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SEBASTIAN LEHNER
David Copperfield as an example of the Victorian socio-critical novel

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Page 36

But when she finally marries David Copperfield, who can be characterized as a “middle-class gentleman”[53], she is in no way able to rise to the compulsions that are expected from a middle-class housewife, as a consequence of her personal background.
The result is that the house is in chaos and “kept itself”[54], Dora is not able to cook lunch, and reasonable talk to her about those problems is not possible, due to her delicate nature. As she states herself: “I didn’t marry to be reasoned with”.[55]
So obviously Dickens knows very well that in the Victorian Age women were expected to be  an “angel-in-the-house”[56] and he criticises that women at that time were not allowed to emancipate themsleves. That Dora finally dies, can thus be seen as a symbol that the society at that time was very strict and unforgiving and that those who did not fit in were recklessly sorted out. It is almost an example of social Darwinism that can be seen here. However, Dora is described as being sexually very attractive and that she is able to give more pleasure to her husband than any other woman could ever do.[57] So all in all she is surely not the Victorian ideal of a woman, but rather a different, perhaps even more modern type of woman. The sort of woman that is symbolized through Agnes is a sharp contrast to what is expressed through Dora. Agnes is the daughter of Mr Wickfield, she was also brought up without a mother, but, unlike Dora, she already had to fulfill many domestic activities at a very early stage in her life: “This was his little housekeeper, his daughter Agnes, Mr Wickfield said.”[58]

[53] Ayres, Brenda, Dissenting Women in Dickens’ Novels, The Women of David Copperfield:The Choice of an Undisciplined Heart, p.15      [54] Dickens, Charles, David Copperfield, p.636
[55] Dickens, Charles, David Copperfield, p.587      [56] Ayres, Brenda, Dissenting Women in Dickens’ Novels, The Women of David Copperfield:The Choice of an Undisciplined Heart, p.16
[57] Ayres, Brenda, Dissenting Women in Dickens’ Novels, The Women of David Copperfield:The Choice of an Undisciplined Heart, p.16      [58] Dickens, Charles,  David Copperfield, p.213

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