David Copperfield as a Bildungsroman
Charles John Huffam Dickens, creator of some of the most memorable
characters in literature, and arguably the greatest writer of the Victorian era,
was a real world example of a bildungsroman.
Born February 7th, 1812 in Portsmouth, England, to John and
Elizabeth Dickens. Childhood was
hard on Charles and his family, with 7 siblings, and his dad working as a navy
clerk, money was tight. The BBC
described his story thusly:
His own story is one of rags to riches. He was born in Portsmouth on 7 February
1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. The good fortune of being sent to school at
the age of nine was short-lived because his father, inspiration for the
character of Mr. Micawber in 'David Copperfield', was imprisoned for bad debt.
The entire family, apart from Charles, were sent to Marshalsea along with their
patriarch. Charles was sent to work in Warren's blacking factory and endured
appalling conditions as well as loneliness and despair. After three years he was
returned to school, but the experience was never forgotten and became
fictionalised in two of his better-known novels 'David Copperfield' and 'Great
Expectations' (“Charles Dickens”).
So it is understandable that Dickens would create a character that
parallels his life so much that he almost transcends reality into fiction.
While some of Dickens’s own life experiences may have been too hard to
include, or relate to with specifics, in many ways he created David as a
fictional-autobiographical character.
This would also explain why he calls David his favorite character, when
he is known for so many: “Of all my
books, I like this the best. It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent
to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as dearly
as I love them...But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a
favourite child. And his name is
DAVID COPPERFIELD” (PBS, 1). David
Copperfield, Dickens’s favorite child, is paralleled to Dickens himself through
a bildungsroman styled story.
A bildungsroman is a classification of novels that focuses on the
personal growth of a primary main character; it follows their ethical, moral, or
spiritual growth through life. A
literary practice of Germanic descent, the Merriam-Webster dictionary traces its
origin to 1910. Literature that
gets classified as being a bildungsroman will most likely involve a story of
suffering, hardship, and foolish decisions that eventually ends with a positive
outcome; a heroic overcoming of unfortunate events that results in great
personal growth and ultimately, a life of happiness and/or success.
Irene Simon, author of:
David Copperfield:
A Kunstlerroman?, supports the thought that Dickens’s novel is a
bildungsroman: “As a Bildungsroman,
it traces the development of David from the innocence of childhood, through his
confrontation with the world and his initiation into evil, to maturity and
self-realization in a world very different from the Eden of childhood.” (Simon,
1).
The fact that this book is a bildungsroman is an important part of the
class structure concept as well.
David was born into a well to do middle class family.
Unfortunately for him, his father died soon after his mother became
pregnant with him, and while his early childhood was happy, his mother’s
marriage to the insidious Mr. Murdstone resulted in his fall from the middle
class life. After suffering at the
hands of Mr. Murdstone and his sister’s cruelty, David lashes out in
self-defense, which results in his transfer to a broken down school run by a man
possibly worse than Murdstone himself.
He is supported enough to get by, but in no way is he treated as would be
expected of his birth class. As he
matures and moves on in life, we watch him struggle to fight his way back to
where he believes he should be; all of this is given to us through the
bildungsroman.