Briefly discuss Dickens’ treatment
of childhood in
David Copperfield.
Answer: Charles
Dickens’ David Copperfield throws
light on the treatment of childhood and its obligations and various evils of
industrial revolution, especially the miserable condition of the children
working in workhouses from dawn to dusk for a few coins. Many laws were passed
by the government, but they were just for the influential people. The factory
owners were free to exploit the tender children for their own selfish motives.
The general harshness of the age can also be noticed in the cruel treatment of
the children at schools. Education is mainly in the private hands.
There is an autobiographical touch
in almost every page of the novel. Two important generalizations emerge from
Forster’s biography which is of immediate relevance to us. First Forester is
especially emphatic about Dickens’ strong belief that his personal past exercised
an ineradicable influence not just on his personality. There is an uncomfortable
suggestion here of being menaced to one’s past just as the convicts were
shackled to the Lulksin the Thomes Estuary. The past can be a tyrant as well as
a stimulus to enjoyable nostalgia. Dickens told Forester, apropos of David
Copperfield, that it was in part the dramatization of his own life. David’s
early childhood was good as he was brought up by the tender love of his mother
and hisnurse Miss. Peggotty. As a child David led a carefree life and he was
completely unaware about the problems of the world of adults. Now gone are the
days and he leads a wretched life, he remembers the early childhood: “We are
playing in the winter Twilight, dancing about the parlour when my mother is out
of breath and rests herself in an elbow chair; I watch her winding her bright
curls round her fingers, and straightening her waist and nobody, knows better
than I do that she likes to look so well, and is proud of being so pretty.”
In the life of
David the entry of Murdstone hits the visions of David like a stone. His second
father comes as an intruder who compels the child to detach himself from the world
of his mother. As soon as David is introduced to Murdstone, he is confronted by
a new world that brought a cold blast of air in to the house which blew away the
old feeling like a feather. Mr.Murdstone and his sister took everything in
their hands. They dominated the house according to their tastes. Now the child
like mother of David worked like a puppet whose strings were in the hands of
Mudrstones. The innocent childhood of David came to an end and his life became
miserable and wretched. He was rebuked again and again for nothing. David has a
horrible image of Murdstones. Regarding his step father Murdstone, David is of the view
that Murdstone is an intrusive father who snatched away his carefree life and
is responsible for breaking the bond of love between David and his mother.
