In nature, that is, in situations outside the morally cushioned realm of modern human society, we find that strong prey on the weak.  Those that are the most well equipped in this life will have a great advantage over those who are not (we need only to consult Darwin or a National Geographic TV special to find this to be true).  The old tale of a lion (an animal equated with strength and cunning) subduing a gazelle (compared with grace and meekness, anything but strength) is well known to us all.  We recognize these things in our “natural” world as evident.  However, as we build upon our human civilization, and ultimately separate ourselves from the natural occurrence of things, we continue to conjure methods to protect the weak, so that they may not fall victim to the strong and vicious.  In a completely moral society it is considered atrocious for the strong to use their power to subdue the weak for their own benefit.  Such a thing is perceived to be unethical, inhumane, and immoral.  And in this modern society we teach that the morally good shall prevail over the morally wicked, which I believe is a major theme in Charles Dickens’s novel David Copperfield.

            In the opening chapters of the book, however, we see David’s once bright existence with his mother and nurse Peggoty darkened by the introduction of the Murdstones.  In the younger years of David and in the infantile pages of the novel we see David, his mother, and Peggoty all extremely happy and courteous to one another.  His mother and his nurse both presided over his education with gentleness and great encouragement.  For this reason David grows in confidence and in knowledge about crocodiles.  However, when Mr. Murdstone and his sister appear on the scene there is a great change.  They no longer allow David’s mother to rear him in her gentle and coddling way.  Instead, the Murdstones take the bringing up of David into their own cold, hard steel hands.  Beatings, starvation, and threats of more physical abuse take the place of David’s mother’s warm encouragement.  His mother is rendered helpless, for the woman, while morally untarnished, is as meek as a gazelle.  And the lions (the Murdstones), emotionally ignorant and morally unintelligent, now position themselves for the bite of suffocation. 

            This suffocation takes several forms.  Since now David’s education is controlled by the Murdstones he becomes obscenely dedicated to his studies.  Before, David only sought to please his mother through his acquisition of knowledge… now, he only studies to avoid the tooth and claw of Mr. and Miss Murdstone.  Consequently, David learns nothing and is beaten more.  His thrill for learning and the hope to once again be in his mother’s arms is suffocated.  And his mother, incapable of comforting him, is slowly marched to the grave and buried alive by grief. 

            Eventually, David is sent away to a boarding school, for his learning progressed poorly.  Here David is met with more horrendous treatment by the morally corrupt schoolmaster Mr. Creakle.  This man beats his pupils for no apparent reason other than to satisfy his own sadistic pleasure.  As you can imagine, David’s and the boy’s learning didn’t progress well in this environment.  And it seems that greater portion of learning is not acquired in the bleakness and trepidation of the classroom, but in the safety and comfort of the boys telling stories to one another in their rooms.  It is in this atmosphere that David meets one of the novel’s most vile characters, James Steerforth.

            Steerforth, unlike any of the other characters met thus far wears a magnificently constructed moral mask to conceal the true evil intentions brewing within.  It is this impressive fellow that becomes David’s benefactor.  However, much to the ignorance of David, Steerforth is a lion in disguise.  And under the mask of good intentions, Steerforth belittles David, takes advantage of his money, and extorts his relationships with David’s friends. 

            A while after David’s stay at Bleak House (an appropriate name for the place),. David learns that his mother has died.  The Murdstones had finally suffocated the woman’s delicate and morally good nature with wickedness.  David returns home for the funeral and then sent away to work in a most deplorable canning factory.  The condition of this place is yet another example of the exploitation of the poor and defenseless for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful.  It is in this place that David makes the acquaintance of Mr. Micawber.  Now, Mr. Micawber is anything but defenseless and meek.  On the contrary, he seems to be a man of knowledge and eloquence… two qualities that normally strengthen a person’s character.  However, the man is weakened by is extreme faith in people and circumstances, as he is always waiting for “something to turn up.”  And in this extreme faith, Mr. Micawber is constantly in debt and taken advantage of by his creditors and the law. 

            During the time David works for the canning factory he boards with Mr. Micawber and his family—all of which are morally good people.  However, throughout the novel’s entirety, they are riddled with difficulties that are imposed upon them by an immoral society and code of law.  An instance of this occurs when Mr. Micawber is finally taken away to Newgate for his debts, where his wife, children, and David are forced to fend for themselves.  Soon after this, Micawber is released and his family and himself are forced to move to a land with clearer skies where Mr. Micawber’s ominous clouds of debt won’t rain down upon their heads.  In consequence, David is left destitute.  He resolves to visit his aunt Betsy Trotwood and plead with her to take him in.  David’s aunt is one of the few morally good characters with a seemingly abundant amount of power (it’s kind of funny how a powerful and morally good character should be portrayed and certainly viewed as an eccentric oddity—perhaps this is Dickens craftily declaring that powerful and morally exceptional individuals in his society were odd/rare commodities).  To strengthen this point, Mr. Dick, possibly the most moral and good-natured character in the novel is viewed as insane.

            After little pleading David’s aunt agrees to take him in and shelter him from the Murdstones.  Earlier, I equated the Murdstones to lions preying on innocent gazelles.  And even though Miss Trotwood is a morally good character, she is a lion in her own right.  We see this in one of my favorite scenes in the story.  This is, of course, the meeting between David’s aunt and the Murdstones.  In this exchange, we finally see the moral fighting back against the wicked.  In this wonderful meeting Betsy Trotwood declares that the Murdstones killed David’s poor mother and insults the Murdstones right out of her house.  The reader applauds justice served.

            For the most part, from this point forth, David is wonderfully provided for.  He is enrolled in a great school and educated under the immense kindness of Doctor Strong.  Here, David’s learning progresses rapidly, as it wasn’t to in his prior education filled with fear.  It is this time in David’s life where he meets the ethereal Agnes (yet another one of the great moral characters in the novel.  David consults with Agnes about everything, and eventually she leads him to moral greatness. 

            Agnes’s father Mr. Wickfield is also one of the novels good characters.  And even though the man is strong, he is soon weakened by the sheer evil and immoral character of Uriah Heep.  Heep, like Steerforth, portrays himself as a moral character (but not as successfully as Steerforth).  We can see through to Heep’s sly, snaky nature all the while he proclaims his good intentions.  He declares that he has nothing but the best interest for Mr. Wickfield and Agnes in mind, but ultimately nearly breaks both of them.  It seems that the most evil characters that cause the most destruction do so under the mask of good intentions (Steerforth with David and Heep with Mr. Wickfield). 

            Steerforth corrupts poor Emily and Heep nearly destroys Wickfield.  Perhaps, Dickens holds this practice in the most contempt.  He probably even had someone deceive him under the declaration of good pretenses (it is bad enough to be a lion… but horrific to be a lion underneath the skin of a gazelle—perhaps that’s why Uriah writhed so much, he was uncomfortable pretending to be meek and well intentioned).

            And so… throughout the entirety of the story there is a battle between the morally good and the morally bad.  In every instance (Agnes’s influence on David, his aunt as a benefactor, Peggoty’s care of David, Dr. Strongs careful treatment and education of David, Mrs. Micawber’s declaration that she will never leave Mr. Micawber, etc…) it seems that good, moral actions will fend off the bad and strengthen society.  And Dickens reveals that the morally good is more powerful than the cruel intentions of the evil, even though the wicked seem to have their way with the good.  Eventually Steerforth is killed on the sea, Heep is jailed, David finds Agnes and prospers as a famous writer, and the Micawbers find prosperity in Australia where Mr. Micawber’s talents are finally recognized.  Eventually good prevails over the wicked.