Dickens' views on education
Dickens' Views On Education From the book David Copperfield we learn a lot about how dickens views on education. David is first educated at home. He first learns "the alphabet on his mother's knee" and "reads to Peggotty from the Crocodile book". Dickens clearly approves of this sort of education and David says in the future that memories of this time "recall no feeling of disgust or reluctance". Dickens contrasts this with the "daily drudgery and misery" of his education after Clara's remarriage with Mr Murdstone; David doesn't get along with the very dominating Murdstones; this upsets his mother and destroys his self-esteem. He says "the more I do the more stupid I get". This reaction shows Dickens's feelings about a different form of education. David isn't "stupid" but the very strict ways of teaching make him feel this way. Dickens encourages the reader to feel that if the Murdstones were softer and not so strict in their education of David, the results would be much better. Dickens uses Uriah Heep to stress the importance of education for life. From the education he receives at the Charity School, he is taught no other way to advance in life besides being devious and deceitful. In later life this proves to be true when he tries to steal a business from someone who has only been loyal to him. Dora too, demonstrates the problems of a life without sufficient preparation.
Choose an important passage or event from the first 14 chapters of David Copperfield. Analyse the significance of that moment to the novel as a whole. You should write about themes or ideas that are relevant to earlier or later passages in the novel, The
Choose an important passage or event from the first 14 chapters of David Copperfield. Analyse the significance of that moment to the novel as a whole. You should write about themes or ideas that are relevant to earlier or later passages in the novel, The way the novel was written, published and read, Any clues Dickens provides about the future of the novel. When Mr. Murdstone arrived, David was clueless at what this dark mysterious man would bring to his life. This person friendliness was pleasant and kind towards David and his mother to start with, but David's seemed to sense something peculiar about his attitude which he shows us by using a naïve narrator. This lets us picture it through David's childish recollection instead of someone recalling the incidence from the past. Hence the reason he does not understand why he has this feelings towards this man and can not see it through an adults perspective. David was sent away to live Peggoty and her family for a few weeks and he believed it was just for a nice holiday away from home, little did he know that while he was away, Clara and Mr. Murdstone were getting married. When David arrived home Peggoty came out to welcome him back. She then mention that he had a new father "...a new pa" (line pg ) David was confused and looked towards the graveyard at which his dead father lay, Peggoty then corrected him and told him of
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was born on Friday, February 7, 1812 at No. 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport, Portsmouth. His father, John Dickens, was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. In 1814 John was transferred to Somerset House in London. In 1817 John moved his family to Chatham and worked in the naval dockyard. It was here, at Chatham in the Medway Valley, that Charles experienced his happiest childhood memories. John was transferred back to the London office and moved his family to Camden Town in 1822. John Dickens, continually living beyond his means, was imprisoned for debt at the Marshalsea debtor's prison in Southwark in 1824. 12 year old Charles was removed from school and sent to work at a boot-blacking factory earning six shillings a week to help support the family. Charles considered this period to be the most terrible time in his life and would later write that he wondered 'how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age'. This childhood poverty and feelings of abandonment, although unknown to his readers until after his death, would be a heavy influence on Dickens' later views on social reform and the world he would create through his fiction. Dickens would go on to write 15 major novels and countless short stories and articles before his death on June 9, 1870. The inscription on his tombstone in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey reads: "He was a sympathiser to the poor,
David Copperfield
David Copperfield 'David Copperfield' is a heart warming, Victorian novel that is partly based on the life of Charles Dickens. David's naïve mother, a dear surrogate parent called Peggotty and no Father unfortunately, let David experience the wonders of early childhood until the Mr Murdstone and his sister came along to wreck any known happiness. The time in London was cruelly spent with the help of a private school but all worked out in the end thanks to Mr Micawber and David's feminist Aunt, Betsey Trotwood. The dirty, filthy life that the young lad followed was washed away and never returned again. Charles Dickens chose to write about children as it created pathos and drama for his readers. Also, I think the other reason that children are used as a focus is because it reflects on Dickens' life as a child. It is all very similar to his life and the way that he grew up. The lives of children were extremely hard back in Victorian times and the fact that Dickens was a journalist made him realise the hardship that children went through day by day, hour by hour. All of this, I imagine, he wanted to bring to the attention of his readers. Poor young David Copperfield grew up with no shadow figure to give him guidance into life. All this young boy had was a, "white gravestone in the churchyard" which is the remains of his kind-hearted father who sadly left before David