David Copperfield Lesson Plan

How do the Micawbers react when their financial troubles are finally settled? Do you think their reaction is understandable/believable?

After so many years of financial turmoil and instability, the Micawbers do not respond with the happiness and contentment David expects. Instead, they are more distressed than he has ever seen them, and Mrs. Micawber has a hysterical fit. David reasons that "Mr. and Mrs. Micawber were so used to their own difficulties...that they felt quite shipwrecked when they came to consider that they were released from them." The Micawbers' reaction is certainly unexpected and extreme (Dickens plays up the comedy here as well), but it is not...