David Copperfield Lesson Plan

Describe and analyze the the novel's narrator and narration style.

The novel is narrated in a first-person limited perspective by David Copperfield, the protagonist. He tells the story of his life chronologically, starting with his birth. For his birth and infancy—the only times of his life he cannot retell from memory—he relies on the accounts of others. David acknowledges that his narration is limited by his individual, subjective perspective; for example, he opens his account with the confession that he might not be the hero of his own life story after all, and only the reader of the narrative will be able to decide. Nonetheless, he tries to establish himself as a...