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David Copperfield: Peggotty

Being, however, youthful and pretty, Clara Copperfield soon marries the stern Mr. Murdstone, who proves to be not only stern, but hard and cruel. On the occasion of his mother's marriage David is sent with Peggotty to visit her brother at Yarmouth, where he, with his niece, little Emily, and nephew Ham, occupy a superannuated old boat now converted into a most delightfully cozy home. Little Emily, with her winning ways, grows very dear to David, as do the honest fisherfolk with whom she lives.

Returning home, David at once becomes an object of detestation to his stepfather, and in consequence is packed off to school. Here his misery continues under a master, or rather bully, Creakle, whose chief zest in life consists in the infliction of pain on some hapless victim. The one bit of brightness in school life is his attachment for James Steerforth, a handsome, debonair, dashing lad, with the faculty of making every one his friend. But school-days are brought to a sudden halt by the death of David's mother, crushed by her husband's ceaseless tyranny. Peggotty is dismissed and Barkis, the stage-driver whose courtship has consisted in the singular message, sent through David, of "Barkis is willin'," finally succeeds in making Peggotty willing also.

After months of utter neglect David is sent to London, where he becomes, at ten years of age, a little laboring hind in a dilapidated old warehouse, in the service of Murdstone & Grimby, wine merchants. Half starved, wearied by long hours of labor amid repulsive companions, including Mick Walker and Meally Potatoes, David's life is a continued torture. He lodges with a Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins Micawber and their numerous progeny. Mr. Micawber, always in pecuniary difficulties and always expecting something to "turn up" and always in possession of a fine flow of oratory, is alternately buoyed up by a conviction that Fortune is at last about to smile upon him, and reduced to the depths of despair by her sudden and unaccountable withdrawal. David comes to have a genuine liking for the couple, so much so that when the Micawbers, having failed to meet certain financial obligations, are obliged to move to prison, and David to seek new quarters, he feels such a sense of loneliness that he determines to run away to his aunt, Betsey Trotwood at Dover, an aunt whom he has never seen, but of whom he remembers to have heard. The aunt adopts him and sends him to school at Canterbury, where he boards with his aunt's lawyer and man of affairs, a Mr. Wickfield, and his daughter Agnes, whose serene goodness becomes a constant inspiration to David. Here also he comes in contact with Mr. Wickfield's clerk, Uriah Heep, "a very 'umble person," an individual with a cadaverous face and a head covered with carroty stubble, red eyes which have a curiously unshaded appearance and which seem to David to be ceaselessly watchful. His groveling humility and clammy handgrasp fill David with uncontrollable loathing and distrust. Having graduated with honors, David decides to become a proctor and enters the office of Spenlow & Jorkins. He at once falls head over heels in love with Mr. Spenlow's distractingly pretty daughter, Dora, who returns his affection. On hearing that Peggotty's husband is dying, David makes a hurried visit to Yarmouth to comfort his old nurse. While there, Emily, within a few days of becoming Ham's bride, little Emily, the precious treasure of her old uncle's heart, disappears and with her Steerforth. Carried away by his gallantry and persuaded that he will make her "a lady," Emily is none the less distracted by a sense of terrible humiliation and of degradation, for which she implores her uncle's forgiveness. David, overcome by the thought that it was he who first brought Steerforth to Yarmouth, returns to London, to find that his aunt has lost the greater part of her fortune. This makes it necessary for David to add to their income by using all his spare time in clerical and literary work. Dora continues uppermost in his thoughts, although Mr. Spenlow opposes the match. His sudden death leaves the timid, trustful, artless Dora, to the surprise of all, nearly penniless. David's income, though slender, permits of their marriage.