Treatment Of Children In David Copperfield

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show". That`s how Dickens define his book. David Copperfield tells the story of a child who loses his father and has to assume responsibilities earlier. Also, it shows the child's treatment by different adults; From Peggotty, who is a lovely woman with David to Jane Murdstone, whose extreme dislike of kids. The book is written in first person because is an autobiography of Dickens, who had a very similar life history: His father went to debtor's prision and he started to work when he was twelve years old.

Dickens wanted to stop the unfair treatment of children and he thought that writing a book, a lot of people would know what was going on. He became very popular because he wrote from his own experience and reflected everyday life in understandable ways and employed social criticism.

Dickens decided to wrote about children and the poor mainly because of the increase in London's population, comed by the Industrial Revolution. It expanded job opportunities in the metropolis but did not bring only good things though. An increase in residents of London meant more orphans and poverty, while factories demanded workers and were easier to young children and women to get a job because their wage-levels were lower. So, he grew up seeing childhood misery around him and his heart bled for them. He felt pity about the exploitation and prostitution of kids and he wanted to do something to stop their suffering. Children were the main victims because they were young, confused, weak, vulnerabled, defenseless. He was angry about the conditions of society which had a lot of disease such as cholera and typhoid; poverty, mainly because of the Industrial Revolution; noise; bad housing, as they were poor payed; poor sanitation; crime and the city was overcrowded, with a increased from 1 to 3 million residents. There was also the problem about public education as in many areas of England there was no state-funded schooling available so many lower-middle class children either went without schooling or went to Dame or evening schools. This was the situation during his time, and that's why he wrote about it.

The first adult impact on David is the loss of his father so he has no male figure to guide him which he expresses regret over; His mother only idolizes him. He also becomes more emotional, as he only has female influences. He shows his confusion and loneliness declaring, "I was a posthumous child. There is something strange to me, even now, in the reflection that he never saw me; I used to feel for it lying out alone there in the dark night".

Clara wants David to have a father to protect him. Also, the fact of having no father on the family, bring them lots of financial problems, and Clara says, "Mr. Copperfield was so considerate and good as to secure the reversion of a part of it to Clara. A hundred and five pounds a year."

The initial truly positive adult influence on his life is his mother Clara, who is a young, beautiful and traditional mother, who believes that all the family's decisions have to be man's responsibility. This becomes very clear in the first chapter, when she affirms to Miss Betsey "We thought - Mr. Copperfield thought - it was quite a large rookery". Clara is weak, spoiled, innocent, immature, repressed and we can also see that she easily get hurt when he tells, "My mother shedding more tears than before" but she is the only protector of David, although she always avoid confrontation, being more of a child than a mother.

When her husband dies, she feels very alone, because she only has Peggotty to help her, "We were very happy, Mr. Copperfield was only too good to me" claims Clara feeling very sad and single-handedly after her husband died. She was also in a difficult social position and wanted a protection for David. Clara gets married again because the family has no money at all. That puts David in a difficult situation and he starts trying to make some money and we can see how bad he is feeling when he mentions, "The sense I had of being utterly without hope now; of the shame I felt in my position".

A second optimistic influence on David is Peggotty. She is Mrs. Copperfield's closest friend and she confesses that annoucing to her, "I haven't, out of this place, a single friend to turn to". She's gentle, selfless and does not just take care of David but also of Clara who is a very young mother with a lack of discipline. She offers loyalty and friendship to the family and is faithful to them all her life. "I'll never forget you. And I'll make as much care of your mama, Davy. And I won't leave her."

To David, she fills the gap that he has being like a father to him and calling him, "Darling boy". She provides him with discipline, is very friendly, kind and always tries to do the best for him. In her kind motherliness, Peggotty contrasts with the cruel and unloving Miss Murdstone, the sister of the second husband of Clara who is not only brutal and strict toward David, but to his mother as well.

It is the appearance of Murdstone that marks the real first negative impact on David. After Mr. Copperfield's death, the family goes into dehuge financial delay. So, Clara gets married again with Edward Murdstone, who tries to change the way she treated David, as she is immature and gets influenced with a enormous facility. He is really hard with David and always tries to scare him, for instance when he enunciates, "David, if I have an obstinate horse or dog to deal with, what do you think I do? I beat him. I make him wince, and smart. I say to myself 'I'll conquer that fellow". He patronizes David and declares, "th many respects in which you need improvement" - but also makes him feel guilty about his mother telling him things as "See how your laziness upsets your mother?" He and his sister, Mrs. Murdstone, thought it was not good to Dave to have a close relation with Peggotty, and alleges "you are not to associate with servers".

Later on, he sends him to a Boarding School, as a punishment, with the purpose of shy apart Davy from Clara. When she cites "Don't b so hard with Mr. Murdstone. He has the best intentions", to Peggotty, we clearly see DavidÒ's mother's innocence in accepting the Murdstones molding of her, apparently because she is afraid of them. When Clara dies and Peggotty gets married, David Copperfield has no one to take care of him, once Mr. Murdstone didn't even care about it. That's when his stepfather makes a decision that changes his life forever: "So you