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(University of South Carolina)
Dickens uses a rich set of imagery to assist readers in entering and appreciating the complex moral universe of David Copperfield. By establishing associations between characters and specific species of animals, Dickens ascribes a moral “signature” to each character. This identification allows readers to see beyond the dimensions of an individual's physical actions and to anticipate the character's influence and effect on young David's moral education. These associations also define a relational stature among the inhabitants of the kingdom of David Copperfield, providing further insights into a moral hierarchy among the characters. In other words, pausing to analyze the animal associations and imagery leads the reader to a fuller appreciation of the artistry of David Copperfield, and to a fuller understanding of what David, himself, means when he tells us early on in the novel that “I dream at night: as a man environed by wild beasts might dream of lions” (22; ch. 2).
In general, there are four major species cited in the novel; collectively, these species represent the complex and hierarchical moral universe of David Copperfield: (1) song birds, associated with the good and innocent; (2) lions and raptors, associated with the fallen but not evil; (3) dogs (with the exception of Jip), associated with the malicious and self-interested who seek to subjugate the will of others; and (4) snakes and eels, the slithery beasts who (like their Biblical ancestors) are associated with individuals who are truly contemptuous and evil.
An early demonstration of Dickens's use of these associations to convey the moral dimensions of the story is provided in depictions of the changes inherent in the Copperfield home before and after David's mother remarries. Dickens begins the tale with associations between the Copperfelds and songbirds. Signaling a simple goodness, the family home had been named “The Rookery” by David's father. The fact that there are, in actuality, no rooks (15; ch. 1) signals an emptiness, a loss Victorian readers would likely recognize as a loss of goodness and innocence. The empty pigeon coops in the backyard add poignancy and further attest and give magnitude to the loss — as well as firmly establish for the reader that song birds,
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