AFFIRMING INDIVIDUALITY IN CHARLES DICKENS’S DAVID COPPERFIELD
AFFIRMING INDIVIDUALITY IN CHARLES DICKENS’S DAVID COPPERFIELD

Summary/Abstract: Compared to his other works, David Copperfield, famously Dickens’s “favourite child,” is less concerned with social critique, choosing instead to focus on its protagonist’s growth as a person. Orphaned from a young age, David has to navigate the restrictive Victorian society, which did not look upon those who tried to rise above their station with kind eyes. Throughout this journey, David meets people from all walks of life, and his interactions with them allow the reader to observe his true nature. His bildung is, therefore, focused on ability to navigate his relationships with his peers, two of which stand out among the rest: his friendship with James Steerforth and his love for Agnes Wickfield. Although he had declared that he intends to prove himself the hero of his own story, his track record with allowing himself to be blind sighted by the people around him might prove that David has not reached a satisfying conclusion for his role as a Bildungsroman’s protagonist.

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