关于大卫科波菲尔中的人物形象英语论文

An Analysis of Image in David Copperfield Chapter 1 Introduction “David Copperfield“ was the masterpiece of Dickens; it was his unremittingly efforts up to the longest of a semi-autobiographical work, in May 1849 to November 1850 installment was published. In the preface, Dickens said: “In all my works, my favorite in this department. ... It is my favorite child. “ This paper began with a brief introduction of the author and the social background, and then it tried to analyze the novel. Thus the author paved the way for the following analysis, then it came to the essential part of the paper—the analysis of image in David, Dora, David’s great-aunt, Mr.Micawber, and Steerforth, The Mr. Murdstones, Heep. Next, the essay came to the author’s impact on the two figures in order to make readers know more about the novel and the author. Finally, the author attempted to analyze different people’s image and show people’s different destinies. The paper wanted to tell people that maybe fate is unfair to you, so that you are suffering from human sufferings, but you cannot do anything without the goodness of heart and you must fight for your own destiny. And stressed: only love can give courage to face the misery and suffering. David and Steerforth were two different images that have great differences. Such as kind-hearted fisherman Peggotty and David, despite a poor family, didn’t receive education, but to hold an honest and good heart, while rich Steerforth was an invalid character in stark contrast. At the same time, it reflected Dickens＇ own morality: “What goes around comes around“. Such as a symbol of evil Heap and Steerforth has been duly punished; kind-hearted people have found a popular destination that they were dreamed to come all the time. 1.1 The introduction to the author Dickens was the main representative of realism literature of the 19th century. The art of witty words, nuanced psychological analysis and realism were combined together closely. He was particularly famous for his vivid comic characterizations and social criticism. He was the first author who had written of the poor with fidelity and sympathy. His works were famous during novels of the Victorian age and among the great classics in all fiction. Dickens was born in February, 1812, at Landport, Portsmouth. He was the second of eight children. His father was a clerk, hardworking but imprudent, later caricatured as Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield. In 1822, the family moved to London, where Charles had to leave school to help support his impoverished family. In 1824, his father was put into prison for debt. At the age of 12, Dickens was sent to going to work at a factory. He wrapped and labeled for 6 shillings a week. After work, he wandered through the streets of London, enthralled by the sight of the dockyards, the files of convicts, and vast sections of the city inhabited by the poor. These bitter days remained in his memory and later found expression in his works. Dickens was able to return to school after a small legacy helped release his father from prison. He was an avid reader and spent much time in the reading room of the British Museum and learnt short-hand. Although he later returned to school for a time, this experience left a permanent mark on the soul of Charles Dickens. Even many years later, after he had become a successful author, he could not bear to talk about it, or be reminded of his family’s ignominy. At the age of fifteen Dickens began working as an office boy for a law firm. He taught himself and by 1828 he became a reporter for courts of Doctors’ Common. The dull routine of the legal profession never interested him, so he became a newspaper reporter for the Mirror of parliament, the True Sun, and finally for the Morning Chronicle.(John Forster, were later his closest friend and biographer, was also employed at the True Sun.) By the age of twenty, Dickens was one of the best parliamentary reporters in all England. During this same period Dickens’s interest began to switch from journalism to literature. His first work of fiction, “Dinner at Poplar Walk”(later reprinted as “Mr. Minns and His Cousin”), appeared in the Monthly Magazine when he was twenty-one. His newspaper work had given him an intimate knowledge of the streets and by ways of London, and late in 1832 he began writing sketches and stories of London life. They began to appear in periodicals and newspapers in 1833 and in 1836 were gathered together as sketches by Boz, Illustrations of Everyday life, and Everyday People. By this time, Dickens was enjoying the luxurious life he had dreamed of as a child. In 1850, he published the last installments of David Copperfield, a partly autobiographical novel that was his favorite. In 1858 Dickens＇s twenty-three-year marriage to Catherine Hogarth dissolved when he fell in love with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. The the last years of his life were filled with intense activities: writing, taking part in management, and undertaking tours that reinforced the public＇s favorable view of his work, which took an enormous toll on his health. Working feverishly to the last, Dickens collapsed and died on June 8, 1870, leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood uncompleted. 1.2 The introduction to the background 1.2.1 Social Background Like so many parents I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child,“ wrote Charles Dickens. “And his name is David Copperfield.“ Here Dickens made good use of his own life experience to attack the social evils of the time, the miseries of child-labour, the tyranny in schools, the debtors’ prison, as well as the cruelty and immortality and the treachery that were prevalent in Victorian England. Thus the novel was not merely a personal record, but a broad picture of the society of the author’s day. David Copperfield (also called The Personal History and Experience of David Copperfield the Younger), was published in monthly installments between 5. 1849 and 11. 1850. An edition was published near the end of 1850.  David Copperfield was a novel written in first-person point of view. It was sometimes referred to as an apprenticeship novel because it centered on the period in which a young person grows up–that is, serves his apprenticeship. The type of novel was pioneered by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in his novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister＇s Apprenticeship). An apprenticeship novel could also be identified by its German name, meaning novel (roman) of educational development (buildings). Dickens based the book in part on the difficult early years of his own life. The narration changed names, locales, and other details of Dickens’s life but maintained its general tenor. For example, when Dickens was only a child, he had to leave school to work in a factory that polished some shoes. In the novel, David Copperfield has to leave school to work in a warehouse washing and labeling bottles used in the wine trade. David’s initials (D.C.) were, of course, the reverse of Dickens’s (C.D.).  Dickens was a master at drawing memorable characters. Some were simple and uncomplicated, like Barkis, Creakle, Murdstone, and Clara Peggotty. Others were complex, like David Copperfield. Throughout the novel, he befriended the wealthy and charming James Steerforth, ignoring his devious and malevolent side. At the same time, he befriended the good-hearted Tommy Traddles and the humble Peggottys. These two worlds–the world of Steerforth and the world of the people Steerforth and his family look down upon–both attract David, and part of his maturation was deciding what should constitute his own world. To bring his characters to life, Dickens invested them with clearly defining virtues or vices and describing the characters in a way that enabled the reader to picture them and the scenes in which they appear. 1.2.2 Novel’s Background Of all the Dickens’ novels, David Copperfield reflects the events of Dickens own life the most. David’s early suffering was adequately compensated with a rich, happy marriage and a successful literary career, just like Dickens himself, and the world is still full of hope and sunshine. The plot construction was rather loose, but it also excelled in its vivid characterization. The novel’s detailed narration was also worth mentioning, which gave the work a truthfulness to the real life. The early success with the public not only gave Dickens an assurance that led to increased powers of poetic expression and narrative technique, but also the confidence to assert his thematic priorities to a point where they contradicted the social assumptions of many of his readers. All his later novels, except A Tale of Two Cities, present a criticism of the most fundamental institutions of the Victorian England. Although David was ignorant of Steerforth’s treachery, we were aware from the moment we met Steerforth that he didn’t deserve of praise which David feels toward him. David didn’t know why he hated Heep or why he trusted a boy with a donkey cart who stole his money and left him in the road, but it was possible for him to realize Heep’s inherent evil and the boy’s real intention. In David’s first-person narration, Dickens conveyed the wisdom of the older man implicitly, through the eyes of a child. The novel began in the early 19th Century (presumably in 1812, the year of Dickens＇s birth) in Blunderstone, a fictional name for a real town, Blundeston, which Dickens visited. It was in eastern England in the county of Suffolk. Other cities in which action was set were London, Canterbury, Yarmouth, Dover, and Highgate, suburbs of London. Near the end of the novel, David visited Switzerland, and the Peggottys and Micawbers traveled to Australia. (However, neither the Swiss nor the Australian locales actually appeared in the novel.). Somewhere about the middle of the serial publication of David Copperfield, happening to be out of writing-paper, he sallied forth one morning to get a fresh supply at the stationer＇s. He was living then in his favorite haunt, at Fort House, in Broadstairs. As he was about to entering the stationer＇s shop, with the intention of buying the needful writing-paper, for the purpose of returning home with it, and at once setting to work upon his next number, not one word of which was yet written, he stood aside for a moment at the threshold to allow a lady to pass in before him. When it was handed by her, “Oh,“ said she, “I have read. I want next one.“ Next one she was thereupon told would be out by the end of the month. “Listening to this,“ he added, in conclusion, “knowing the purpose for which I was there, and remembering that not one word of the number she was asking for was yet written, for the first and only time in my life, I felt—frightened!“ (Kent, Charles Dickens as a Reader, pp. 45-46). Many of his novels, particularly the later ones, required meticulously plotting in advance, but David Copperfield unfolds relatively simply—perhaps because it relied in part on events of Dickens＇s own experience, with which he was naturally familiar, but also because its first-person voice dictated an omniscient third-person narrator, and coincidences characters, could provide. In his next novel, Bleak House, Dickens would combine these approaches in two distinct narrative strands; the result is a structurally complex work whose denouement links an aristocrat with the lowliest of street-sweepers and touches on every social class between. But the world of David Copperfield, with the exception of the scene of David＇s birth (the facts of which he relays on good authority of eyewitnesses), is limited to David＇s own recollections of events in which he plays a part, and the fabric of society is likewise limited to David＇s personal acquaintance. Chapter 2 2. Literature Review of the Novel 2.1 Some scholars’ views on the novel Scholars believe that David Copperfield＇s careers, friendships, and love life were most highly influenced by Dickens＇ experiences, as well as his time working as a child. David＇s involvement with the law profession and later his career as a writer mirror the experiences of Dickens. Many of David＇s friends are based on people Dickens actually knew, and David＇s wives, Agnes Wickfield and Dora, are believed to be based upon Dickens＇ attachment to Mary Hogarth. Dickens keenly felt his lack of education during his time at that factory, and according to the Forster biography, it was from these times that he drew David＇s working period. British writer Somerset Maugham as “truly a masterpiece of literary works“. One of American literature connoisseurs recommends one hundreds of the 20th century, distinguishing English novel.  “David Copperfield is filled with characters of the most astonishing variety, vividness, and originality,“ noted Somerset Maugham. “They are not realistic and yet they abound with life. There never were such people as the Micawbers, Pegotty and Barkis, Traddles, Betsey Trotwood and Mr. Dick, Uriah Heep and his mother. The story is told almost entirely from the point of view of the first person narrator, David Copperfield himself, and was the first Dickens novel to do so.Dickens based the book in part on the difficult early years of his own life. 2.2 Main Views of Dickens’ idea Influenced by Carlyle, Dickens learned, as did his literary contemporaries, to direct his fiction to a questioning of social priorities and inequalities, to a distrust of institutions, particularly defunct or malfunctioning ones, and to a pressing appeal for action and earnestness. He was prone to take up issues, and to campaign against what he saw as injustice or desuetude, using fiction as his vehicle. He was not alone in this in his own time, but his name continues to be popularly associated with good causes and with remedies for social abuses because he was quite the wittiest, and he have had the most persuasive, and the most influential voice. Dickens was faithful to the teaching, and to the general theological framework, of Christianity as a moral basis for his thought, his action and above all, for his writing, nevertheless. A critical awareness that there was something deeply wrong with the society in which he lived sharpened the nature of his fiction and gave it its distinct political edge. Dickens’ novels are multifarious, digressive and humorous. In an important way, they reflect the nature of Victorian urban society with all its conflicts and disharmonies, its eccentricities and its constrictions, its energy and its extraordinary fertility, both physical and intellectual. But the standard pattern in his novels is the basic conflict between money on the one hand, and loves on the other. What this conflict usually reveals is that the people who have greatest love for their fellow humans are also the ones who are most hurt by the world of money, simply because money is power. In his novels, the people who possess most money and most power seem incapable of love, whereas the people who are capable of love are very often both poor and powerless. And yet, this gloomy view is counteracted by Dickens’ comic way of dealing with his characters. Chapter 3 The Image of main character in David Copperfield 3.1 The image of David 3.1.1 Unyielding and diligence of David Copperfield David Copperfield is a kind-hearted love, integrity, and hard work, pragmatic and progressive intellectuals typically. Since David’s childhood, his father died. His mother remarried, due to his stepfather abuse also died. At that time, he was sent to boarding school, ravaged, and then was sent to the factory as an apprentice unbearable humiliation position . He left the factory to the home of aunt Betsey, she adopted him, let him study law, he did him best to learning day after day. At the same time, his character mature in suffering, frustration, and ultimately on the right path in life. Later he became a writer, and married with his girlfriend. For him, in twists and turns life through the wrong idea, funny habits, sad moment and depressed the day, but his aunt＇s words, “no matter at what time, never can mean selfish, never can get virtual do pseudo, decision cannot be ruthless, “ He remembered this sentence, always encouraged himself have to be strong and seize the opportunity of hard-won to struggle. Whether his orphan’s times confronteed all the hardships and bitterness of his adult life unyielding, or had shown the painful process of a little guy in a capitalist society to find a way out. After having tasted human happiness and warmth had gone through great pain , then he—David, relied on his sincerity, forthright character, positive spirit, heart and pure friendship, he met the light at the end of the tunnel. 3.1.2 Innocence of David Copperfield. David fell in love with Little Emily when they company each other in the days in Yarmouth. The affection was the most feelings for a child. David “loved that baby quite as truly, quite as tenderly with great purity than can enter into the best love of a later time of life”. Neither of them did not worry about the future or any other troubles at that time. The best was love in that they were innocent. On the way to Salen House, the writer referred to an interesting incident. With the “simple confidence and natural reliance of a child upon superior years”, David was used by Servant William. Little David was certain to lack some worldly wisdom and he was only an innocent child. When David worked at Murdestone and Grinby, he met Mr.Micawber whose clothes were shabby, but had only a shirt collar. David did not make fun of him. Instead, when he learned about the tragedy and realized financial difficulties, he was solemnly convinced that he was never reconciled for an hour, or was otherwise than miserably unhappy. Even he wanted to lend some money to Mr.Micawber to help him tide over the difficulties, though he himself was poor. Innocence was the most valuable and shinning characteristic of David Copperfield. And we can never find it in his later life. 3.1.3 Kindness of David Copperfield Although David met some wicked persons in his life like Mr. and Miss Murdestone, Mr. Creakle and Uriah Heep, he also had a lot of friends and helpers who made David still a kind-hearted one. That was to say, though he had known some bad qualities of the people, David remained what he used to be. In Mr. Murdestone’s house, except his mother, Pegotty was the only one who loved David. And different from his mother, she was able to protect David. When David was treated badly by Mr. and Miss Murdestone, Pegotty came to comfort him at night. And when David was sent away from home, Pegotty wrote letters to encourage him. As is known Pegotty was a servant in David’s family, but she did far more than a servant. To some degree, she was more like David’s mother. Even when David’s mother misunderstood her, Pegotty still took it for granted to protect and help David and David＇s poor mother. It was her loyalty and kindness that was a great help to the development of little David. And David was grateful to her, so he permitted the carrier Barkis to marry her, giving the happiness of Pegotty. It was little David’s kindness. 3.1.4 Cruelty and tenderness of David Copperfield David’s complex character allows for contradiction and development over the course of the novel. David also displays great tenderness, as in the moment when he realizes his love for Agnes for the first time. David, especially as a young man in love, can be foolish and romantic. As he grows up, however, he develops a more mature point of view and searches for a lover who will challenge him and help him grow. David fully matures as an adult when he expresses the sentiment that he values Agnes’s tranquility over all else in his life. 3.2 The image of other characters 3.2.1 Coldness and Cruelty of Miss .Murdstones The bane of the childhood of David, stepfather and Sister Miss Murdstone＇s character is extremely cold and cruel. Miss Murdstone is almost tomboy, she hates men, but with the man＇s face, feminine, love and compassion, she and her brother has been tortured poor Clara and David as a thorn in the side and use various means to torture David, resulting in the suffering of David＇s childhood. 3.2.2 Humanity and Charity of aunt Betsey Although there were similarities in some respects both aunt Betsey Trotwood and Murdstone, She stood, dared to say that dared to do, regardless of the secular point of view, with man’s temperament, under particular stress on rational, and aunt Betsey universal love, kindness, compassion, softhearted, heavy sentiment, although she hated boy, but David to her, she not only took him in, asked scold stirring. She taught to David: never mean, never hypocrisy, never cruel, and this can be a foundation the motto of the act, she had to rise in love, David healthy growth, and became a famous writer. Aunt Betsey had mercy on Dick, received him, and appreciated him, to give him a comfortable and easy life. She was the guardian of Jenny; still monitoring some of the other people, education, let them learn to protect themselves. Dora then pampered and petted, she was not anything against her, gave her from the lovely name: flowers. Her husband, aunt Betsey still did not forget, even if he abandoned her, and found a new love, became a nothing scandalous. However, when he just came to aunt Betsey money, she would give. It also said that aunt Betsey was feelings, friendship and loyalty. Aunt Betsey was an intensely capable woman with a great mind, she appreciated a lot of commercial activity, concealed the 2000 pounds of property in bankruptcy, she did it on purpose, in order to exercise David, let him learn to adapt to the plight of conquer difficulties, able to assume the responsibilities of life. That time gave David a good exercise, and by their efforts, confirming their ability to live, it was aunt Betsey＇s much thought. Even though aunt Betsey eccentricity, she had stranger temperament, her character was respected and trusted. 3.2.3 Senses and Intelligence of Agnes Agnes, a virtuous and agreeable girl, becomes a dear and loyal friend of David. In terms of appearance, moral character, knowledge, thoughts, she was almost impeccable. She was beautiful and dignified, generous and gentle, quiet and stable, thoughtful. She has a keen insight, she was of strong will, with a heart of love, and she was the spiritual support of David. Anyone would be proud of an intimate friend of her. In Agnes’ childhood, she was his father＇s butler and spiritual comfort. Her father＇s love was critical for her to become prematurely mature, and to assume responsibility. Caring for his father, to his father, she had to curry favor with Heep of this scumbag, but she never would succumb to the Heep, not let Heep sinister purpose to succeed. Her love for David was deep and long-term, and she has been quietly in love with David, but David reflects the slow, and the pursuit of love is blind. Dora was died, after many difficulties and several years of overseas experience, David finally realized that he loved Agnes, and they married. In terms of career, life, Agnes was David’s ideal partner. 3.2.4 Vanity and Unreality of Mr.Micawber The Mr.Micawber was David’s landlord when David was sent the factory as a child, later he became David’s best of friends. He was unable to repay the debt, and was in jail at several times. He was a person, was fond of waste, impractical, refused to his feet on the ground, he was often heavily in debt. After he was put into prison for debt, he warned David: “If a person is an annual income twenty pounds, and spent nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence, the person would be exceedingly happy. Nevertheless, if the person spent twenty pounds one shilling, that the person was right in the shittier. No sooner had he been a painful confession than he took a shilling from David for beer right away, and then be happy. He is such a real optimists. In addition, he is integrating. When he was secretary to the Heep, after a fierce ideological struggle, to come forward and exposed Mr. Heep framing Wickfield and leading to the bankruptcy of a conspiracy of Miss. Betsey. Miss. Betsey thanked him, funded him to Australia where he achieved career success, and has a good outcome. Micawber characters are extremely vivid, especially its debts to worry about, and the vanishing character, so he became a classic in literature, the “ Micawber“ even was received an ordinary English dictionary as a word, and regarded as the success of this character. 3.2.5 Duplicity and selfish of Steerforth Steerforth was a young millionaire. He was arrogant, callous, selfish, and completely self-centered; he didn’t consider the feelings of other. In school, he used to drive a teacher who was born in the bottom of society. Later, he got to know the kind-hearted and innocent girl Emily, and lured Emily to elope with him successfully through small talk tease. In the end, he abandoned Emily. When he made friends with David, David depended on Steerforth’s kindness for granted, without analyzing his motives or detecting his duplicity. When Steerforth befriended David at Salem House, David didn’t suspect that Steerforth is simply trying to use David to make friends and gain the status. Finally, Steerforth betrayed David. 3.2.6 The mean and shameless of Uriah Heep Heep, was once an ordinary copy clerk. He used to pretend to be humble, and afterwards, he succeeded in manipulating the firm by cunning way. Mr. Wickfield was forced to almost no retreat, and led to the Miss. Betsey bankruptcy. Later, due to Mr. Micawber stood up in time and revealed his conspiracy that framed Mr. Wickfield and led to the bankruptcy of Miss. Betsey. Though Heep was raised in a cruel environment which was similar to David’s, his upbringing caused him to become bitter and vengeful rather than honest and hopeful. Dickens’s described Heep as a demonic character. He referred to Heep’s movements as snakelike and gave Heep red hair and red eyes. Heep and David not only have opposite characteristics but also manipulated at cross-purposes. For example, Heep wished to marry Agnes only in order to hurt David. Nevertheless, for David, he was both motivated by love. The frequent contrast ed between Heep’s and David’s sentiments showed Heep’s mean. While David’s character development was a process of increased self-understanding, Heep grew in his desire to exercise control over himself and other characters. As Heep gained more power over Mr. Wickfield, his sense of entitlement grew and he became more and more power-hungry. But imprisonment didn’t make a difference to atone for his crime. Because he deployed his strategies to selfish purposes that gave others a hand in time, he stood out as the novel’s greatest villain. Chapter 4 Conclusion The novel depicted David’s life experiences which were filled with sufferings and laughters. Dickens portrayed the colorful face of British society, the typical image of the shape of the different social classes, especially the endless struggle of David in the face of adversity, impressiveness. David was unable to endure the abuse of his stepfather, bitting the fingers of his stepfather, savagely beaten. As a result, he was locked in a boarding school. After his mother died, he was sent to the factory as a child by his stepfather, living this life which didn’t have enough to eat not to wear warm life, suffering all kinds of abuse, torture and abuse. However, David did not succumb to the mercy of fate, painstakingly, and finally found his aunt Betsey. The kind-hearted aunt shelter, adopted him, let him go to a better school. When he knew his aunt was bankrupted, he was not disheartened, self-improvement, with indomitable perseverance, diligence study. Finally, after making efforts, he became a writer, achieved success. However, other characters were clear, vivid. Peggotty was a nurse that took care of David and his mother carefully, she was remarkably loyal. Outwardly, aunt Betsey appeared a severe woman, but she showed her images that she was kind by loving David and others. In addition, Ham was noble, brave and honest. Mr.Murdstones was fierce and cruel. Steerforth was selfish and arrogant. Through analyzing these images, we can know truths, no matter how difficult we are and how life is bitter, we should have a good heart, and fight against destiny positively. On the other hand, in this novel, despite the inconstancy of human relationships, life was a main background, but love was very important among people. Later, David gained great success; the reason was that a lot of people gave him much love. And the love gave him the courage to face the misery and sufferings. At the same time, it encourages people to maintain confidence in life and love. Bibliography 1. Dickens.《David Copperfield》[M].北京：清华大学出版社，2010. 2. 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