(1) The novel tells the story of David Copperfield, and is written in first person, from his childhood to middle age, with his own adventures and the web of friends and enemies he meets along his way.

(2) There three major themes have been depicted in this novel: (a) the plight of the weak, throughout David Copperfield, the powerful abuse the weak and helpless, Dickens focuses on orphans, women, and the mentally disabled to the exploitation in an industrial society; (b) the equality in marriage, in the world of the novel, marriages succeed to the extent that husband and wife attain equality in their relationship; (c) wealth and class, throughout the novel, Dickens criticizes his society’s view of wealth and class as measures of a person’s value. For instance, Dickens uses Steerforth, who is wealthy, powerful, and noble, to show that these traits are more likely to corrupt than improve a person’s character.

(3) This novel, like Oliver Twist, has exposed the problem of the employment of young children in factories and mines, and child prostitution and abuse in Victorian institutions, harshly criticized the buttered and creamed cruelty under “industrial civilizations”. Its social influence has not only brought fame to Dickens himself, but also a legislative reform to Victorian society. Like many other novels of Dickens, it is a novel of both entertaining and education.