David Copperfield — A Level Student Guide

Childhood. Identity. Ambition. Love. The journey towards maturity and self-knowledge.

Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield follows its narrator from a difficult childhood through education, work, friendship, love, loss and eventual maturity.

This comprehensive Coleman’s Notes® Student Guide is designed for A Level English Literature study, helping students explore Dickens’s characters, themes, narrative methods, social criticism and historical context while developing stronger analytical and essay-writing skills.

David’s early happiness is shattered by his mother’s marriage to the cruel Edward Murdstone. After suffering at home, at school and subsequently as a child labourer, David escapes to seek the protection of his formidable but generous aunt Betsey Trotwood.

His later life introduces some of Dickens’s most memorable characters, including Mr Micawber, Uriah Heep, Agnes Wickfield, Dora Spenlow, Steerforth and Peggotty. Through David’s experiences, Dickens examines the people and relationships that shape an individual’s character—and the mistakes through which maturity is achieved.

Inside the guide: detailed plot coverage; character studies and relationships; character development; major themes; motifs and symbolism; language, form and structure; key quotations; important scenes and turning points; Victorian historical and social context; Dickens’s methods and social criticism; examination technique; essay planning; model answers; practice questions; revision material; and quick recall.

Particular attention is given to David, Betsey Trotwood, Agnes Wickfield, Dora Spenlow, Uriah Heep, Steerforth, Mr Micawber and Peggotty, as well as the relationships that influence David’s development from vulnerable child to mature narrator.

Major areas of study include childhood and growing up, identity and self-knowledge, education, social class, poverty, family, friendship, love, marriage, memory and personal responsibility.

The guide also explores the novel’s first-person retrospective narration. The adult David reconstructs his earlier life from memory, allowing students to examine the relationship between the younger character experiencing events and the older narrator interpreting them. This makes questions of memory, perspective and personal development central to understanding the novel.

Designed for A Level students, the guide provides a structured route from understanding Dickens’s extensive narrative to developing sophisticated arguments about character, theme, narrative technique, context and authorial purpose.

Individual Student Guide — £6.95
Complete Dickens Collection 1 — £33.95

UNDERSTAND • ANALYSE • REVISE • SUCCEED

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