The Way Education is presented in the Novel David Copperfield

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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..."

[Paragraph 4, Page 26]

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.
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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 ...

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