.
* VictorianLondon

* WickedStepfather: Mr. Murdstone, who marries David's mother Clara and treats young David brutally, prompting him to run away from home.

* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Several passages.

** Steerforth calls him "Daisy," [[HoYay purportedly]] in reference to his "freshness" and naivety.
** Dora calls him "Doady," and asks him to refer to her as his "child-wife."
** Agnes calls him "Trotwood" throughout his life, since that was how he was first introduced to her by [[TheNicknamer David's aunt]].

* 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 a similar path with Dora, he immediately [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone flips out.]]

* BrokenAce: Steerforth is this all over. He's charming, brilliant, and no one but Agnes can keep from adoring him, and yet he's got serious problems in his perception of morality, entitlement, and self-control, due to his over-privileged upbringing.

* ByronicHero: James Steerforth.

* TheDitz: Dora ''is'' this trope, something Dickens gleefully lampshades at every opportunity.

* {{Expy}}: Uriah Heep, of Theatre/{{Tartuffe}}; they both use their false humility to scheme against their hosts and attempt to deprive them of property and their fortunes (Uriah Heep to Mr. Wickfield, and Tartuffe to Orgon).
* FatBastard: Mr. Creakle
* FauxAffablyEvil: Uriah Heep

* HandRubbing: Uriah Heep is almost certainly the TropeCodifier.

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

* HomoeroticSubtext: Because every bro nicknames his younger, starstruck bro "Daisy," right? Right?

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

-->'''David:''' ''(upon his aunt's suggestion that he become a proctor)'' What ''is'' a proctor, Steerforth?[[note]]A proctor, though usually today meaning someone who oversees a university exam, here means a kind of court-based lawyer - something that David, who works in a ''law office'', should be aware of.[[/note]]
* TheMatchmaker: Ms. Mills, having despaired of ever finding love herself, reportedly plays this role for every young couple she can get her hands on. She consequently becomes the ShipperOnDeck for David and Dora, and is instrumental in their continued relationship.

* TenderTears: Let's just say people cry a lot in this novel and leave it at that.

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

* WindowsOfTheSoul: Downplayed. The way David describes a new acquaintance's eyes is usually a telling in[[{{Pun}} sight]] into their character.

* BlackVikings: the 2019 film uses deliberately colour-blind casting, allowing characters to be played by actors of a variety of different backgrounds regardless of their role.

* PetTheDog: Noticeably in the 1999 version, the truly horrible Mr. Creakle is quite sympathetic and gentle with David when informing him of Clara's death.

Desperate, David runs away, finally reaching a safe haven with his eccentric Aunt Betsey Trotwood - who magnanimously forgives him for not being a girl - and her own... interesting... coterie. It's at this point David meets Uriah Heep, a clerk in the local law office, whose fawning professions of 'umbleness' mask a scheming, vengeful nature. By the time David's graduated high school Uriah's well on his way not only to taking over the business but menacing David's [[PuritySue sweet, beautiful best friend]] Agnes Wickfield, the boss' daughter, with plans for their marriage. In his spare time, Uriah cheats Aunt Betsey out of her fortune just as David's fallen hopelessly in love with ''his'' boss' daughter Dora. Even Micawber, now Heep's clerk, is acting strangely. Oh, and over in the main subplot, David's oldest and dearest schoolfriend, James Steerforth, is busily seducing and ruining David's childhood sweetheart, little Emily...

A lot of 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.

Many critics have also hailed it as one of their favorite books, including Tolstoy and Freud. Several of its characters - including Aunty Betsey, villanous Uriah Heep and above all the Micawbers - became household names in the 19th-century and are still familiar to some extent today.

Although countless TV adaptations have been made, to date only two theatrical adaptations have been produced. The first, in 1935, was produced by David Selznick and directed by Creator/GeorgeCukor. It boasted an AllStarCast that included child star Freddie Bartholomew (young David), Creator/BasilRathbone as Mr. Murdstone, Creator/LionelBarrymore as Dan Peggotty, and Creator/WCFields as Mr. Micawber. The second, ''The Personal History of David Copperfield'', was written and directed by Creator/ArmandoIannuci and boasts a similarly starry cast, including Creator/DevPatel as David, Creator/GwendolynChristie as Jane Murdstone, Creator/PeterCapaldi as Mr. Micawber, Creator/TildaSwinton as Aunty Betsey, Creator/HughLaurie as Mr. Dick, and Creator/BenWhishaw as Uriah Heep. It screened at film festivals in 2019 ahead of a 2020 release date. The trailer can be seen [[https://youtu.be/oHG7FnBDY0Q here]].

* {{Disneyfication}}: [[WesternAnimation/DavidCopperfield1993 The 1993 animated adaptation]]. All the characters are replaced with anthropomorphic house pets (including mice); and the poorhouse has a sub-plot with a FesteringFungus in the basement.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: W.C. Fields rather infamously refused to use an accent and spoke in his natural American voice as Micawber in the 1935 film, though as he pointed out to the complaining studio heads, how own father was English and taught him to speak like that.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Dora survives in the 2019 movie, chosing instead to amicably break up with David after realizing they'd never be happy together]].

Although countless TV adaptations have been made, to date only one theatrical adaptation has been released, in 1935, produced by David Selznick. It was directed by Creator/GeorgeCukor and boasted an AllStarCast that included child star Freddie Bartholomew (young David), Creator/BasilRathbone as Mr. Murdstone, Creator/LionelBarrymore as Dan Peggotty, and Creator/WCFields as Mr. Micawber.

* ThreeFacesOfEve: The three women David loves over the course of his life fit this pretty well: Agnes, who is sensible, a fabulous homemaker, and always lends wisdom and support is the wife; Dora, who is woefully ignorant and naive but affectionate and often described in terms of children and even called 'child-wife' is the child, and Em'ly, who has an affair with Steerforth and may or may not have worked as a prostitute but is at the very least keeps company with ex-prostitute Martha is the seductress.

* {{Disneyfication}}: [[WesternAnimation/DavidCopperfield The 1993 animated adaptation]]. All the characters are replaced with anthropomorphic house pets (including mice); and the poorhouse has a sub-plot with a FesteringFungus in the basement.

* {{Disneyfication}}: The 1993 animated adaptation. All the characters are replaced with anthropomorphic house pets (including mice); and the poorhouse has a sub-plot with a FesteringFungus in the basement.

* EvilRedheads: Uriah Heep. The pale eyelashes and -brows that go with this colouring are played up for maximum creepiness.

Little David's father dies ''before'' he's even born, and his mother Clara dies not many 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.

* WickedStepmother: Mr. Murdstone is a rare male case.

-->'''David:''' ''(upon his aunt's suggestion that he become a proctor)'' What ''is'' a proctor, Steerforth?[[note]]A proctor, though usually today meaning someone who oversees a university exam, here means a kind of court-based lawyer[[/note]]

-->'''David:''' ''(upon his aunt's suggestion that he become a proctor)'' What ''is'' a proctor, Steerforth?

* {{Expy}}: Uriah Heep, of Theatre/{{Tartuffe}}; they both use their false humility to scheme against their hosts and deprive them of property and their fortunes, namely Uriah Heep to Mr. Wickfield, and Tartuffe to Orgon.

-->'''Micawber''': Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Gentlemen! In the aggregate, I judge you to be a highly distasteful collection, and to detail: cowardly, uncouth, and deserving of merciless chastisement. You'll oblige me by removing your unsavory persons from my immediate vicinity. In short: '''get out!'''

* PapaWolf: Mr. Micawber comes to David's rescue at the winemaker's factory and chases the abusive employees away:

Desperate, David runs away, finally reaching a safe haven with his eccentric Aunt Betsey Trotwood - who magnanimously forgives him for not being a girl - and her own... interesting... coterie. It's at this point David meets Uriah Heep, a clerk in the local law office, whose fawning professions of 'umbleness' mask a scheming, vengeful nature. By the time David's graduated high school Uriah's well on his way not only to taking over the business but menacing David's [[PuritySue sweet, beautiful best friend]] Agnes Wickfield, the boss' daughter, with plans for their marriage. In his spare time, Uriah cheats Aunt Betsey out of her fortune ''just'' as David's fallen hopelessly in love with his boss' daughter Dora. Even Micawber, now Heep's clerk, is acting strangely. Oh, and over in the main subplot, David's oldest and dearest schoolfriend, James Steerforth, is busily seducing and ruining David's childhood sweetheart, little Emily...