Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
The Plight of the Weak
Throughout David Copperfield, the powerful
abuse the weak and helpless. Dickens focuses on orphans, women,
and the mentally disabled to show that exploitation—not pity or
compassion—is the rule in an industrial society. Dickens draws on
his own experience as a child to describe the inhumanity of child
labor and debtors’ prison. His characters suffer punishment at the
hands of forces larger than themselves, even though they are morally
good people. The arbitrary suffering of innocents makes for the
most vividly affecting scenes of the novel. David starves and suffers
in a wine-bottling factory as a child. As his guardian, Mr. Murdstone
can exploit David as factory labor because the boy is too small
and dependent on him to disobey. Likewise, the boys at Salem House have
no recourse against the cruel Mr. Creakle. In both situations, children
deprived of the care of their natural parents suffer at the hands
of their own supposed protectors.
The weak in David Copperfield never escape
the domination of the powerful by challenging the powerful directly.
Instead, the weak must ally themselves with equally powerful characters.
David, for example, doesn’t stand up to Mr. Murdstone and challenge
his authority. Instead, he flees to the wealthy Miss Betsey, whose
financial stability affords her the power to shelter David from
Mr. Murdstone. David’s escape proves neither self-reliance nor his
own inner virtue, but rather the significance of family ties and
family money in human relationships.
Equality in Marriage
In the world of the novel, marriages succeed to the extent
that husband and wife attain equality in their relationship. Dickens
holds up the Strongs’ marriage as an example to show that marriages
can only be happy if neither spouse is subjugated to the other.
Indeed, neither of the Strongs views the other as inferior. Conversely,
Dickens criticizes characters who attempt to invoke a sense of superiority over
their spouses. Mr. Murdstone’s attempts to improve David’s mother’s
character, for example, only crush her spirit. Mr. Murdstone forces
Clara into submission in the name of improving her, which leaves
her meek and voiceless. In contrast, although Doctor Strong does
attempt to improve Annie’s character, he does so not out of a desire
to show his moral superiority but rather out of love and respect
for Annie. Doctor Strong is gentle and soothing with his wife, rather
than abrasive and imperious like Mr. Murdstone. Though Doctor Strong’s
marriage is based at least partially on an ideal of equality, he
still assumes that his wife, as a woman, depends upon him and needs
him for moral guidance. Dickens, we see, does not challenge his
society’s constrictive views about the roles of women. However,
by depicting a marriage in which a man and wife share some balance
of power, Dickens does point toward an age of empowered women.
Wealth and Class
Throughout the novel, Dickens criticizes his society’s
view of wealth and class as measures of a person’s value. Dickens
uses Steerforth, who is wealthy, powerful, and noble, to show that
these traits are more likely to corrupt than improve a person’s
character. Steerforth is treacherous and self-absorbed. On the other
hand, Mr. Peggotty and Ham, both poor, are generous, sympathetic
characters. Many people in Dickens’s time believed that poverty
was a symptom of moral degeneracy and that people who were poor
deserved to suffer because of inherent deficiencies. Dickens, on
the other hand, sympathizes with the poor and implies that their
woes result from society’s unfairness, not their own failings.
Dickens does not go so far as to suggest that all poor
people are absolutely noble and that all rich people are utterly
evil. Poor people frequently swindle David when he is young, even
though he too is poor and helpless. Doctor Strong and Agnes, both
wealthy, middle-class citizens, nonetheless are morally upstanding.
Dickens does not paint a black-and-white moral picture but shows
that wealth and class are are unreliable indicators of character
and morality. Dickens invites us to judge his characters based on
their individual deeds and qualities, not on the hand that the cruel
world deals them.
