David Copperfield

Abstract

The novel in the bildungsroman genre that is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthoodby. Here the protagonist is eponymous David Copperfield. David Copperfield is also an autobiographical novel with events following Dickens's own life. It begins, like other novels by Dickens, with a bleak picture of childhood in Victorian England, followed by young Copperfield's slow social ascent, as he painfully provides for his aunt, while continuing his studies.

Dickens wrote without an outline, unlike his previous novel, Dombey and Son. Some aspects of the story were fixed in his mind from the start, but others were undecided until the serial publications were underway.[10] The novel has a primary theme of growth and change, but Dickens also satirises many aspects of Victorian life. These include the plight of prostitutes, the status of women in marriage, class structure, the criminal justice system, the quality of schools and the employment of children in factories.[11]