Tuesday, April 3, 2007
David Copperfield Question #3
Annie Strong says, "There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose." Apply this statement to the marriages of the following: Barkis and Peggotty, Clara Copperfield and Mr. Murdstone, and David and Dora. (Some marriages may be successful because there IS suitability of mind and purpose).
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Annie Strong’s quote basically means that if two people are on the same page in terms of what the want in life or basic philosophy of how life works then they will work as a couple. Peggotty and Barkis are both kind and gentle people. They are both hard working and they generally do have they same thoughts about life. This is why they are happy in their marriage and even when Barkis dies they are still happy with each other. Clara Copperfield and Mr. Murdstone are almost opposites. Clara Copperfield is a free spirit. She is independent and caring. Mr. Murdstone is strict and cruel and crushes the spirit of Clara Copperfield. This is why they are not happy in their marriage. David and Dora are similar except the difference is not so extreme. They think they are in love, and they might be, but their marriage doesn’t really work. Dora exhibits many childlike qualities, such as refusing to learn the responsibilities of keeping house. David is forced to be mature and adult because he is faced with poverty. Dora is lazy and spoiled and David is mature and hard working and that is why this marriage dose not really work. So, in all three of these examples Annie Strong’s statement is true: marriages ultimately depend on if both partners are on the same page in life.
Strong’s quote is very easily applied to Dicken’s novel. Dickens, in the novel, makes very clear distinctions between what it is good and what is bad, especially in terms of marriage. It is very easy to see, in these three marriages, which ones are good and thus have a “suitability of mind purpose” and those which are bad and do not have “suitability of mind and purpose.”
Barkis and Pegotty clearly have a good marriage. I would argue that their purpose is to better the lives of others, and, once they are married, the lives of their spouse. Peggotty shows one of her loves in life is serving others and making other peoples’ lives better as seen by the way she cares for David and his mother. Later on, when Barkis is sick, she cares for him and stays by him until his death, always faithful and caring for him. Barkis also seems to exist to serve, probably to serve Peggotty more than anyone. His famous quote, “Barkis is willin,” is evidence of his faithfulness and love for her. He knows he loves her and waits for her to marry so that he can take her as his wife and make her life better. Throughout their marriage, the two stay faithful to each other and are happy due, I think, to the fact that they seem to have the purpose in life of serving others.
Clara Copperfield and Mr. Murdstone are about as opposite the Barkis marriage as you can get. Clara and Murdstone did not marry for the right reasons. I feel that Clara married out of sheer loneliness and desperation after the loss of her first husband, and this caused her not to truly evaluate Murdstone’s personality. Murdstone seemed to marry to take advantage and manipulate Clara. To me, he is one who likes control and power and likes to be manipulative. The two do not marry to complement each other; rather they marry so that Murdstone can control her and give her a false sense of security. The marriage is so bad that Murdstone eventually causes Clara to lose the will to live and she dies. It is obvious here that, because they did not complement each other, Copperfield and Murdstone could not be happily married.
Dora and David have a more interesting marriage. Dora and David might have worked out, if they had waited longer for Dora to mature. She was really too young to marry, and she refuses to grow up and accept responsibility in life. At this point, David is trying to grow into a man and mature. He wants to be his own person, to provide for himself and have his own family, while it seems Dora still wants to be a kid. She can’t learn to keep house, and overall she is simply not mature enough. This difference in maturity levels is essentially the same as having a different purpose in life, because they are both looking at the world in entirely different ways. In the end, they recognize that they probably should have waited to marry, and the marriage ends unsuccessfully with Dora’s death.
I think that Annie’s statement means that if two married people have the same life goals, then their marriage should be successful. Barkis and Peggotty both seem to have the ideals of a happy couple. They both put each other before themselves. Clara Copperfield and Mr. Murdstone are the exact opposite of Peggotty. Clara has a loving relationship with David and she lets him live the life of a child. Once Murdstone arrives, his philosophy is one of control and of no fun. These two clash and eventually leads to Clara’s death. Murdstone’s control issues don’t mend well with Clara’s optimism and joy. David and Dora feel that they have the same ideals, but in reality they don’t. David has worked all his life and had to struggle to get ahead. Dora on the other hand has been given everything in life. She is a spoiled brat and this is why the relationship doesn’t work.
♥Mr. Murdstone and Clara Copperfield’s marriage is not successful, because they are not equal in the marriage. Their mindsets and purpose did not match up. Mr. Murdstone constantly exerts his power over Clara’s life by telling her not to show any emotion to David, and he constantly gives her orders. Clara is blind to this tyranny, because she would rather be with someone who treats her unjustly, rather than not be with someone at all. Even though she accepts his abuse, their marriage was unsuccessful because their relationship never grew due to lack of balance of power in the marriage.
♥David and Dora’s marriage is not successful, as well. Dora’s child-like behavior kept them away from any mature, adult-like conversations. Dora’s immaturity is an unbalancing factor in the relationship, and once again, the two partners are not equal. Communication is the key to seeing eye to eye in a relationship, but they never saw eye to eye, because she never gave up her silliness. Whenever David tried to explain how she felt, she would say she did not want to hear it. This does not leave any room for the relationship to grow.
♥Barkis and Peggotty’s marriage is successful because there is suitability of mind and purpose. There relationship is not based on control and on infatuation as the other two are. They are the perfect model of a married couple, because they are in a relationship for the right reasons; they genuinely care about each other, and use their care to be deeply rooted in their relationship. What I admire most about their marriage is that it is selfless, and it is about what can I do for you, rather than what can you do for me.
The quote, I believe, means that if a couple has the same views or similar views on life, same goals and desires, and complement each others' virtues and flaws that they will work together as a couple. Barkis and Peggotty are an amazing couple because they have similar characteristics. Peggotty spent a good deal of her life caring for other people and making their lives that much easier. Barkis seems to be eager to please anyone and everyone and once Barkis and Peggotty marry they are happy and fully devoted to each other. They complement each other perfectly even until Barkis' death. The Copperfield/Murdstone marriage was a disaster from the get go. It is plain to see that from the way that Peggotty and Clara fight constantly and even involve little David Copperfield in their squabbles. Clara is a motherly type and is highly affectionate to David but once the marriage is final Murdstone becomes harsh and tries to "reform" Clara telling her not to be so affectionate even neglecting David. When Murdstone's kid is born they treat him much better than they ever treated poor ole Davey, even to the point of not allowing David to touch him and reprimanding Clara for even comparing the two children. Dora and David seem to be the intermediate couple. They could work out if they put more work into it. However, they did not have the same views on life or the same goals. David wanted to grow up and mature. He was forced to mature much earlier in life than Dora. Where David had to work to support himself and put through hardships early in his life, Dora was pampered and spoiled. David wanted his family to mature with him but Dora insisted on staying a kid, thus the marriage was not successful probably because they married too young.
Barkis and Pegotty are both simple people. They are both kind. They lead similar lives in that they work for others for a living. They do their work and they do it well. They are both from a lower class. They are so similar that they work well together as a pair. They understand each other, and that is what is needed in a successful marriage.
Clara and Mr. Murdstone have a relationship that is more like a father daughter relationship. They love each other but are not equals and do not understand each other. Their relationship is like that of Nora and Torvald in A Dolls House. Mr. Murdstone likes to have power and to be serious but Clara is not serious. They are too different and cannot get along.
David and Dora are different, too. David works hard to make a living. Dora is unhelpful. Their personalities clash. He has been through bad times and has grown up quickly. She is childlike. They are two different people and do not get along.
Barkis and Peggotty are two basically good people. Peggotty is not exactly a hugely wealthy person (until she receives Barkis' 3000 pounds), and because of their suitability of mind and purpose, they make for a successful marriage, and they live "happily ever after" as it would seem, even after Barkis' death.
Clara Copperfield and Mr. Murdstone were a blatantly obvious bad marriage. David Copperfield seems to have sort of a Roald Dahl beginning to it (albeit much more tedious). Clara Copperfield was the kind, faithful mother with nothing but love and affection for her cuddly little David at the beginning of the story. As soon as Mr. Murdstone barges in, he ruins everything for which the Copperfields stood, and even begins to alienate Clara from her son, David. Mr. Murdstone is an obviously evil character (Dickens does not leave much to the imagination when it comes to extremes), and is the exact antithesis of Clara Copperfield: rude, controlling, manipulative, and downright wicked. Their mind and purpose are almost polar opposites, and the stress eventually kills Clara.
David and Dora were not going to ever be a good marriage. David knew it himself; Dora was so far behind David in maturity, intelligence, and everything that makes a person what he or she is. David and Dora share more of an infatuation than an actual love. David (symbolically) is downstairs when Dora dies, showing their distance, both physically and spiritually. The marriage was a poorly fated one. It was not quite as converse a marriage as his mother's with Mr. Murdstone, but ultimately it met a similar fate.
When Annie Strong says this statement, I believe it to mean that if the two people involved in a marriage are for each other and have similar goals in life, it will be a success. She is saying there is nothing worse than when there is an absence of state. This statement applies differently to the three marriages. From the day Barkis told Peggoty that “Barkis is willin’” (60), there was an intangible love that is always sought after in a marriage. They stick together even when Barkis falls terribly ill and eventually dies. They are the type of “cute” couple that teenage girls ooh and awe over- truly romantically in love. Death in the Copperfield marriage was with different circumstances- it was essentially caused by Mr. Murdstone and his sister. The utterly controlling and suppressive Murdstone combination ultimately demeans and destroys Clara’s spirit and physical life, and they kill her off because Clara never had the privilege of speaking her mind- it was Murdstone’s way or the highway. David and Dora’s marriage is an odd one- they come from different financial backgrounds and David is annoyed with Dora’s lack of ability to be a housewife. While the spouses have different feelings and do not agree on who should do what, the marriage succeeds because David decides that he loves her. He decides to let the little things they see differently on go and let their marriage be about love.
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