The Way Education is presented in the Novel David Copperfield
Using the first seven chapters of 'David Copperfield' look at the way education is presented in the novel.
Going through such terrible conditions himself as a child, Dickens grew up to be a man who was very with his times and someone who knew what was going on in the world. During his life he visited a lot of schools around England as he was concerned for the welfare of children. Along his travels he found that most schools were fee-paying establishments for boys that catered for children unwanted by their parents. The schools had cheap rates meaning poor food and shabby conditions to live and "learn" in. In fact, most of the schools were run by failed business men who had no interest in the wellbeing of the children, they would employ unqualified teachers so that they only had to pay out a low wage. Dickens worried about the "monstrous neglect" he witnessed and seeing this, he wanted change. He wanted to alter society so that every child had a chance for a good education. His method was by writing novels based around such establishments. These included Dotheboys Hall in his famous novel 'Nicholas Nickelby'. His aim was to convey his feelings and he did so, through his writing, and the stories of the poor children. He raised the public's consciousness about what was going on around them, behind the closed doors of schools.
Before the arrival of the Murdstones into the novel, David is home-taught by his mother Clara. He is a very bright and, confident and fluent reader and how Dickens writes this section about his home-teaching tells us of his capability at the start of the novel. Dickens also shows that David is content with his education at this point, as he is keen to learn. In the second chapter Dickens uses a clever technique to represent how David's character is so imaginative and intelligent. There is a part in the novel where David is sat on Pegotty's knee reading a book about crocodiles to her. You can tell that David is well educated at home as for a boy reading about crocodiles in the 1830s, in those days they were and exotic creature, barely known by British people. This is also ironic as David is reading to Pegotty and David is the child: you would expect it to be the opposite way around with the adult reading to the child.
Also in this part of the book, Dickens uses first person narrative plural to get the reader more involved.
"We returned to those monsters, with fresh wakefulness on my part, and we left their eggs in the sand for the sun to hatch; and we ran away from them, and baffle then them by constantly turning; which they were unable to do quickly...and in short we ran the whole crocodile gauntlet. I did at least..."
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The first person narrative all the way through the paragraph adds pace and tension caused by the reader feeling as if they are actually in the story. It lets the reader empathise with David's character and personalises the story.
Also, the 'I' at the end represents that although David prefers having people around him, people who care for him like Pegotty and his mother, he can also be independent from them if he needs to be.
When Mr Murdstone is introduced into the story, it is obvious that David is jealous of him.
'I didn't like him or his deep voice, and I was jealous that his hand should touch my mother's in touching me - which it did. I put it away, as well as I could.'
Here, David feels as if ...
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Also, the 'I' at the end represents that although David prefers having people around him, people who care for him like Pegotty and his mother, he can also be independent from them if he needs to be.
When Mr Murdstone is introduced into the story, it is obvious that David is jealous of him.
'I didn't like him or his deep voice, and I was jealous that his hand should touch my mother's in touching me - which it did. I put it away, as well as I could.'
Here, David feels as if his mother is been taken away from him. Incidentally, Dickens has mentioned that David's mother looks particularly pretty, showing that David appreciates her and that he is not happy that Mr Murdstone is acting in such an affectionate way towards his mother. Pegotty is also discontented as she stands stiff as a barrel with a candlestick in her hand.
At first Mr Murdstone seems quite a polite and friendly gentleman.
''Come! Let us be the best friends in the world!' said the gentleman, laughing. 'Shake hands!''
Dickens uses this part to show the reader that although David is picking up on Murdstone's true personality, Murdstone is hiding it behind a false smile and kindliness.
However, later in this chapter his real nature is revealed. Brooks of Sheffield is Mr Murdstone's disguise name for David.
''Who is?' asked the gentleman, laughing. I looked up, quickly; being curious to know.
'Only Brooks of Sheffield,' said Mr. Murdstone.'
This is an example of his manipulative ways and scheming behaviour. All the men are laughing at and exploiting David as Mr Murdstone plans to marry Mrs Copperfield. David is oblivious to the fact that they are laughing at him and not with him. There is a sense of dramatic irony used here as the reader knows what is going on and has an idea of what is to come, yet David does not.
I believe that Dickens chose the name Murdstone as it fits Murdstone's character. It is cold and harsh; it would remind the reader of maybe murder and cold, hard stone. It is a deliberate ploy to influence the reader's judgement of Murdstone.
After the Murdstones are introduced the story becomes dismal and shadowy. At first, Murdstone continues to allow Clara to teach David, but watches over them as she does so.
'I trip over a word. Mr. Murdstone looks up. I trip over another word. Miss Murdstone looks up. I redden, tumble over half-a-dozen words, and stop.'
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This resembles how Murdstone has brought the dark cloud of the threat of violence over the family and that if David does not read properly, he will be beaten; this is Murdstone's intended technique for bringing David up.
Dickens uses pathetic fallacy, using the world around David to reflect him and his emotions.
'...I turned to the window and looked out there, at some shrubs that were drooping their heads in the cold.'
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This is an effective technique as the reader can imagine not only the shrubs drooping their heads but also David drooping his head in distress and sorrow for Murdstone taking over his own, and his mother's life.
Mr Murdstone talks to David as if he is an untamed animal and makes it very clear that he will break his spirit if David just once steps out of line.
''David,' he said, making his lips thin, by pressing them together, 'if I have an obstinate horse or dog to deal with, what do you think I do?'
'I don't know.'
'I beat him.''
This is an abusive use of his power as he knows that David is actually an intelligent, sensitive young boy. He takes pleasure in someone's pain as he is a sadist. There is no need for this as David is an innocent boy who can be negotiated with, but Murdstone believes in firmness.
Also in this chapter, Clara too, is exploited by Mr Murdstone. She practically loses all her power over her own life. Dickens had used:
'My house...Our house...Your house...'
This is referring to the house, showing that all the control has been passed from Clara to Mr Murdstone and his sister, Miss Murdstone. For example, a highly symbolic event in the novel when the keys for the house are taken from her, along with all authority and freedom of choice over David and even herself.
When Murdstone does so take over with his almighty power, he emotionally flattens David and his mother so much to the extent that their confidence and self-esteem is taken too, making them feel inferior, insecure and worthless in their own home.
David and his mother through all this, still try to watch out for and protect one another, even though they have not half the control as Murdstone. They know that if they make one wrong move they will be punished, beaten and most definitely spoken down to, by either of the Murdstones.
When David's mother is tutoring him, he stumbles on a few words. His mother knows that she should not help him but she attempts anyway by mouthing words to him. Seeing this, Murdstone lashes out and beats David brutally, but David fights back in anger and bites Murdstone on the hand. Murdstone retaliates with further beating, leaving him in his room for five days with no contact with his mother, Pegotty or anyone else except Miss Murdstone, who would take him a simple ration of bread, water and meat daily.
After the five days is over, Pegotty sneaks up to David's room and whispers through the keyhole to tell David that Mr Murdstone is sending him to school and with just a short and tearful goodbye from his mother, off he went.
On the journey to Salem House, the boarding school where David would be sent to, Barkis the coach driver drops off David at an Inn where Murdstone had arranged for him to eat. There, he is waited on by William the Waiter. The waiter played on David's naivety and begged for young David's sympathy in an inappropriate manner.
''I wouldn't take a farthing. If I had a good place, and was treated well here, I should beg acceptance of a trifle, instead of taking of it. But I live on broken wittles - and I sleep on the coals' - here the waiter burst into tears.'
I think that Dickens included this section as it follows back to the theme of the novel, the point that Dickens was trying to get across to the public about exploitation of the weak, in this case to remind the reader that although David is a bright and intelligent young boy, he is still only eight years old and very naïve and vulnerable.
Murdstone, being the harsh and unforgiving character he is, deliberately makes sure that David's welcome to the new school would be far from pleasant for him.
He was met by Mr Mell, who took him to the classroom where he would be "taught". On the table was a placard for him to wear with the words written:
'Take care of him. He bites.'
Dickens used this to show the emotional abuse from Murdstone towards David and to show how conniving Murdstone is, so much so that he wants David to be abused by others when he isn't around to abuse David himself.
When describing the classroom scene Dickens used words that would influence all the senses to again involve the reader more and let them sympathise with David.
For example for sight Dickens describes the room as:
'...the most forlorn and desolate place I had ever seen.'
The words in this passage serve only one purpose, that the reader should see the scene in their imagination, here, an empty and pitiful sight in desperate need of life.
For sound Dickens set the scene by:
'A bird, in a cage very little bigger than himself, makes a mournful rattle now and then in hopping on his perch, two inches high, or dropping from it; but neither sings nor chirps.'
Dickens has used this as symbolism to show that the boys at Salem House were confined to the school and were not happy or well-treated.
For smell Dickens used odours of things that may be in the room to not only imagine the smell but influence their image of the scene.
'There is a strange unwholesome smell upon the room, like mildewed corduroys, sweet apples wanting air, and rotten books.'
As a texture Dickens described:
'...bristling all round with pegs for hats and slates'
The words bristling and slates remind the reader of a harsh, rough and maybe cold atmosphere to the room.
Whilst describing the room Dickens also uses symbolism to help the readers understand how the boys would have been treated. One example of this is the pets in the classroom.
'Two miserable little white mice, left behind by their owner, are running up and down in a fusty castle made of pasteboard and wire, looking in all the corners with their red eyes for anything to eat.'
This reflects the boys at the school as they would be miserable and left behind in Salem House by their parents who no longer wanted them, the 'fusty castle' being Salem House which once may have been a nice place to live but now taken over by an evil careless man who had no concern except for money and 'red eyes for anything to eat' symbolising how the boys' eyes may be red from tears, having been beaten and also scavenging for food with such poor rations that they were given.
Dickens describes the atmosphere at Salem House as gloomy and tense. The boys are intimidated and belittled constantly with the threat of being beaten hanging over them.
Mr Creakle is described by Dickens as a harsh and brutal man who enjoys hurting the boys of Salem House even if there is no need.
'He had a delight in cutting the boys, which was like a satisfaction of craving an appetite. I am confident that he couldn't resist a chubby boy.'
This shows what kind of people David has been lumbered with; unqualified teachers and a cruel evil leader to keep them all on their toes.
The reader is told nothing about the lessons as the boys are not taught properly in the school. All they learn is how to avoid being beaten which they unfortunately learn from each other.
In this part of the novel where David is getting used to his new surroundings, he begins to teach himself how to live in such a place: he has to as there is no one else there to do so. He begins to pick up on the characters around him and as he looks on, he judges people.
Traddles is mentioned as 'the most unfortunate boy in the world' as he is beaten by Creakle everyday. He is also described as
'the merriest and most miserable of all the boys'
This oxymoron tells the reader that he may have looked like a merry boy with his rosy, chubby cheeks but on the inside he was in pain and dreading everyday that was to come, like all the other boys in the school.
The children were practically imprisoned in Salem House, even their post is censored so that the boys cannot tell their parents how awful the treatment that they were receiving was.
When Dickens wrote 'David Copperfield', his aim was simple: to let people know what was going on behind the closed doors of such schools like Salem House around the UK, but the impact that his writing could have on social issues at the time was huge. When the public began to become aware of the appalling conditions that children were being brought up in, only then did action on such schools take place. Dickens felt that such schools were simply cruelty towards the children as they did not involve the children receiving any civilized form of education and should not be tolerated; he wanted rid of the abuse, suffering and exploitation of the weak, in this case the children. I think Dickens definitely achieved him aim effectively in this brilliant novel.