David Copperfield | Themes

Class Consciousness
Characters in the novel represent different classes and illustrate the wide gulf between the classes in Victorian England. The most damaging effect from an awareness of the separation between the lower and middle classes occurs when Em’ly runs off with Steerforth. Em’ly is quite aware of the difference between her class and David’s when he first meets her. When David notes that both of them are orphans, she calls his attention to one important difference: she tells him, “your father was a gentleman and your mother is a lady; and my...

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