Editing David Copperfield (section)

====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>