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BSEB Bihar Board 12th English Book 50 Marks Solutions David Copperfield
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Bihar Board 12th English David Copperfield Textbook Questions and Answers
Question 1.
Write the summary of David Copperfleld.
Answer:
The Hero of the Novel: David Copperfleld is the central figure, the hero of the novel. The novel is named after him and all the major events of the novel revolve round him. He is one of the most important characters drawn by Dickens. He is an immortal literary figure.
An Autoiographical Sketch: David Copperfleld is no one else but Charles Dickens himself. David resembles Dickens in many respects. In the words of Philip Hobsbaum, “The young David is sharply individual, as Oliver, heroes of Dickens are not. He is a representative as Oliver, but far more personalized; as oppressed as the children of Dotheboys Hall, but informed with the author’s own feeling. He is at once an archeypal waif upon the road and a projetion of his authors own psyche. At last, Dickens was able to inform social criticism with personal emotion or what comes to the same thing, he projected his personal emotion into a critique of society and so erected realistic details into symbolic drama.”
His Childhood : David Copperfleld was a posthumous child bom six months after his father’s death. He was brought up under the affectionate care of his mother and his nurse Peggotty. The only other relative, his aunt Betsey, had never visited the house since his birth. David was a very sensitive child. His sufferings started when his mother, whose undivided love he had so far enjoyed, married Mr. Murstone a dark man with moustaches, whom David did not like from the beginning. The boy naturally felt jealous.
His heart was rent to pieces when he realised that his cruel man was trying to snatch his mother away from him. Mr. Murdstone thought the child was being spoilt by his mother and so he took up his educationg in his own hands. But he was a tyrant; he beat the child and punished him for no fault of his David was intelligent. But he was afraid of Murdstone. Hence he could not learn anything in fear. He was all the time afraid of Mr. Murdstone’s cane. Whatever he leamt was forgotten in Mr. Murdstone’s dark presence. Mr. Murdstone in return accused DAvid of carelessness and beat him.
His Miserable Life in the School: On his first day in the school. David was insulted and placard reading “Take care of him. He bites was placed at his back, for the other boys to see and laugh at him. David wanted to get rid of such atmosphere. The only note of cheer was his friendship with best boys. Streer forth and traddles and the visit of Mr. Peggotty and Ham. Who brought happy memories of emily and others at Yarmouth.
A Life of Miseries: David’s life and temperament were shaped by miseries. Not only was he ill-treated by his step father and head master of the school, his mother also died when he was in the school. He was taken out of school and sent out in the hostile world to work and earn his livelihood of six shillings a week at Murdstone and Grinby’s. He was then only a child of ten. He at last decided to go to his aunt Betsey in Dover. He engaged a donkey-cartman to carry his trunk to the coach-office. But the donkey-cartman cheated David ran away with David’s trunk and his half-guinea. David had to walk all the way to Dover.
On the way, he had to sell his coat in order to buy some food. When he reached his aunt, she at first took him for a beggar. David told her how he had been turned out of his own house, made to work under horrible conditions and had finally run away. On hearing his pitiful story, she decided to adopt him. Thus, sufferings of David came to an end. He started a new life under the name of Trotwood Copperfield, with Bestey and Dick as his guardians.
His Amiable Nature and Popularity : David Copperfield, as presented in the novel, is a slim boy, handsome in appearance with an open frank and generous nature. That is why, he is liked by everybody and is able to form life long friendships. At School, Steerforth and ‘Traddles are devoted to him, and later on he endars himself to the Micawbers and the Peggotty household. His aunt Betsey Trotwood at once takes a fancy to him. He is liked and cared for by Agens and Mr. Wickfield, and then by Dora. It is all due to his amitable nature and good heart that he is able to create a place for himself in a materialistic world.
His Sensitiveness: David has a highly sensitive nature. Even as a boy, he was very sensitive. He could not bear the least insult or neglect and suffered terribly as a consequence. When Mr. Murdstone treated him inhumanly, he bit him. At school, he felt unhappy about Steerforth insulting Mr. Mell for his poverty. When Mr. Spenlow returned Dora’s letters to him, he felt it was an insult to him and refused to take them back. He always remembered his aunt’s advice and was never mean, vulgar or cruel. David was a gifted child.
With his hyper sensitive imagination, his childhood interest in books, his experiences and love of nature, he was able at last to gain success as an author of novels which soon became very popular and brought him name and wealth. His life shows how simple perseverance and hard work can enable one to overcome adverse circumstances. It also illustrates Dicken’s faith in the final victory of virtue over vice.
His Ambition : It was David’s Copperfield’s ambition to get education, grow into a cultured gentleman and become an author. He suffered a lot when he had to take up mental job of cleaning bottles. In order to realize his aim in life, he had to face a lot of struggle. He ran away from his step-father’s house, he ran away from the low type of work he had to do, he studied hard, and with his hard work and devotion he got success. He was indeed a self-made person.
Intelligent and Hard working: David was intelligent and books provided him a great fascination. He had the virtues of hard work and perseverance. It was a result of his hard work that he could be successful as a parliamentary reporter and later on as a novelist. He always remembered his aunt’s advice and was never mean and ungenerous in anything he did throughout his life.
His Love for Dora : After finishing school, David was sent to Spenlow and Jorkin’s in London, to be apprenticed to the proctor’s profession. One day, Mr. Spenlow invited him to spend the week-end at his house. There David met Mr. Spenlow’s daughter Dora and fell headlong in love with her. In spite of impediments created by Dora’s father and his own economic difficulties, he was successful in marrying Dora and fulfilling his dream of leading a happy married life with her. But about a year and half after the marriage, Dora fell seriously ill and died.
During her long illness. David attended on her like a loving husband, and when the final blow came, he felt very lonely and miserable. His love for Dora was not a young boy’s fancy. It was deep and sincere. After his marriage, he discovered that Dora was childish, entirely irresponsible in taking care of her household. She could not look after the accounts or perform any other household duties. Still he loved her, and when she fell ill he nursed her and looked after her as a fatal blow to him. His life was dartkened, and following the advice of Agnes, he went on a tour of the continent where he found some solace.
His Love for Agents: David had loved Agnes from the very beginning, through he did not at first understand the true nature of his feeling. He considered Agens merely a sincere friend who brought comfort and serenity to him by her sympathy and timely advice and guidance. It was only on her return from Europe that he became conscious of the fact that he had always loved her. Then he proposed to her, and was readily accepted, for Agens too had loved him all along. His married life was a happy one, and under the tender care and loving influence of Agnes, he forgot the cares and worries of his life and the misereis he had undergone.
His Honesty: David was honest kind and conscientious. Never in his life did he take recourse to dishonesty, even when he had to suffer in consequence. When after his engagement with Dora, he realized that he had suddenly become very poor, he thought it proper to prepare Dora for marrying a poor man. He was faithful and greatful to all those who helped him in difficulty. It was out of his gratitude that he helped his aunt in her hour of distress. It was on account of his respect for his old master. Dr. Strong that he accepted a job under him on a very low wage. In the face of his suffering, he was undaunted. He was sincere and faithful in friendship. As a nephew, as a friend and as a husband, he had no rival. He brought joy and comfort to all.
Conclusion : In a way the life of David Copperfield is the life-sketch of Dickens himself. David is the child of environment and temperament like Dickens himself. Dickens had been a playwright, a clerk and a reporter. Similar vicissitudes of life awaited the multifarious activities of David. Adversity puts a man on his mettle. A diamond shines the brightest when rubbed hard. Misery is the true test of our genuine worth. David was made by his trials and tribulations. To conclude in the words of Somerset Maugham, “David is a hero drawn after Dicken’s own heart—not as he himself was but as he would have wished himself to be, for David Copperfield is a fantastication, sometimes gay, sometimes pathetic, composed out of recollections and wishfulfilments by a man of lively imagination and warm feelings”.
Question 2.
Give the character sketch of Uriah Heep.
Answer:
A Villain – Uriah Heep is the villain of Copperfield. He is all lead black hearted and mischievous. He perceives in David a rival and becomes a rival himself. He has false designs on Agnes, he makes money by black means. He is the lago of Dickens. He is a hypocrite and is an expert at dissimulation. His meanness is incomparable. He betrays everybody; he even betrays Mr. Wickfield, his very saviour. He is dishonest and ungreatful. He is a cheat and a liar.
His Personal Appearance – Uriah Heep is the clerk of Mr. Wickfield. David first meets Heep at his house. At that time, he is a mere boy of fifteeen but he looks much older. His face is ‘cadaverous’ his hair is red, cropped as close, “as the closest stubble,” and he has no eyebrows or eyelashes. He had long lean and skeleton hands which are so very damp and cold that David has to rub his hands for long to make them warm, after he has shaken hands with him. He is high-shouldered and bony, and has long, lank skeleton hands. There is something and mystifying in his act of breathing into the pony’s nostrils and immediately covering them with his hands as if he were putting some spell upon him. He exterior is devilish. He is rather foxy in appearance.
His Cunning and Treachery – Uriah Heep is a cunning and treacherous fellow. He is very cunningly and deceitfully learns from David the secrets of Mr. Wickfield’s business and private life. It is on account of David that Mr. Micawber makes the acquaintance with Heep. It is only when one day he is passing by Uriah’s house that he happens to see David inside and walks in. David introduces Micawber to Heep. Afterwards, Mr. Micawber is often seen visiting Heep or drinking in his company. Later, Heep enters into partnership with Mr. Wickfield, his employer and Mr. Micawber takes up a clerk’s job under him.
He pays Micawber very poorly but would gladly lend him money in order to get his coperation in the act of deceit against Wickfield. Knowing Mr. Wickfield’s weakness for wine and his complete trust of and dependence on him. Heep takes over the entire business of Wickfield in his own hands. He even has the audacity to think of marrying Agnes, his master’s daughter.
A Hypocrite and a Cheat – Uriah heep is a through hyprocrite and cheat. He is a slimy, creepy imposter. He pretends humility he always poses to be an humble man. But all his humility is a more show, a cover for his cunning and deceit. He is highly ambitions and he has to worst type of ambition. He uses all his inteligence and industry for self-aggrandisement. He wants wealth, rank, position and power. For that he is going to fall down up to any extent. He displaces his master, he causes misery and suffering to all.
Thus hypocrisy has become his second nature. He is an ugly child of hatred, greed and cunning, “pocksniff excites comic disgust, Uriah Heep terror”. He is an imposter and trespasser.
A Cause of Misery and Suffering – Uriah Heep is a source of misery and suffering to so many people. Frustrated and unhappy from childhood, he returns to the society suffering and cruelty. He is the source of all the miseries to his master. Wickfield and his daughter, Agnes, Agnes suffers a great deal of internal trouble because of Uriah’s evil designs upon her. She knows fully . well that he is devil incarnate, yet she is helpless. He becomes a rival to David and creaies obstacles in his marriage with Agnes. He takes out by fraudulent means all the’money of Miss Betsey Trotwood. Consequently, not only but also David have to undergo a great deal of economic difficulties and troubles.
David has to give up his plans of studying law and has to work as a secretary on account of Miss Betsey’s loss of money. When this calamity takes place, David is engaged to Dora and hopes to marry her very soon. But his poverty becomes a hindrance. Thouogh Dora continues to love him, her father. Mr. Spenlow tells him not visit his daughter any more. All this suffering is caused to David on account of Uriah heep’s villainy. Thus Uriah Heep is a black hearted villain.
His Punishment – But God’s ways are sure and just. Heep’s villainy at last recoils upon his own head. The work of retribution begins and soon Nemesis is at work and Uriah Heep is caught in the very trap he has prepared with such ingenuity. Mr. Macwber’s eclipsed ability at last puts him in his true-colour. A liar and a cheat a hypocrite and Villain, Uriah Heep is caught in his own mess and pays the penalty. He just deserves he is convicted of fraud, forgery and conspiracy in a bank case and sentenced to transportation for life.
A Contrast to Micawber – Uriah Heep is a contrast to Mr. Micawber. He is his opposite in character and conduct. Micawber in helpful and sympathetic and creates fine weather whenever he goes. Heep is a heap of rubbish and dirt, of cruelty and villainy; he is selfish, greedy and hypocritical. Micawber causes joy and happiness to all concerned; Uriah Heep causes misery and suffering to those who come in contact with him.
Conclusion – According to A.O. Cookshoot Uriah Heep is a puzzling and unsatisfactory character. There is a certain psychological insight in the orginal conception of him. He is a man deliberately trading on the moral confusion of others. Inability to distinguish between Christian humility and the social subservience of the lower orders was we know a common Victorian failing and one which can be traced back to the origins of the serious English novel to Richardson’s Pamela. His damp sweaty palm is not merely like so many physical details in Dickens exaggerated it is presented as exactly what we should expect of such as ill-bred fellow.
Physical repulsion, moral disapproval and class superiority and mingled, are boiled up together into a kind of both where they become indistinguishable. And the indignation David feels aboout Uriah Heep’s wish to marry agnes cannot possibly be put down to respect for her virtues. Uriah is called “a red hearded animals” so as to exploit the cheap horror of a possible sexual violation of the pure maiden Here in the midst of reading an important work of a very great novelist, we are astonished to find ourselves in the world of murder in the cathedral—”but worse, because Dickens lacks the redeeming naivate of such a work.
Question 3.
Give the character sketch of Betsey Trotwood.
Answer:
An Arresting Personality – Betsey Trotwood is an arresting personality. She is a fairy goodmother to David, and comes to his rescue in his worst hour of need. She plays a very important role in the life of the hero of the novel. She is character who could be created only by Dickens.
A Woman of Eccentricities – From the first glimpse of her exterior we form a queer notion at Miss Betsey. The disgust she felt at the birth of a male child and her abrupt departure with a vow never to return, entitles us to call her a lady of eccentricities. She disapproves of the marriage of David’s father with his mother whom she calls wax-doll’. Her suffering and disappointment, her psychological injury, account for her eccentricities and oddities. She quarrelled did not come to their home as long as he lived. She came to their home on the night on which David was bom. She had hoped the baby to be a girl, so that she could adopt her and call he Betsey. But when a male was bom she got highly displeased and left David’s parents for ever. She had come walking very straight and now she went away quietly without feeling anyone of her departure other intances of her eccentric behaviour are provided by her cry, “Janet the Donkey’s and by the way she would rush out to drive them out.
A Woman of Strong Views – As a matter of fact, Miss Betsey is a woman of independent nature and strong views. She does not care for public opinion. She drives her carriage herself through the streets of Canterbury, in defiance of public opinion. When she does not like a person, she tells him so bluntly and fearlessly. She speaks plainly to Uriah Heep. She is even prepared to give a physical chastisement to him.
A Kind-hearted Woman – Bestey is a kind and generous woman. She herself suffered a lot. She therefore, knows what suffering means to others. She is always ready to help the suffering and the needy. She takes pity on of pity compassion and generosity upon David as if the human virtues lay stored in her waiting to be showered on his head. She resolves to do something grand to the grandson as measure of compensation for her neglected towards David’s father and mother. David’s welfare, well-being and his right bringing up are the very concerns of her life. Her magnanimity impresses David so much so that he remarks “My poor mother herself could not have loved me better or studied more how to make me happy.”
She proves to be the very saviour of David. But for her generosity and love, David would have been a little robber and vagabond.
A Lover of Real Virtue – Miss Betsey is a lover of real virtue. She hates meanness. Before sending David to school, she advises him in a motherly way to avoid three vices meanness, dishonesty and cruelty. She is kind to Dora. She admires. Agnes for her good qualities and is happy when David marries her in the end. She is kind to Mr. and Mrs. Micawber and helps them to emigrate to Australia. She possesses a high sense of morality, dignity and character. She cannot be judged by the appearance she keeps but by the kind heart and soft soul she has.
Conclusion – Thus we find that though Betsey Trotwood at first appears to us a funny, eccentric, unreasonable woman is in fact a very dignified, sympathetic and helpful person, perhapes her own marriage has made her an ecentric and created grim impression on Mrs. Copperfield’s mind. Perhaps her own unhappiness in marriage is reflected in her attitude towards clara. But she is at heart a very kind woman. She takes pity on Mr. Dick and treats him sympathetically. She express appreciation of his common sense and consults him in everything. She believes that through eccentric. He is initially a good and sensible man and a worthy companion to her. That is why he asks him to be David’s guardian along with herself and allows him to visit David in school.
It is she who plays an important role in moulding David’s life and character and paves the way for his success and happiness.
Question 4.
Give character sketch of Mr. Micawber.
Answer:
His Appearance and Personality – Mr. Macawber is one of the most memorable characters in the novel. He is as immortal as Falstaff or Don Quixote. According to a critic Wilkins, Micawber is “the supreme example of Dicken’s power to make us sympathize with a character whom we might well avoid in real life.” He is delightful, rather humorous appearance. At his first meeting, David describes Mr. Micawber as stoutish middle-aged person, in a brown shirt and black tights and shoes, with no more hair upon his head (which was a large one and shining) than there is upon an egg; and with a very extensive face, which he turned full upon me. His clothes were shabby but he had an imposing shirt-collar on. He carried a showy short of stick with a large pair of silk tassels to it, and a large eye-glass hung outside his coat for the sake of ornaments.”
His Habits and Behaviour – Mr. Micawber was “grandiloquent in speech and shiftly in money matters, but be was no fool and far from incompetent; he was industrious, kindly and affectionate. Mr. Micawber is a man of kindly, genial nature. Some critics regard him as. a pen-portrait of Dicken’s farther. According to A.C. Ward, “he is the type of a whole race of a men who will not vanish from the earth so long as the type of a whole race of men who will not breast is only temporarily suspended by the laws of debtors an creditors and is always capable of revival with the aid of a bowl of milk punch.
A kindlier and merrier, a more humorous and a more generous character, was never conceived than this, “he is one of those optimistic soluls who are always waiting for something to turn up, and who are able to maintain their cheerfulness and good spirits, despite poverty debt and imprisonment. Mr. Micawber is typical of those good for nothing fellows who are never able to make anything in life, but still manage to live largely as a result of bounty and generousity of friends, secured for them by their genial and generous temperament.
A Figure of Fun – Mr. Micawber is a figure of fun and laughter. He is a great comic character. As G.K. Chesterton is mentioned “If fals staff is the greatest comic character in literature, Mr. Micawber is the best but one, “It is his sense of humour that comes to rescue him from numerous creditors. He never loses hope and cheerfulness and radiates joy and happiness around. He carries with him a perpectual sunshine and all those who come in contact with him bask in it.
His Honesty – Mr. Micawber is a very honest person. In spite of his poverty and debt he is honest. He tries his best to repay his debt. Had he willed, he would have made vast profits from Uriah Heep. But he does not follow a dishonest path. No thought of personal aggrandisement every crosses his mind. On the contrary he comes to the aid of Betsey and exposes Uriah Heep. He acts nobly, selflessly and brings hope and comfort not only to miss Trotwood, but also to Agnes and her wretched father.
His Intelligence and Resourcefulness – It is because of his intelligence and resourcefulness that he becomes a successful Magistrate in Australia. Even in the prison the co-prisoners regard him as the most intelligent man among themselves. His intelligence is further proved by his intelligent handling of Uriah affair. When Uriah’s eveil machinations are exposed and the charges against him read out, he tries to snatch the documents from Micawber’s hand, but fails, he goes about the business of exposing Uriah Heep’s machinations and read sout the charges one by one, subtantiating everything with full proof. This shows that he had studied law carefully and used his knowledge for a good purpose.
A. Lovable Character – Mr. Micawber is indeed a very lovable character. We may condemn him for his easy-going lazy disposition, but we cannot help loving him all the same. To quote A.O. J. Cockshut, “To read of Mr. Micawber is as chesterton said, like receiving a blow in the face. It is a deeply-flet experience, but it is not susceptible of analytic description. It follows that any detailed critical discussion of David Copperfield will tend to be unbalanced because it is impossible to give appropriate space to Micawber, “According to somerset Maugham, Mr. Micawber was “grandiloquent in speech and shifty in money matters, but he was not fool and far from incompetent; he is industriouos, kinely and affectionate.”
Conclusion – According to Mr. G. K. Chesterton, “Mr. Micawber is a man who cannot be made to understand the tyranny of time or the limit of human hope. And further, “Micawber interrupts practical life but what is practical life that it should venture to interrupt Micawber ? It cannot be too much repeated that the whole lesson of Dickens is here. It is better to know Micawber than not to know the inner worries that arise out of knowing Micawber. It is better to have bad debt and a good friend.”
According to Compton – Rickett, “Mr. Micawber is another type of the attractive mercurial temperament, ready to look on the bright side of things at the smallest provocation. Apart from this, the needy, improvement man would have served the stem moralists purposes almost as well as Swiveller. But really we are scarcely conscious of his faults, so delighted are we by his company. This it may be said, is due to the author making unfair use of his gift of humour and idealising the man out of all human probability. That he idealises may be admitted.”
Question 5.
Give the character sketch of Clara Peggotty.
Answer:
An Ideal Servant – “Clara Peggotty represents what an ideal servant should be. She had become the part and parcel of the family. She regarded David as her own son. She was to David in his childhood what Miss Betsey was to him in his youth. She provided to be sincere and devoted to the family. She remained with the family till the death of her mistress. When she was formerly dismissed by Murdstone, she left Blunderstone with a heavy heart. At Yarmouth she was married with Barkis.”
Not only a Servant but a Member of David’s Family – In the family of David, Miss Peggotty was always regarded as a member of the family. She was known to be the most genuine well-wisher of the family. David’s words, “I left towards her something. I have never felt for any other human being” show his confidence in her. She is a living example of honesty and devotion.
Her Love for David – Peggotty loved David as a true sister. One day, Mr. Murdstone caned David who is return but him in order to release himself from the tyrants clutches. He was punished with solitary confinement in his own room for five days. Nobody was allowed to see him not even his own mother. Even then, Peggotty used to go up and console him by talking to him through the keyhole. She even kissed the keyhole in order to kiss David. This shows her simplicity and boundless love for David. On the fifth day she informed him that he was going to be sent to a boarding school. She assured him that she would continue to love him and take care as his mother and she remained faithful to her promise.
The next day when David was seated on the carrier cart, feeling very dejected and in law spirits, because his mother had not been allowed to come near him and give him a parting kiss, Peggotty suddenly emerged from a bush ran up to the cart and embraced David. She filled his pocket with cake which she had baked herself. She also gave him a purse containing some money from herself and from his mother.
An Example of Sacrifice – Miss Peggotty is an example of sacrifice. She was always willing to sacrifice her own life and happiness for the sake of her mistress. When David told her that Barkis the carrier, was waiting for a reply to his offer to marriage. She dismissed the question saying she would not marry. Barks or anyone else. It was only after her mistress’s death, when she was dismissed by Mr. Murlstone, that she decided to get. Even then her married prime consideration was David’s happiness she knew that by marrying Barkis, she would have a home of her own, where David could come and live whenever he wanted.
A Kind Mother and Good Wife – To David, peggotty became a kind mother after the loss of his own mother and he was grateful to her for the affection and care she had always shows towards him. He kept writing to her even when he was staying with his aunt and also from Dr. strong’s school.’ Peggotty was kind to David’s friends also. She entertained steerfofth when he first visited varmyuth. When traddles wanted to buy back a piece of furniture, Peggotty brought it for him. Though she had once entertained a peculiar dread of miss Trotwood, she went to see her again, the time she liked her and was also liked by her.
Question 6.
Write a note on socialization of the novels of Dickens.
Answer:
The contribution of Dickens to the English novels is that he made the novel ‘social’. No novelist before dickens had treated the lower middle classes on sun such broad lines or in so frank a way. He studied them not as a detached, superior kind of observer, but as one on their own level. This socialistic approach and feeling made dickens an a postle and turned his work into “a gospel of humanitartianism.” W. L. Cross observes in this connection, ”The humanitarian novel, with which the name of dickens is pre-eminently associated after the publication of ‘Pickwick’ is the popular section of an extensive humanitarian literature, and as such it is the most available record of a deep and far-reaching philanthropic movement, which has its beginning in the eighteenth century, and rose to its sentimental culmination some fifty years ago.”
After the publication of Nicholas Nickle by and old curiosity shop, “Dickens became a sort of professor of humanitarianism” and he held his position for nearly thirty years, disturbed now and then by a critic or reviewer who questioned his knowledge. His theme was always the down-trodden and the oppressed. He was their advocate for them each of his novels after ‘Pickwick’ is a lawyer’s brief. In this opinion, it was not possible for the lower and criminal classes to raise themselves by the elective franchise to a higher moral and intellectual plane. To him parliament was the dearest place in the world, and he sought to arouse the conscience of the British public and he left the issue with themselves.
Question 7.
Write a short note on Dicken’s method of characterizations.
Answer:
In general, Dickens delights in delineating the external peculiarities of his characters. He gives us a very vivid and precise picture of the externals the face, the gesture and the dress. His fantastic imagination fastens on any oddity or peculiarity of his characters. We are told about the tone of voice, the trick of utterance and the gestures which accompany it. till every word spoken by his characters is real tous. His characters further by reveal themselves in conversation, chapter after chapter. He visualises his character first depicting his external peculiarties and them by attaching a tag or label or by describing his surrounding and atmosphere. Since Dickens uses exaggeration in his characterization, he has been called or rather condemned as a caricatunding and atmosphere.
Since Dickens uses exaggeration in his characterization, he had been called or rather condemned as a caricaturist. According Walter Allen, “Dicken’s characters are often said to be caricatures or to be exaggerated. I do not think this is true, they are all so sharply differentiated from one another as to plainly the product of intense accuracy of observation. “In the words of santayana, “When people say, Dickens exaggerates, it seems to me they can people are, they accept them conventionally at their diplomatic value. Their minds rus on in the region of discourse where there are marks only and no faces, ideas and no facts, they have little sense for those living grimaces that play from moment on the countenance of the world, “The reason of their being caricatures is perhaps that while portraying his characters Dickens lays greater emphasis on their individually.
Question 8.
Write a note on flat character of Dickens.
Answer:
Dickens with few exceptions fails to develop his characters through circumstance. In other words, his characters are flat they do not change and grow psychologically under the stress of circumstance. The remain the same from beginning to the end. Flat characters are sometimes called types, and sometimes caricatures. “In their purest form,” says L. M. Forter, “they are constructed round a single idea or quality, when there is more than one factor in them, we get the beginning of the curve towards the round “Dicken’s characters, according to Mr. Forter, are flat characters. They are types and symbols. Mr. Pickwick is a belated specimen of the eighteenth century man of feeling.
Picksniff and Mrs. Gamp are drawn as embodiments of hypocrisy and heartless-egoism. Mr. Jelly by is the type of all professional philanthropists, Mr. Sergeant Buzful is the type of all legal advocates. Mr. Micawber stands for optimists. “Like the writers of the old moralities. Dickens peoples his stage with virtues and vices, and like them he does it gaily, presenting them as no frigid abstractions, but as clowns and canzanies the walking their bladders, exuberant in motley and bell, (David ceil). In a word Dicken’s characters are both types and individuals.
Question 9.
Dickens fails to portary women in love. Discuss.
Answer:
It may be noted that there is very little love making in all the novels of Dickens. Dickens is rarely successful in presenting women in love. In the words of compton-Rickett, “Never was anyone more devoid of semblance to humanity than Estella. She does not talk like a creature of flesh and blood, but as a personified theory. The story of little emily and her elopement has been presented in the falsest possible light. The girl is shown to us as acting with cold blooded deliberation. There is no hint given as to how she was tempted by steerforth and it looks very much as if she calculated the material advantages of elopement with him. The insults hurled at her by rose Dartle are to some extent justified. It may be said that Emily has only a subordinate part in the Dora who is the leading lady. But Dickens is equally unsuccessful with her. She is wooed and wed, but it is the wooing and wedding of a butter-fly.
This is the prettiet bit of love making in all Dickens however false it may appear to us. The scene in which David writes with Dora, holding the pey is no doubt, poetic, but it certainly does not present areal picture of an author’s life. No author can write with such a charming assistant bending over him. Dora is not to be taken serioously, she is incapable of shouldering the responsibilities of life. Dickens young ladies in love have received no education worth the name and hence are irresponsible and fickle. They are all ‘little women’, they are all short statured.”
Question 10.
What are the main features of pathos of Dickens ?
Answer:
Lord DAvid Cecil speaking about the pathos of Dickens, writes in Early Victorian Novelists, “Pathos can be the most powerful of all the weapons in the novelists arsenal. But it is far the most dangerous to handle. The reader must feel convinced that the story inevitably demands that a direct attack be made on his tender feelings. If he once suspects that his emotions are being exploited, his tears made to flow by a cold-blooded machination on the part of another he will be nauseated instead of being touched. The author must take the greatest care, therefore, first that the emotion he extracts from his pathetic situation is inevitably inherent in it end secondly that he is not overstating it.”
Dickens does not stick to such a prescription of Mr. Cecil, “He has a natural gift for homely pathos. But almost always the sins flagrantly against both the canon which govern its use. He overstates. He tries to wring an extra tear from the situation, he never lets it speak for itself. One would have thought, the death of an innocent and virtuous child should be allowed to carry its own emotion, but Dickens cannot trust us to be moved by little Nell’s departure from the world unassisted by church-bells, falling snow at the window, and every other ready made device for extracting our tears that a cheap theotric can provide. No Hollywood film, director, expert in sobstuff, could more thoroughly vulgarise the simple and .the tender. But. little Nell is not so bad as little Emily. For here, in order to be sure of his effects, Dickens not only underlines the pathos in the situation, he tries to increase it by the addition of foreign elements. The situation of an innocent girl, seduced under a promise of marriage, is poignant indeed, but it is not necessarily a hopeless situation.”
Question 11.
Write a note on peculiar realism of Dickens.
Answer:
Dicken’s realism is peculiar. It is no merely bom out of his attempt to represent his age in his novels but also out of his temperament and the needs of his age. The novelist the Victorin’s believed should be mixture of fact and fiction. Dickens most important contemporaries in fiction. Thackeray; George Dilot and Trollope did this in their different ways vanity fair, Middle march and Barchester Towers are after all the pictures of world around their authors. But Dicken’s realism is like that of a child. The child while living in the real world always his dreams and fantasies. So has Dickens It is in this sense that his realism is peculiar. His realism incorporates both fact and fiction joy and sorrow, this world and the world beyond the material reality. That is why Hugh walker considers Dickens more of an imaginative and romantic novelist than a realist. He observes in his book.
The literature of the Victorian Era, “By contrast with Scott, he may be called a realist, for there are no mists of time or space to throw a glamour over his subjects. He takes what lies nearest to his hand, what he knows best. Even in Pickwick, before he had developed a ‘purpose’, there is story reality enough in the scenes in the fleet prison. But in the strict sense of the word he is not a realist at all, on the contrary, his work is rather the romance of the streets of London. “But this is not the whole truth about Dicken’s realism. Dickens may not be a realist in the strict sense of realism; he may not have surface reality. Yet he is a realist because he makes the things he deals with look like real. He world is not a dreamy or airy world. There are no ghosts and fairies, no supernatural things and godgs appearing on his pages.” His world is solid. He is able to create a world is solid as it is soaked in imagination. His london may be different from actual London, but it is just as real as it could be possible and probable in England.
Question 12.
Do you think, Dicken’s characters are realistic character ?
Answer:
The characters which Dickens creates are human beings of flesh and blood. Although they are not the extact copies of their originals, seen and observed in life, yet they are like them. Sam Weller, Mr. Mantalini, Joe, Micawber, Quilip, Swiveller, Pip, David are the characters which have been drawn from the life without much alteration. They are beings he has made for his own delight, and many are creations of a bold and unconstrained fancy, rejoicing in the grotesque. Dickens may have seen their originals he himself may even have seen them exactly as they are drawn, for the world to him was alive with such captivating absurdities.
“However they may have been originated, these imaginative figures are substantiated by their own dramatic integrity and by the potent engine of his realistic art the Defoe-like art, the Defoe-like accumulation of detail, true as eyesight, and harmonious, if sometimes stagery, atmosphere which is evolved from his vivid thought, it may be visionary picturing of their surroundings.” Speaking about his characters. Quiller Couch has remarked, “If it came to the mere wonder work of genius the creation of men and women, on a page, of paper, who are actually more real to us than our daily acquaintances, as companionable in a crowd as even our best selected friends, as individual as the most eccentric we know, yet as universal as humanity itself. I do not see what English writer we can choose to put second to Shakespeare save Charles Dickens.”
Question 13.
Write a note on Dickens as a novelist of low life and domestic life.
Answer:
Dickens is the best of all the English novelists. Previous to his day, the novelist only wrote of the life and adventures of the rich and aristocratic sections of society. Dicken was the first to introduce to the reading public life of the poor and the oppressed. He had a very marked sense of humour, and his appeal is to the heart rather than to the head. He rouses in us pity for the lot of the poor whose suffering he describes, and resentment against those who illetreated and exploited them. He had a special love for orphan children as he had been left orphan himself and had suffered much cruelty in his early years. His OliverTwist (1838) is a powerful indictment of poor children of his day. Dickens is pre-eminently the novelist of the hearth and the home and no where does this note ring clearer and truer than in David Copperfield.
The love of his mother and his home is deep seated in the unfortunately little hero, throughout the chapters he betryas his affection for blunder stone, Rookery, and all its dear associations. Notless striking than the mutual love of mother and son, is the loyality of Agnes Wickfield to her father, for Dickens is with Shakespeare and Scott in desiring to depict the sympathetic care and the charming solicitude of a daughter. There is, moreover, another side of happy home life, illustrated by the dependence of Wilkins, Micawber and his wife upon each other, the single-souled fidelity of Peggotty to her mistress and little David completes the picture drawn by the novelist of home life.
Question 14.
Write a note on, humour of Dickens.
Answer:
To write of Charles Dickens at all is to presuppose his humour, it was the supreme quality of his genius. It was as a humorist that Dickens made his name. Humour is the soul of his work. Even as a writer of true farce, we suppose, Dickens has never been surpassed. Pickwick Papers abounds in farce, now quite distinct from, and now all but blending with, the higher characteristics of Humour. At his worst, he is capable of facctiousness as in Nicholes Nickleby “Madame Mantalini wrung her hands for grief and rung the bell for her husband : which done, she fell into a chair and a fainting fit simultaneously, “The scene between the little David and waiter, in Chapter V of David Copperfield, seems to Gissing “farce, though very good, country innkeepers were never in the habit of setting a dish-load of cutlets before a little boy who wanted dinner, and not even the shrewdest of waiters, having devoured them all, could make people believe that it was the little boy’s achivement; but the comic vigour of the thing is irresistable.”
But between Dicken’s farce and his scenes of humour the difference is obvious. In Mantalini, for example, we have nothing illuminating. He amuses, and there the matter ends. But true humour always suggests a thought, always throws a light on human nature. Both the Wellers (father and son) are strictly humorous. Neither the old coach man nor his son is ever shown in grotesque, or improbable situations no one takes Manatalini to his heart but Tony and Sam Weller become in very truth our friends, and for knowing them, we know ourselves the better. They are surprising incarnations of the spirit of man, doomed to in habit so variously.
Question 15.
Discuss the autobiographical note in novels of Dickens.
Answer:
Dicken’s novels contain a great deal of autobiography, David Copperfield contains a large amount of autobiography. His early knowledge of low life of London supplied material for Oliver Twist, his school days for Nicholas Nickleby, his visit to the Marshalsea, where his father was imprisoned, for Little Dorrit, his life in law office for treatment of legal matters in Bleak House and other novels. Dickens has thrown light on the society of his days, with the impact of the Industrial Revolution, when children were employed in factories, where most of the schools were inefficient and selfishly motivated like Mr. Creakle’s school, and even law fell into hands of selfish people. Being written in the first person, the novels of Dickens excite the reader’s sympathy for the hero easily than it would have done otherwise.
Question 16.
What are the Dicken’s limitations ?
Answer:
Dickens has several virtues and merits as a novelist. But these should not make us blind to his faults. The first complaint against Dickens the artist in that his plots lack construction, they are stage plots, there is too much coincidence in them, the endings are hundled and unnaturally happy. Dickens wrote from day to day for serial publication, with the printer’s devil at his heels the whole time. He did not plan his books in advance, never saw them as a whole in his imagination. They grew up in his hands from day to day after running amuck and playing havoc with the imagination of the author. Gissing too conceds these faults in Dickens.
The second charge against Dickens is concerning his charades. It is complained that they are often “wooden” and static. They do not change, except rarely, as in the case of Pip. They bear labels and ticket descriptions. For instance, Mr. Micawber makes punch and waits for something to turn up Mr. Dick composes a pertition and gets lost with King Charles’s head, Mr. Jogger’s bites his finger Barkits tells Devy that he is willing’ Stephen Zwing says. “It is by outward signs that Dickens makes the individually of a character recognizable. He gives the schoolmaster Creakle a very deep spluttering voice. His Uriah Heep has hands that are pepetually cold and clammy…” The character of Dickens are all one-sided entirely good or entirely evil. They are not complex beings, consusing mixtures of good and evil a most human-beings are. The women-characters of Dickens are either idyllic heroines or shrill voiced, harsh termagnats, perpetually complaining.
Mrs. Joe Gargery is a typical example of them. It is also complained against Dickens that he always preaches a moral in his work. He wants to point out faults in social institutions; he scourges vices like hypocrisy and excessive pride. This charge against Dickens is treated by many critics as a sterling merit in him. His novels proved to be a great bom to his generation. Writing on the faults of Dickens, Quiller-Courch remarks : “He was a waiter of imperfect or hazardous literary education: but he was also a man of iron will and an artist of the fiercest literary conscience.”
Question 17.
Write a note on humour of situation in ‘David Copperfield’.
Answer:
David Copperfield abounds in characters and situations of pure, whole-hearted humour, of fun and laughter. Little David reading the story of the crocodiles of his nurse Peggotty creates the impression that they were a sort of vegetable how much like a child and yet how funny to us adults! Similarly, the description of Betsey Trotwood in the opening chapter, and when she says, “Janet, the donkey’s” make us laugh. But the most comic figure, often compared with Shakespeare’s Falstaff, is that of Mr. Micawber.
His prompous language, his unending, hope that something better will eventually turn up and put an end to his miseries, his elastic moods in which he makes motions at himself with a razor and within half an hour afterwards polishes up his shoes with extraordinary pains and goes out humming a tune with a greater air of gentility than ever, these and various other interesting details of his character make our sides ache will laughter. The very opening chapter of the novel gives a humorous account of Miss Betsey who has come to the Rookery hoping that her nephew’s widow would give birth to a girl who he could adopt and call her by her own name.
But she is so diaspponted to find it is a boy that she leaves the house at once, without a word to anyone. The description of her first appearance at the house is quite funny too. When she reached the house “instead of ringing the bell, she came and looked in at that identical window, pressing the end of her nose against the glass to that extent that my, poor mother used to say it become perfectly flat and white in a moment.”
Question 18.
Write a note on the element of pathos in David Copperfield.
Answer:
Though Micawber is a comic figure who makes us laugh, yet he has his pathetic side si::. We feel sorry for his spendthrift nature leading him :::t; heavy depts any finally to the king’s Bench Prison. The people David meets at Salem House are also a combination of the comic and the serious types. There is the awe-inspiring Mr. Creakle always ready with his cane, and the funny Mr. Sharp who gets his wig curled every Saturday, there is the wooden-legged Mr. Tumgay and the poor Mr. Mell who is discharged for his poverty, there is the sympathetic steerforth and the kind hearted Traddles who is ready to take the blame of other boys on himself.
The picture of Mr. Creakle’s school stands out in sharp contrast with that of Dr. Strong’s. While Salem House represents the inefficient schooling prevalent in Dicken’s idea of an educational institution, very few of which existed them. The novel, therefore, is full of incidents which combine humour and pathos. David’s happy childhood, under the care of his mother and his nurse Peggotty, is made gloomy with the appearance of Mr. Murdstone on the scene, when David goes to spend a fortnight with Peggotty and her family, he meets a whole lot of happy, gay, jovial people.
There are other instances of the fusion of humour and pathos , also. For example, when David was just getting used to the school his mother died. In the agony and suffering with the nasty co-workers of the factory. David has the joy of Micawber’s company. When he has kindness of Betsey and economic security. Miss Betsey has to suffer great economic damages because of the cunning plans of Uriah Heep. Thus we find that David Copperfield contains many incidents of humour and pathos. The two run hand in hand in the novel.
Although it cannot stand comparison with Pickwick Papers for humour or with Oliver Twist for pathos, for the compined effect of the two it has a unique place among Dicken’s novels. The Micawbers and Betsey are the sources of humour and pathos alike.
Question 19.
Discuss David Copperfield as the fusion of fact and fiction.
Answer:
“There is however, great deal of mingling of facts and fancy in David Copperfield, and it is unjust to consider it as pure autobiographical inspiration” (Allen). Facts of life are beautifully woven with imagined episodes Dicken’s parents did not die in the way David’s parents do. David get good education at the Academy of Dr. Strong. Dicekns was never so fortunate. So there are certain variations too. The devoted Peggotty, with her bursting hugs and her needle-pricked forefinger, is also a mother image, although she may have traces too of Mary Wilier, the servant of the Cathan days, “In all these intermingled strands of fact and fantasy,
the shining memory of early childhood, the nightmare reality of boyhood, the unrealized dreams of what might have been the softenings of some humiliations Dickens still felt too sick at heart to portray as they were, and the lurid enhancement of grief that had swelled too bitterly into misery to be remembered with literal accuracy, the sad distortions and the playful exaggeration too, these pages of David Copperfield have one deep and undeniable significance. Often fictional to the mere even they are undeviatingly true to the emotional reality. They pierce to the very heart of now Dickens felt about those buried days upoin which, since the hour when they had come to an end, he and his parents had been as if they were struck dumb. Their very elements of invention are trues than the fact, because they symbolize that emotional reality.”
Question 20.
Discuss reform as Dicken’s main purpose.
Answer:
Through his novels, Dickens did not merely tell a nice, entertaining story. He was also interested in reforming the evils of the society of his day. He was greatly influenced by the humanitarian movement of his time, a by-product of the French Revolution. The writers under the influence of its ideal made their art a vehicle for propagating their approaches to the vexing problems of human existence and the novelists of the nineteenth century exposed the evils of society through their novels. In most of his novels, Dickens also criticised and satirised the contemprorary evils, which sometimes seemed to be propaganda of his ideals of a vague philanthropy.
He exposed the evils responsible for the de-humanization of human beings, but he fails to suggest any practical solution because he has no knowledge of practical politics or it would be better to say that he was very much politically disillusioned and frustrated. David Copperfield being a story of the development of a young boy’s personality and of his maturity as a young promising writer does not have much scope of detailed and eleborate discussion of such problems. Even then certain social abuses have been satirised and emphasis has been laid on the importance of charity and benevolence, love and affection and the need of improving educational condition and reforming prison-system.
Question 21.
Discuss ‘David Copperfield’ as a great novel.
Answer:
David Copperfield is no ordinary novel. “The pen which wrote David Copperfield”, says Hugh Walker, “was often dipped in his own blood.” Commenting on the greatness of this novel, Baker observes : “Both critical and popular opinions are at one, in voting David Copperfield their favourite among the novels of Dickens. First of all, it happens to be in large part his autobiography. There is a plot in David Copperfield, and some of the largest episodes are as theotrical as any he ever devised. It is a tale of ups and downs, joys and sorrows, the prevailing tone is one of cheerfullness and confidence in the essential goodness of life.
And, though it is not entirely free from the ensnaring device of poetic justice, this is not one of his didactic stories. On the contrary, exxcept for the exposure of Uriah Heep, a few reformations of sinners, and the lurid tragedy of steerforth, all of which are extraneous to the history of David, this is tolerably free from both moralism and melodrama.” The experiences of David Copperfield are the experiences of Dickens. The figure of Micawber, properly termed immortal, was drawn from figures-Betsey Trotwood, the eccentric aunt of David.
Uriah Heep, the villain feigning hurrtility, and Murdstone, the cruel father, and Agnes, the gentle-hearted lady Cruelty is represented by Murdstone and Benevolence by Betsey Trotwood. The novel provides a scathing criticism of the system of teaching in schools run by masters like Creakle and his companion, Canning, which formed an integral part of school discipline, is condemned. Reforms are suggested by Dickens in the education of children. The academy run by Dr. Smart provides a model for all educational institution.
Question 22.
Discuss plot-construction of David Copperfield.
Answer:
David Copperfield is one of the few novels of Dickens which have very good plots. Its plot-construction has been praised by A. C. Ward and Prof. Baker. This novel has stood the rest of time and, is today as fresh as it was when first written. Dickens himself said of it, “of all my books, I like this the best.” Its humour, its immortal characters such as David Micawber, Uriah Heep, Peggotty, Betsey and other its fusion of the romance and the new forms of fiction are marvellous. The plot-construction of David Copperfield is better than that of many other novels of Dickens. It is without his usual blemishes such as looseness, superfluity and incoherence.
It is not a more stiring of adventures and experiences, but a coherent whol. Although the Emily Steerforth episode has little to do with the story of David’s life yet it has been skillfully interwoven with the main thread of the story, the only serious blemish in the plot is the long digresson in which Dr. Strong narrates His relations with in the plot is the long digression in which Dr. Strong narrates his relations with his wife, and her mother and sister. According to A. C. Ward, “As to the construction of David Copperfield, however, I frankly confess that I perceive no serious faults in’ it. It is a story with a plot and not merely a string of adventures and .experiences, like little Davy’s old favourities upstairs at Blunderstone. In the conduct of this plot, blemishes may here and there occur.
The boy’s flight from London, and the direction which it takes, are insufficiently accoount for. A certain amount of obscurity as well perhaps as of improbabilty, pervades the relations betwen Uriah and the victim round whom the unspectable slimy thing writes and wriggles. On the other hand, the more conduct of the story has much that is beautiful in it.
Question 23.
Discuss the characterization of David Copperfield.
Answer:
Every character in the story has a place somewhere in the design. His comic characters are best drawn in this novel, “The inventive power of Dickens,” says A. C. Ward, “in none of his other books indulged itself so aboundantly in the creation of eccentric characters, but neither was it in any so admirably tempered by taste and feelings. It contains no characters which could strictly be called grotesque, unless it be little Miss Mowcher Mr Dick belongs to a species of eccentric personages-mad people in a world for which Dickens as a writer had a curious liking but through there is, consequently no true humour such as Sterne or Dickens could have drawn….But Mr. Micawber, Whatever features may have been transferred to him, is the type of a whole race of men who will not vanish from the face of the earth so long as the hope which lives eternal in the human breast, is only temporarily suspended by the laws of debtor and creditor, and is always capable of revival with the aid of a bowl of milpunch.
So from the point of view of characterisation also, the novel is significent in many ways. Its characters have, immense variety and vitality. They are drawn from various walks of life and from all levels of society. They have been visualised vividly and distinctly. This remarkable vividness arises from the fact that, this being an autobiographical novel, the characters have been drawn, and the world has been looked at through the eyes of a child David. Now a child’s imagination tends to exaggerate any peculiarities that happen to impress it.
Question 24.
Discuss Dora as a lover.
Answer:
After finishing school, David was sent to Spenlow and Jorkins in London, to be apprenticed to the proctor’s profession. One day, Mr. Spenlow invited him to spend the week-end at his house. There David met Spenlow’s daughter Dora and fell headlong in love with her. In spite of impediments created by Dora’s father and his own economic difficulties, he was successful in marrying Dora and fulfilling his dream of leading a happy married life with her. But about a year and half after the marriage. Dora fell seriously ill and died. During her long illness, David attended on her like a loving husband, and when the final blow came, he felt very lonely and misserable.
His love for Dora was not a young boy’s fancy. It was deep and sincere. After his marriage, he discovered that Dora was childish, entirely irresponsible in taking care of her household. She could not look after the accounts, or perform any other household-duties. Still he loved her and when she fell ill, he nursed her and looked after her as a fatal blow to him. His life was darkened and following the advice of Agnes, he went on a tour of the continent where he found some solace. David had loved Agnes from the very beginning, though he did not at first understand the true nature of his feeling. He considered Agnes merely a sincere friend who brought comfort and serenity to him by her sympathy and timely advice and guidance.
It was only on her return from Europe that he became conscious of the fact that he had always loved her. Then he proposed to her, and was readily accepted, for Agnes too had loved him all along. His married life was a happy one, and under the tender care and loving influence of Agnes, he forgot the cares and worries of his life and the miseries he had undergone.
Question 25.
Discuss Heap as a hypocrite and Cheat
Answer:
Uriah Heap is a thorough hypocrite and cheat. He is a slimy, creepy impostor. He pretents humility, he always poses to be an humble man. But all his humility is a mere show, a cover for his cunning and deceit. He is highly ambitious, and he has the worst type of ambition. He uses all his intelligence and industry for self-aggrandisement. He wants wealth rank, position and power. For that he is going to fall down up to any extent. He displaces his master, he causes misery and suffering to all. He practises cheating in cold blood. First, he tries to know all about his master’s private life and his business secrets. It is to acquire this information that he invites David to his home, where he and his mother worm out information from his in a very clever way.
Then he studies law till late hours. Not that he wants to become a lawyer, but because he wants to master the legal intricacies and technicalities so as to use them in his plot against Wickfield. Then he proceeds very cunningly to enmesh Mr. Wickfield. He forges his signatures on certain important documents with the result that the poor man is soon under his thumb. Then he blackmails him, and forces him to make him partner in the firm. Later on he commits more forgeries. He forces Mr. Wickfield into using Miss Betsey’s money for meeting business commitments with either do not exist or have already been provided for. Thus hypoerisy has become his second nature. He is an ugly child of hatred, greed and cunning, “Pecksniff excites comic disgust, Uriah Heep terror “He is an imposter and a trespoasser.
Question 26.
What role does Dora Spenlow play in the novel David Copperfield?
Answer:
Dora, the daughter of Mr. Spenlow, is a charming young lady. Her beauty is rare and exceptional. This is seen in the fact that David falls in love with her at first sight. He first meets her at her father’s residence, and as soon as he sets eyes on her he is conscious of nothing else and hears no voice except that of Dora. As he himself puts it, he “dines off Dora”, and returns six plates untouched during dinner. Hence forth, she is all the world to him, Dora sings very well. She can sing French ballads and also play on the guitar. But Dora has a child-like nature. She has received the best of education in England and France. She is quite polished and elegant. But she is incapable of undertaking any serious work. She is an utter failure in house-keeping and lacks practical sense of Agnes.
She has lost her mother in childhood. Hence she is not well trained in household work. She unable to control the servants either. She is quick-tempered too. It is due to the help and guidance of Miss Mills that her love affair with David succeeds. But she is unluckly girl. Not only she loses her mother but also her father after sometime. She herself dies young. She is an incarnation of love, innocence and quiteness. “Foolish pretty Dora, with her childish ways and childish mind, shaking her curls and behaving like a divinely babyish imbecile, is at once the little beauty who filed Dicken’s youthful heart with longing and delight and the vision of her that has come to his sober judgement.”
Question 27.
What is the role of Mr. Murdstone in David Copperfield ?
Answer:
Mr. Murdstone is David’s stepfather. He is a typical Victorian parent who believes in ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’. He is very cruel and hard upon David and his mother. He has shallow black eyes. His appearance is awesome. David’s mother considers him to be a handsome man and it is with his good looks that he manages to win the heart of Mrs. Copperfield. But David hates him from the very beginning. In order to gain David’s affection. Mr. Murdstone takes him to a ride. David enjoys the ride, but notices that Murdstone is very stem and silent and almost incapable of smiling, except at his own jokes. He has no sense of humour.
Imposing himself as a disciplinarian he takes up the education of the little child David in his own hands and sends him to the care of a very rough, hard and cruel headmaster. My Creakle, Mr. Murdstone also behaves as a tyrant with Mrs. Copperfield. After his marriage with her, he invites his sister to his household, and thus cunningly his sister takes charge of the keys and other important matters of the household.He takes away his wife’s money and ill-treats her son. Mr. Murdstone has his human side also. He sheds tears of grief at the death of his wife Mrs. Copperfield whom he married for the sake of love.
Question 28.
How does Mrs. Copperfield play her role in David Copperfield?
Answer:
Mrs. Clara Copperfield (David’s mother) is a widow. Her husband died before the birth of David. Mrs. Clara’s marriage with Mr. Copperfield was not approved by Clara’s aunt. Miss Betsey Trotwood because she considered Clara a mere wax-doll and had therefore never visited the house. She is an unlucky woman. After her husband’s death, she marries Mr. Murdstone because of his handsomeness, but he proves to be a hard and unfeeling husband. She is young and beautiful. She does not know how to assert her rights. When Mr. Murdstone and his sister take control of all the household affairs, she is not allowed to utter a word in protest. She simply hands her keys to Miss Murdstone and obeys her and Mr. Murdstone’s instmctions quietly, even when she does not agree with them. When her son David is sent away after five day’s imprisonment to school, she wants to kiss him but dares not do so under the awe of Mr. Murdstone. He loves Mr. Murdstone too from the core of her heart, but he goes on taking advantages of her weakness. She is a lover of truth. She speaks the truth. She is a good mother too. She is thus a picture of a young woman, kind, affectionate loving and lovable.
Question 29.
What is the role of Miss Jane Murdstone in David Copperfield ?
Answer:
She is an unworthy sister of an unworthy brother. She is Mr. Murdstone’s sister and is like her brother in so many respects. She is cruel like her brother. She is a gloomy-looking lady, dark like her brother whom she greatly resembles in face and voice. She has heavy eyebrows, nearly meeting over here large nose, as if being disabled by the wrongs of her sex from wearing whiskers. She has carried them to that extent. She moves into Blunderstone soon after Mr. Murdstone marries Clara Copperfield and brings with her two uncompromising hard, black boxes, bearing her initials on the lid in hard brass nails. She is in David’s phrase ‘a metallic lady’ made up of lead-heart. She is awesome and dreadful. She is suspicious character. She cannot believe people easily.
She is also suspicious of servants, suspicious of Mrs. Copperfield and suspicious of David. Though Miss Jane Murdstone visits Church regularly yet she is most unchristian. She has no Christian vitrues with her.She is neither full of charity nor full of mercy. David rightly describes her and her brother’s influence on him as the fascination of two snakes on a wretched bird. The death of Mrs. Copperfield may be asciribed to her tryanny. It is she who dismiss Peggotty and sends David to work under miserable conditions at Murdstone and Grinby’s at the early age of ten. She is thus a she-devil.She cunningly turns Mr. Murdstone against David by giving false reports about David. She tries to cast her evil spell on David’s life once again when he falls in love with Dora and finds that Miss Murdstone is her constant companion, though Dora does not like her.
Question 30.
What is the role of Tommy Traddles ?
Answer:
In Salem House, David had contracted the friendship of Steerforth and Traddles who proved a boon companion to David. The humiliating placard: “Take care of him, he bites” was a source of embarrassment to David. But Tommy fand Steerforth made light of the abominable placard. From the description of Traddles by David, it appears that Tommy Traddles was shy but agreeable and good natured. Steerforth spoke high to Traddles. To him there was no place for contempt in the heart of tommy. He always stood for unity thought often at his expense. He always helpful David. He shone in his public life and his sense of integrity made him a successful Barrister.
If David could receive first hand knowledge of shorthand, it was due to the suggestion of Tommy Traddles. He was ever a soource of help to the family of Micawber. Tommy Traddles was a sincere friend. His friendship would aptly substantiate the proverb. A friend in need, is a friend indeed. Though Mr. Micawber’s role in exposing Uriah was very great, Traddles, of course, plays no mean part in unravelling the mystery of Uriah Heep’s actions. Through the agency of Traddles. Dvid’s aunt could recover her whole money. Tommy Traddles is a great and wise, respectable and courteous man. He loves justice. His grand personality is impressive. He is a friend in need, hence a friend indeed. He is an admirable character in many ways.
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