Editing David Copperfield (section)

===Social questions===

Admittedly, it is not the primary interest of ''David Copperfield'' that remains above all the story of a life told by the very one who lived it, but the novel is imbued with a dominant ideology, that of the [[middle class]], advocating moral constancy, hard work, [[separate spheres]] for men and women, and, in general, the art of knowing one's place, indeed staying in that place. Further, some social problems and repeated abuses being topical, Dickens took the opportunity to expose them in his own way in his fiction, and Trevor Blount, in his introduction to the 1966 edition Penguin Classics, reissued in 1985, devotes several pages to this topic.<ref name=Dickens1985p33>{{harvnb|Dickens|1985|pp=33–37}}</ref>

However, Gareth Cordery shows that behind the display of [[Victorian era|Victorian]] values, often hides a watermarked discourse that tends to question, test, and even subvert them.<ref name=Cordery2008p374>{{harvnb|Cordery|2008|p=374}}</ref> There are therefore two possible readings, the one that remains on the surface and another that questions below this surface, the implicit questions.

Among the social issues that ''David Copperfield'' is concerned with, are prostitution, the prison system, education, as well as society's treatment of the insane.

Dickens's views on education are reflected in the contrast he makes between the harsh treatment that David receives at the hands of Creakle at Salem House and Dr Strong's school where the methods used inculcate honour and self–reliance in its pupils.

Through the character of "the amiable, innocent, and wise fool" Mr Dick, Dickens's "advocacy in the humane treatment of the insane" can be seen.<ref>{{harvnb|Takei|2005|pp=116–131, 100}}</ref> Mr Dick's brother

::didn't like to have him visible about his house, and sent him away to some private asylum-place: though he had been left to his particular care by their deceased father, who thought him almost a natural. And a wise man he must have been to think so! Mad himself, no doubt.

So Betsy Trotwood, continuing Mr Dick's story in Chapter 14, stepped in to suggest that Mr Dick should be given "his little income, and come and live with" her: "I am ready to take care of him, and shall not ill-treat him as some people (besides the asylum-folks) have done."

====Victorian child exploitation====
The employment of young children in factories and mines under harsh conditions in the early Victorian era disturbed many. There was a series of Parliamentary enquiries into the working conditions of children, and these "reports shocked writers [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]] and Charles Dickens."<ref name="British Library" /> Dickens describes children working in factories or other workplaces in several novels, notably in ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', and in ''David Copperfield''. Young David works in a factory for a while after his mother dies and his stepfather showed no interest in him. Such depictions contributed to the call for legislative reform.<ref name="British Library">{{cite web |last1=Griffin |first1=Emma |title=Child labour |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/child-labour |publisher=The British Library |access-date=26 May 2018 |archive-date=12 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180512033131/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/child-labour |url-status=dead }} [[File:CC-BY icon.svg|50px]] Material was copied from this source, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016050101/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |date=16 October 2017 }}.</ref>

====Prison discipline====

Dickens satirises contemporary ideas about how prisoners should be treated in Chapter 61, 'I am Shown Two Interesting Penitents'. In this chapter, published in November 1850, David along with Traddles is shown around a large well-built new prison, modelled on [[Pentonville prison]] (built in 1842), where a new, supposedly more humane, system of incarceration is in operation, under the management of David's former headmaster Creakle.<ref name=Collins2016pp140>{{harvnb|Collins|2016|pp=140–163}}</ref> A believer in firmness, Dickens denounced comically the system of isolating prisoners in separate cells, the "separate system", and giving them healthy and pleasant food.<ref group="N">Dickens ridiculed the way it worked, lamenting that detainees were better treated than the poor or even non-commissioned soldiers.</ref> His [[satire]] appeals directly to the public, already warned by the long controversy over the prison discipline in the press.<ref name="Dickens_33">{{harvnb|Dickens|1985|p=33}}</ref> Mr Creakle is very proud of this new system, but his enthusiasm is immediately undermined by the reminder of his former ferocity as a school principal. In the prison David and Traddles encounter 'model prisoners' 27 and 28, who they discover are Uriah Heep and Mr Littimer. Heep is seen reading a hymn book and Littimer also "walked forth, reading a good book": both have managed to convince the naïve Creakle, and his fellow magistrates, that they have seen the error of their ways. Both are questioned about the quality of the food and Creakle promises improvements.<ref>{{harvnb|Dickens|1985|p=34}}</ref>

Dickens's ideas in this chapter were in line with [[Thomas Carlyle|Carlyle]], whose pamphlet, "Model Prisons", also denounced Pentonville Prison, was published in the spring of 1850.<ref name=Collins2016pp140 /> Indeed, Dickens had published anonymously, a month after Carlyle's pamphlet on the same subject, "Pet Prisonners".<ref>Charles Dickens, 'Pet Prisoners, "Letters", ''Household Words'', 27 April 1850.</ref>

====Emigration to Australia====
[[File: Fred Barnard08.jpg|thumb|Mr Micawber and the art of baking, with Mrs Micawber and the twins, by Fred Barnard.]]
Dickens's exploration of the subject of emigration in the novel has been criticised, initially by [[John Forster (biographer)|John Forster]] and later by [[G. K. Chesterton]]. Chesterton accused Dickens of presenting emigration in an excessively optimistic light, arguing that Dickens believed that by sending a boatload of people overseas their 'souls' can be changed, while ignoring the fact that poor people like Peggotty have seen their home stained or, like Emily, their honour tarnished. Micawber has been broken by the English social system, his journey to the antipodes is paid for by a paragon of the Victorian bourgeoisie, Betsey Trotwood<ref>{{harvnb|Cordery|2008|p=379}}</ref> and he is supposed to regain control of his destiny once he has arrived in Australia.<ref>{{cite book |first=Gilbert Keith |last=Chesterton |title=Criticisms and Appreciations of the Works of Charles Dickens |location=London |publisher=Dent |year=1933 |orig-year=1931 |page=131}}</ref> Trevor Blount points out that the word 'soul' has a different meaning for Dickens than Chesterton. Dickens cares about material and psychological happiness, and is convinced that physical well-being is a comfort for life's wounds.

Dickens sent his characters to America in ''[[Nicholas Nickleby]]'' and ''[[Martin Chuzzlewit]]'', but he has the Peggotty and Micawber families emigrate to Australia. This approach was part of the official policy of the 1840s, focusing on [[History of Australia (1788–1850)#Growth of free settlement|Australia]] as a land of welcome. It was at this time necessary to stimulate interest in the new colony and propagandists arrived in England in particular [[John Dunmore Lang]] and [[Caroline Chisholm]] from Australia. Dickens was only following this movement and, in any case, had faith in family colonisation. Moreover, the idea that redemption could be achieved by such a new start in a person's life was a preoccupation of the author, and he saw here subject matter to charm his readers.<ref>{{harvnb|Dickens|1985|pp=35–36}}</ref>

From the point of view of the novel's inner logic, in order for Copperfield to complete his psychological maturation and exist independently, Dickens must expel his surrogate fathers, including Peggotty and Micawber, and emigration is an easy way to remove them.<ref name=Davis1999p92 />

====Visions for society====
The episode in the prison, according to novelist [[Angus Wilson]], is more than a piece of journalism;<ref>{{harvnb|Wilson|1972|p=212}}</ref> it represents Dickens's vision of the society in which he lives. The same can be said of the episodes concerning prostitution and emigration, which illuminate the limits of Copperfield's moral universe and Dickens's own uncertainties.<ref name=Cordery2008p376>{{harvnb|Cordery|2008|p=376}}</ref> That everything is put in order in Australia, that Martha marries a man from the bush, that Emily, in the strong arms of Dan Peggotty, becomes a lady of good works, that Micawber, who had been congenitally insolvent, suddenly acquires the management skills and becomes prosperous in dispensing justice. All these conversions are somewhat 'ironic',<ref>{{cite book |first=Grace |last=Moore |title=Dickens and Empires: Discourses of Class, Race and Colonialism in the Works of Charles Dickens |location=Aberdeen |publisher=Ashgate |year=2004 |page=12 |series=The Nineteenth Century Series |isbn=978-0754634126}}</ref> and tend to undermine the hypothesis of 'a Dickens believing in the miracle of the antipodes', which Jane Rogers considers in her analysis of the 'fallen woman' as a plot device to gain the sympathy of Dickens's readers for Emily.<ref name=Rogers2003>{{cite web |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/rogers/4.html |last=Rogers |first=Jane |work=Victorian Web |title=How did Dickens deal with prostitution in his novels? Little Em'ly in the novel |date=27 May 2003 |access-date=16 March 2019 |quote=The fact that Em'ly can only continue her thwarted life in the colonies suggests that Dickens is sensitive to his audiences' abhorrence of Em'ly's crime, whilst (by saving her from annihilation) encouraging them to greater sympathy for her.}}</ref>

==== The middle-class ideology ====
[[John Forster (biographer)|John Forster]], Dickens's early biographer, praises the bourgeois or middle-class values and ideology found in ''David Copperfield''.<ref>{{harvnb|Forster|1966|pp=VI, 7}}</ref> Like him the Victorian reading public shared Copperfield's complacent views, expressed with the assurance of success that is his, at the end, as a recognized writer who is happy in marriage and safe from need.

Gateth Cordery takes a close look at class consciousness. According to him, Copperfield's relationship with aristocrat Steerforth and the humble Uriah Heep is "crucial".<ref name=Cordery2008p374 /> From the beginning, Copperfield ranks as and is considered by his friends among the good people. The Peggotty family, in Chapter 3, treat him with respect, "as a visitor of distinction"; even at Murdstone and Grinby, his behaviour and clothes earned him the title of "the little gentleman". When he reached adulthood, he naturally enjoyed Steerforth's disdain for Ham as a simple "joke about the poor". So he is predisposed to succumb, by what he calls in chapter 7 an "inborn power of attraction", to the charm instinctively lent to beautiful people, about which David said "a kind of enchantment&nbsp;... to which it was a natural weakness to yield." From start to finish, David remains fascinated by Steerforth, so he aspires inwardly to his social status.<ref>{{harvnb|Cordery|2008|pp=374–375}}</ref>

In parallel there is a contempt of the upstart, Heep, hatred of the same nature as Copperfield's senseless adoration for Steerforth, but inverted. That "'umble" Heep goes from a lowly clerk to an associate at Wickfield's, to claiming to win the hand of Agnes, daughter of his boss, is intolerable to David, though it is very similar to his own efforts to go from shorthand clerk to literary fame, with Dora Spenlow, the daughter of his employer.<ref name=Cordery2008p375>{{harvnb|Cordery|2008|p=375}}</ref> Heep's innuendo that Copperfield is no better than him feeds on the disdain in which he holds Heep as of right: "Copperfield, you've always been an upstart",<ref>{{harvnb|Dickens|1999|p=612}}</ref> an honesty of speech, comments Cordery, of which Copperfield himself is incapable.<ref name=Cordery2008p375 />

====Marriage====

Another concern of Dickens is the institution of marriage and in particular, the unenviable place occupied by women. Whether at the home of Wickfield, Strong, or under the Peggotty boat, women are vulnerable to predators or intruders like Uriah Heep, Jack Maldon, James Steerforth; Murdstone's firmness prevails up to the death of two wives; with David and Dora complete incompetence reigns; and at the Micawber household, love and chaos go hand in hand; while Aunt Betsey is subjected to blackmail by her mysterious husband. Dickens, according to Gareth Cordery, clearly attacks the official status of marriage, which perpetuated an inequality between the sexes, an injustice that does not end with the separation of couples.<ref name=Cordery2008p376 />

The mid-Victorian era saw a change in gender roles for men and women, in part forced by the factories and separation of work and home, which made stereotypes of the woman at home and the man working away from home.<ref name=McKnight2008pp186193>{{harvnb|McKnight|2008|pages=186–193}}</ref> Values, like the imperative need for women to marry and to be that ideal described as [[The Angel in the House]] (manages the home without aid and is always calm) are "interrogated, tested and even subverted",<ref>{{harvnb|Cordery|2008|page=374}}</ref> for example by having one mother-figure be the character Betsey Trotwood, who is not a mother.<ref name=McKnight2008p196>{{harvnb|McKnight|2008|page=196}}</ref> When seeming to describe a stereotypical image in particularly the female characters, the story "does so in a way that reflects the fault-lines of the image."<ref name=McKnight2008p195>{{harvnb|McKnight|2008|page=195}}</ref>

[[Anne Brontë]] in ''[[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]]'' (1848) explores this iniquity in the status of the character Helen Graham, separated from her alcoholic husband. Dickens's understanding of the burden on women in marriage in this novel contrasts with his treatment of his own wife [[Catherine Dickens|Catherine]], whom he expected to be an Angel in the House.<ref name=McKnight2008p195 />

====The fallen woman====
[[File:The awakening conscience, William Holman Hunt (1851-1853).jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[The Awakening Conscience]]'', [[William Holman Hunt]] (1851–1853)]]
Martha Endell and Emily Peggotty, the two friends in Yarmouth who work at the undertaker's house, reflect Dickens's commitment to "save" so-called [[fallen women]]. Dickens was co-founder with [[Angela Burdett-Coutts]] of [[Urania Cottage]], a home for young women who had "turned to a life of immorality", including theft and prostitution.<ref name=ODNB>{{Cite ODNB|id=10.1093|title=Coutts, Angela Georgina Burdett|first=Edna|last=Healey|author-link=Edna Healey}}</ref> On the eve of her wedding to her cousin and fiancé, Ham, Emily abandons him for Steerforth. After Steerforth deserts her, she doesn't go back home, because she has disgraced herself and her family. Her uncle, Mr Peggotty, finds her in London on the brink of being forced into prostitution. So that she may have a fresh start away from her now degraded reputation, she and her uncle emigrate to Australia. Martha has been a prostitute and contemplated suicide but towards the end of the novel, she redeems herself by helping Daniel Peggotty find his niece after she returns to London. She goes with Emily to start a new life in Australia. There, she marries and lives happily.

Their emigration to Australia, in the wake of that of Micawber, Daniel Peggotty, and Mr Mell, emphasizes Dickens's belief that social and moral redemption can be achieved in a distant place, where someone may create a new and healthy life.<ref>Charles Dickens, "A Bundle of Emigrants", Letters, ''Household Words'', 30 March 1850</ref> However, despite their families' forgiveness, they remain "tainted" and their expulsion from England is symbolic of their status: it is only at the other end of the world that these "social outcasts" can be reinstated. Morally, Dickens here conforms to the dominant middle-class opinion.

====The exception of Rosa Dartle====
John O. Jordan devotes two pages to this woman, also "lost", though never having sinned.<ref>{{harvnb|Jordan|2001|pp=130–131}}</ref> The sanctification of the Victorian home, he says, depends on the opposition between two [[stereotypes]], the "angel" and the "whore". Dickens denounced this restrictive dichotomy by portraying women "in between". Such is Rosa Dartle, passionate being, with the inextinguishable resentment of having been betrayed by Steerforth, a wound that is symbolised by the vibrant scar on her lip. Never does she allow herself to be assimilated by the dominant morality, refusing tooth and nail to put on the habit of the ideal woman. Avenger to the end, she wants the death of Little Emily, both the new conquest and victim of the same predator, and has only contempt for the efforts of David to minimize the scope of his words. As virtuous as anyone else, she claims, especially that Emily, she does not recognize any ideal family, each being moulded in the manner of its social class, nor any affiliation as a woman: she is Rosa Dartle, in herself.<ref>{{harvnb|Jordan|2001|p=130}}</ref>

David's vision, on the other hand, is marked by class consciousness: for him, Rosa, emaciated and ardent at the same time, as if there were incompatibility (chapter 20), is a being apart, half human, half animal, like the lynx, with its inquisitive forehead, always on the look out (chapter 29), which consumes an inner fire reflected in the gaunt eyes of the dead of which only this flame remains (chapter 20). In reality, says Jordan, it is impossible for David to understand or even imagine any sexual tension, especially that which governs the relationship between Rosa and Steerforth, which, in a way, reassures his own innocence and protects what he calls his "candour" – frankness or [[angelism]]? – his story. Also, Rosa Dartle's irreducible and angry marginality represents a mysterious threat to his comfortable and reassuring domestic ideology.<ref>{{harvnb|Jordan|2001|p=131}}</ref>