David Copperfield as the Bildungsroman Reflecting the Victorian Values Akimova Tatiana College

Created in the Victorian epoch, Charles Dickens’s novel David Copperfield is one of his most famous masterpieces scrutinizing how a person transits from childhood to adulthood. On the example of the protagonist, the author explores different stages of growing up and the challenges that each of them brings. Various situations and social contexts are pictured, and each of them is not only intertwined with the characters’ lives but also pertains to the morals of the society. Along with individual traits and wishes, the historical period determines people’s attitudes and behavior to a large extent. David Copperfield is a classical Bildungsroman in which the core values of the Victorian age, such as family, education, work and money, and marriage, are displayed.

The novel under consideration belongs to the genre of Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story. From the first pages of the book, readers realize what kind of story expects them: “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.” Judging by this quote, the author’s intention is expressed clearly: to provide the description of the person’s life and maturation. Following the general patterns of...