History Literature / DavidCopperfield

* A 1999 two-part TV adaptation, starring [[Creator/CiaranMcMenamin Ciarán McMenamin]] (and a pre-''Film/HarryPotter'' Creator/DanielRadcliffe) as David

If it's mentioned anywhere in pop culture, it'll be because the individual has the title [[NamesTheSame confused with the magician]]. Or, if someone mentions Uriah Heep, they'll confuse that with the [[Music/UriahHeep British rock band]].

* ArmorPiercingSlap: David to Uriah, who exasperates him even more by acting innocently wounded.

* EvilCounterpart: Mr. Murdstone is this to the adult David, in respect of their treatment of their frail, child-like wives. The former utterly destroyed Clara with his cruelty in attempting to instil "firmness of character" in her. Although David is nothing but kind to his first wife Dora, he similarly shows signs of wanting to mould her, and Aunt Betsey cautions him against going down a similar path to that his stepfather took with his mother. David takes this to heart and resolves to allow Dora to just be who she is.

* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Salem House isn't ''quite'' as bad as the famous Dotheboys Hall from Literature/NicholasNickleby, but only because Mr Creakle isn't ''quite'' as devoted to his sadism.
* BreakingBadNewsGently: Mrs. Creakle, the kindhearted wife of SadistTeacher Mr. Creakle, tries to gently tell David that his mother has died, to the point where she's on the borderline of torturing him by the end.

%%* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Salem House.
* BreakingBadNewsGently: Mrs. Creakle, the kindhearted wife of SadistTeacher Mr. Creakle, tries to gently tell David that his mother has died.
-->I might have been surprised by the feeling tone in which he spoke, if I had given it a thought; but I gave it none until afterwards. I hurried away to the parlour; and there I found Mr. Creakle, sitting at his breakfast with the cane and a newspaper before him, and Mrs. Creakle with an opened letter in her hand. But no hamper.\\\
'David Copperfield,' said Mrs. Creakle, leading me to a sofa, and sitting down beside me. 'I want to speak to you very particularly. I have something to tell you, my child.'\\\
Mr. Creakle, at whom of course I looked, shook his head without looking at me, and stopped up a sigh with a very large piece of buttered toast.\\\
'You are too young to know how the world changes every day,' said Mrs. Creakle, 'and how the people in it pass away. But we all have to learn it, David; some of us when we are young, some of us when we are old, some of us at all times of our lives.'\\\
I looked at her earnestly.\\\
'When you came away from home at the end of the vacation,' said Mrs. Creakle, after a pause, 'were they all well?' After another pause, 'Was your mama well?'\\\
I trembled without distinctly knowing why, and still looked at her earnestly, making no attempt to answer.\\\
'Because,' said she, 'I grieve to tell you that I hear this morning your mama is very ill.'\\\
A mist rose between Mrs. Creakle and me, and her figure seemed to move in it for an instant. Then I felt the burning tears run down my face, and it was steady again.\\\
'She is very dangerously ill,' she added.\\\
I knew all now.\\\
'She is dead.'\\\

%%* ComingOfAgeStory

* SpiritualSuccessor: The 1993 AnimatedAdaptation is one to the Disney's RobinHood right down to Murdstone being a lion.

* ''Film/DavidCopperfield1935'', a theatrical adaptation, 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.

If it's mentioned in a {{Sitcom}}, it'll be because the individual has the title [[NamesTheSame confused with the magician]]. Or, if someone mentions Uriah Heep, they'll confuse that with the [[Music/UriahHeep British rock band]].

Nevertheless, in the main, the book reads as a sweet-natured comedy. Good ol' Dave is repeatedly downed but never broken, making it through his crummy life by relying on his imagination and on his true friends, at least one of whom is always to be found standing loyally by his side (albeit how they get there often stretches deep into ContrivedCoincidence territory). The valiant but foolish Micawbers, the stalwart seafaring Peggottys, the diamond-in-the-rough Tommy Traddles - they may be eccentric, they may be impecunious, but they're always loveable, as only Dickensian characters can be.

Through his involvement in their convoluted adventures, and the lessons in pluck and determination arising therefrom, David finally rises to the top: marrying his One True Love - well, his second after Dora, she's dead by now - having children, [[AuthorAvatar launching a successful writing career]]...

--> '''Agnes''': I have loved you all my life!

* ArchEnemy: Uriah for David. Largely over the girl the both love, Agnes Wickfield.

* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Salem House.
* BreakingBadNewsGently: Mrs. Creakle, the kindhearted wife of SadistSchoolTeacher Mr. Creakle, tries to gently tell David that his mother has died.
-->I might have been surprised by the feeling tone in which he spoke, if I had given it a thought; but I gave it none until afterwards. I hurried away to the parlour; and there I found Mr. Creakle, sitting at his breakfast with the cane and a newspaper before him, and Mrs. Creakle with an opened letter in her hand. But no hamper.

-->'David Copperfield,' said Mrs. Creakle, leading me to a sofa, and sitting down beside me. 'I want to speak to you very particularly. I have something to tell you, my child.'

-->Mr. Creakle, at whom of course I looked, shook his head without looking at me, and stopped up a sigh with a very large piece of buttered toast.

-->'You are too young to know how the world changes every day,' said Mrs. Creakle, 'and how the people in it pass away. But we all have to learn it, David; some of us when we are young, some of us when we are old, some of us at all times of our lives.'

-->I looked at her earnestly.

-->'When you came away from home at the end of the vacation,' said Mrs. Creakle, after a pause, 'were they all well?' After another pause, 'Was your mama well?'

-->I trembled without distinctly knowing why, and still looked at her earnestly, making no attempt to answer.

-->'Because,' said she, 'I grieve to tell you that I hear this morning your mama is very ill.'

-->A mist rose between Mrs. Creakle and me, and her figure seemed to move in it for an instant. Then I felt the burning tears run down my face, and it was steady again.

-->'She is very dangerously ill,' she added.

-->I knew all now.

-->'She is dead.'

-->There was no need to tell me so. I had already broken out into a desolate cry, and felt an orphan in the wide world.

* ChildhoodFriendRomance: 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.

* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds

* ComingOfAgeStory

* DeathByChildbirth: Dora, albeit this is referred to only very obliquely in the text. Also, Clara dies just a few weeks after giving birth to her and Edward Murdstone's child, and Agnes Wickfield's mother is implied 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.

* EitherOrTitle: The book's full title is "David Copperfield, or The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (which he never meant to publish on any account)"

* FirstLove: This trope is an important element in the story, 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.

* HaveAGayOldTime

* {{Irony}}: Ham dies trying (and failing) to save Steerforth, the man he swore to kill because he stole and subsequently ruined his fiancee. (At least, that's one possibility - the other is that Ham dies making sure Steerforth drowned.)
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Exemplified by Agnes, who nobly puts her own feelings for David aside and becomes Dora's best friend - then Dora herself, on her deathbed, when she has Agnes promise that only she will fill Dora's 'vacant place' afterwards.

* LongTitle

* LoveMartyr: Emily, to Steerforth.

* ''WesternAnimation/DavidCopperfield1993'' a very loose animated adaptation

Although countless TV adaptations have been made, to date only two theatrical adaptations have been produced. [[Film/DavidCopperfield1935 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, ''Film/ThePersonalHistoryOfDavidCopperfield'', was written and directed by Creator/ArmandoIannucci and boasts a similarly starry cast, including Creator/DevPatel as David, Creator/GwendolineChristie 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]].

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

* HiredHelpAsFamily: Clara Peggotty is Mrs Copperfield's housekeeper and David's nurse. She is absolutely devoted and loyal to both of them. Peggotty never leaves the family even when David's young widowed mother marries Mr Murdstone, and the Murdstones want to get Peggotty out of the house. David is grateful for her friendship and devotion. (Peggotty is so loyal and self-sacrificing that she never seems to want anything of her own that she looks like a stereotype: the ideal of what a rich gentleman would want his servants to be, a model of a working-class woman in classist and class-segmented society.)

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

** When Miss Betsey Trotwood visits David's mother Clara Copperfield, who is very pregnant and very sad over her dead husband, she seems very determined, opinionated, stubborn and almost rude. However, at one moment she gently touched Clara's hair ("she had a fancy that she felt Miss Betsey touch her hair, and that with no ungentle hand"). When Clara had a boy instead of a girl that Miss Betsey had wanted to take care of, she left the little family abruptly. Later in the narrative, David is unsure if Miss Betsey will help him from the evils of child labour and poverty, but he remembers the story (told by his mother and their servant-girl Pegotty) and he keeps thinking particularly about this gesture of kindness, and hopes that Miss Betsey will be kind to him as well.

** Miss Betsey Trotwood decides to calls David "Trotwood Copperfiled", and often shortens it to Trot.

%% * ByronicHero: James Steerforth.

%% * FatBastard: Mr. Creakle

%% * HypercompetentSidekick: Littimer is Steerforth's loyal servant, later employed with another man. 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.

%% * KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Uriah toward Wickfield; also, in one vivid scene, Rosa Dartle's response to poor Emily.
%% * KindlyHousekeeper: Peggotty.

%% * 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.

%% * ProperLady: Agnes Wickfield.

%% * SadistTeacher: Mr. Creakle.

%% * SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Mr Micawber.

%% * VictorianLondon

%% * YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Several passages.

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

Although countless TV adaptations have been made, to date only two theatrical adaptations have been produced. [[Film/DavidCopperfield1935 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/ArmandoIannucci and boasts a similarly starry cast, including Creator/DevPatel as David, Creator/GwendolineChristie 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]].

* 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.
* CompositeCharacter: In the 2019 version:
** Mr. Mell's role, as a kindhearted teacher who is bullied and driven out of his job by Steerforth, ends up going to Mr. Micawber in one of his many failed attempts at finding a successful career.
** Mrs. Steerforth takes on a few elements of Rosa Dartle, most notably the facial scar from Steerforth having thrown a hammer at her in a childhood rage.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In the 2019 version, during the denouement with Heep, Dora scolds him and Mr. Dick asks in confusion "What is she ''doing'' here?", as a nod to the fact that [[spoiler:Dora ''wasn't'' in this scene in the book, but rather at home dying by inches.]]

* SparedByTheAdaptation:
** [[spoiler: Dora survives in the 2019 movie, choosing instead to amicably break up with David after realizing they'd never be happy together]].
** [[spoiler: Also in the 2019 version, Ham survives his failed attempt to save Steerforth during the storm.]]

* 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. In the novel it was his wife who relayed the information, sobbing as she did so.

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

%% * FauxAffablyEvil: Uriah Heep

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

%% * HandRubbing: Uriah Heep is almost certainly the TropeCodifier.

%% * KissingCousins: Ham and Emily were ''going'' to be this.

%% * ThePlotReaper: It gets to Dora, and to some extent Clara Copperfield.

* KnittingPregnancyAnnouncement: The 1935 film opens with newly widowed Mrs. Copperfield having knitted a pillow that says "Bless the Baby".

* MatchCut: The 1935 film has a cut from Peggotty patting a weeping Clara to Peggoty soaping up young David.
* 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, his own father was English and taught him to speak like that.
* PapaWolf: Mr. Micawber comes to David's rescue at the winemaker's factory and chases the abusive employees away in the 1935 adaptation featuring Creator/WCFields as Mr. Micawber:
-->'''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. [[GetOut In short: get out!]]
* ShipperOnDeck: The 1935 film makes it clear that Aunt Betsey and Agnes are shipping Agnes/David ''long'' before David himself is.

* WidowsWeeds: How Clara Copperfield is dressed at the beginning of the 1935 film, as David Copperfield Sr. has died.

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/ArmandoIannucci and boasts a similarly starry cast, including Creator/DevPatel as David, Creator/GwendolineChristie 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]].

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Miss Mowcher gives one of these to David in her second appearance, calling him out for snap-judging her based on her appearance and behavior in company of Steerforth and describing her struggles growing up as a dwarf and the effort she spent carving out a niche for herself in society.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The novel as a whole is entirely chaste, making no mention of any character's sex life. However, the scene at the end of David's drunken rampage with Steerforth & co is so confusingly structured that at first read, it sounds . . . Well.
-->I stepped at once out of the box-door into my bedroom, where only Steerforth was with me, helping me to undress, and where I was by turns telling him that Agnes was my sister, and adjuring him to bring the corkscrew, that I might open another bottle of wine.\\
How somebody, lying in my bed, lay saying and doing all this over again, at cross purposes, in a feverish dream all night--the bed a rocking sea that was never still! How, as that somebody slowly settled down into myself, did I begin to parch, and feel as if my outer covering of skin were a hard board; my tongue the bottom of an empty kettle, furred with long service, and burning up over a slow fire; the palms of my hands, hot plates of metal which no ice could cool!