Tom Naccarato 3.

Extracts from David Copperfield

How does Dickens Make These Scenes Tense and Disturbing for David?
Throughout these scenes, Dickens portrays a common tragedy that is
Victorian marriage. Clara, David's mother, has recently married Mr Edward
Murdstone. David almost instantly dislikes Mr Murdstone and his sister, Miss
Jane Murdstone, for their cruel ways.
On page 8, Miss Murdstone is described as a cold, hard woman. This is
shown by the repetition of the word 'hard', for example:
' Two uncompromising hard black boxes, with her initials on the lid in hard
brass nails' This emphasises that Miss Murdstone is an unfeeling and coldhearted woman. This is also shown in her name, which is a caricature of the
character in a typical Dickensian fashion. The name is a combination of
'murder' and 'stone'. This shows Miss Murdstone's murderous intent and is as
cold and hard as stone. This makes David very uncomfortable with her and
David instantly dislikes her.
When Clara says, in response to Mr Murdstone saying' I wonder at you',
'it is very hard, that in my own house-', she is cut off mid-sentence by a
shocked Mr Murdstone who corrects her by saying 'our own house.' Clara then
quickly corrects herself. This shows that the house did once belong to Clara,
before she remarried Mr Murdstone and that she is now slowly and gradually
losing control of her own house to Mr Murdstone. This disturbs David to see
his mother as the broken wreckage she now is.
When Miss Murdstone first speaks to David, she tells Clara that 'she
doesn't like boys and then greets David by saying ' How d'ye do, boy?'She says
'boy, to emphasise the point that David is a boy, directly after saying that she
doesn't like boys. She then tells Clara that David, 'wants manners'. This shows
that as well as David instantly disliking Miss Murdstone, but also Miss
Murdstone instantly disliking him as well. This just confirms David's disliking of
Miss Murdstone.

Tom Naccarato 3.1

On page 9, Clara gives her keys to Miss Murdstone. Throughout the

conversation, she patronises Clara, saying things such as, 'you are too pretty
and thoughtless to have any duties imposed upon you.' Clara blushes and
laughs but really is reluctant to hand over the keys to Jane. The keys represent
Clara's control of her house and as she is handing them over to Jane, it shows
that she is losing control of her own house to the Murdstones who are slowly
taking over from Clara. David is again disturbed by this.
Mr Murdstone is a similar character to that of his sister. This means that
he is also cruel and heartless like his sister, Dickens describes his voice as
'thundered' This shows that Mr Murdstone had a loud booming voice like
thunder
The Murdstone siblings are very similar characters. They also act in a
similar way and both seem to dislike David and are bent on Clara's
reformation. This is shown when they are discussing the effects of beating. 'Do
you think it did Edward any harm' Edward replied to Clara asking if it did
Edward any good. His sister then joins in by saying, ' That's the point.' This
shows that they have very similar interests and join together to form an
unbeatable team. When they are talking about a beating, David is worried, this
is show when David says, 'I felt apprehensive.' It also shows that Edward had
been beaten often as a child and so wanted to give David the same miserable
childhood that he had had.
When David is about to get beaten, he begs Mr Murdstone not to. This
shows that he is afraid of Mr Murdstone and also that he is afraid of a beating.
David's mother also does not want David to get beaten but this is actually all
part of their plan to change Clara. Just before David is beaten, he bites Mr
Murdstone and tries to escape Edward's firm grip on him. This shows how
much he is afraid of the beating and it also shows what he is willing to do to
avoid one.