Analysis Pages

Quote Analysis in David Copperfield

Quote Analysis Examples in David Copperfield:

Chapter 1 - I Am Born

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"'How is she?' ..."   (Chapter 1 - I Am Born)

By "she" here, his aunt is not referring to his mother but to the baby which the aunt thinks is a girl. 

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"Crorkindills..."   (Chapter 2 - I Observe)

This spelling represents Peggotty's word for crocodiles, the subject of the book he had been reading to her.

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"a large linen wrapper..."   (Chapter 4 - I Fall Into Disgrace)

A cloth bandage or sling. The implication is that, not only did Murdstone beat Davy violently but that, Davy, having bitten him, had injured Murdstone's hand badly.  

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"appalling sum..."   (Chapter 4 - I Fall Into Disgrace)

A math problem that Davy finds horrible because it is so difficult.

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"the first clause of the injunction..."   (Chapter 4 - I Fall Into Disgrace)

The first part of what his mother told him to do: to try again.

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"Wants manner..."   (Chapter 4 - I Fall Into Disgrace)

This is a criticism of Davy; Miss Murdstone says that he doesn't have good manners.

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"'Lord bless my soul!' he exclaimed, 'I didn't know they were chops. Why, a chop's the very thing to take off the bad effects of that beer! Ain't it lucky?'..."   (Chapter 5 - I Am Sent Away From Home)

The waiter continues to trick Davy, taking advantage of his naivete in order to eat Davy's dinner.

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"'Why you see,' said the waiter, still looking at the light through the tumbler, with one of his eyes shut up, 'our people don't like things being ordered and left. It offends 'em. But I'll drink it, if you like. I'm used to it, and use is everything. I don't think it'll hurt me, if I throw my head back, and take it off quick. Shall I?'..."   (Chapter 5 - I Am Sent Away From Home)

The waiter tricks Davy by telling him this fictitious story in order to drink Davy's ale.

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"Now, six-foot! come on..."   (Chapter 5 - I Am Sent Away From Home)

In calling Davy to the table, the waiter makes a teasing reference to Davy's size; Davy is far from being six feet tall.  

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"When I had taken this commission on myself prospectively..."   (Chapter 5 - I Am Sent Away From Home)

After he had given Peggotty Mr. Barkis's message in a letter which would be delivered in the future.

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"Then come up,' said the carrier to the lazy horse; who came up accordingly..."   (Chapter 5 - I Am Sent Away From Home)

Suggests that the horse had lowered its head while stopped. The driver urges the horse to move on.

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"After another and a final squeeze with both arms, she got down from the cart and ran away; and, my belief is, and has always been, without a solitary button on her gown. I picked up one, of several that were rolling about, and treasured it as a keepsake for a long time..."   (Chapter 5 - I Am Sent Away From Home)

An allusion to Peggotty's buttons popping off the back of her dress when she exerts herself, especially when she hugs Davy with great affection. He describes this happening in Chapter 2. 

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"the table beer was a robbery of parents..."   (Chapter 6 - I Enlarge My Circle Of Acquaintance)

Can be interpreted to mean that money paid by the boys' parents was used improperly to buy beer for Creakle's table.

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"came as a set-off against the coal-bill..."   (Chapter 6 - I Enlarge My Circle Of Acquaintance)

The boy was allowed to attend the school in payment of the coal bill, suggesting that the school owed his family for the coal.

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"were not so boisterous at my expense as I had expected..."   (Chapter 6 - I Enlarge My Circle Of Acquaintance)

The boys did not tease Davy and make fun of him as much as he had expected them to do.

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"in my pigmy view..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

Emphasizes Davy's slight stature in contrast to Mr. Peggotty's great size.

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"'Shame, J. Steerforth! Too bad!'..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

Steerforth has crossed a line with Mr. Mell; his comment is too insulting.

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"at the bottom of the school, ..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

A reference to Steerforth's seat being in the last row in the school room.

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"kept the house from indisposition..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

To be indisposed means to be slightly ill or to feel sick. In context, this is a humorous way of saying that Mr. Creakle on this particular day didn't make the boys feel bad, suggesting that he usually did.

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"Poor Traddles - I never think of that boy but with a strange disposition to laugh, and with tears in my eyes - was a sort of chorus, in general; and affected to be convulsed with mirth at the comic parts, and to be overcome with fear when there was any passage of an alarming character in the narrative..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

Traddles becomes an audience for Davy's stories as he tells them to Steerforth and humorously interjects himself into Davy's storytelling as he listens.   

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"The institution never flagged for want of a story..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

Davy never ran out of stories in keeping up his arrangement with Steerforth.

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"in return, my sums and exercises, and anything in my tasks that was too hard for me, I was no loser by the transaction..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

In exchange for Davy's telling him the stories, Steerforth helps him with his school work.

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"ravages I committed on my favourite authors in the course of my interpretation of them, I am not in a condition to say, and should be very unwilling to know..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

Davy imagines that he didn't do the authors justice in retelling their stories.

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"we commenced carrying it into execution that very evening..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

Davy begins that night telling Steerforth the stories Davy remembers from the books he has read.

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"didn't want any features..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

Didn't need any features. Drawing skeletons didn't require artistic details.

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"It will be of no use your rubbing yourselves; you won't rub the marks out that I shall give you..."   (Chapter 7 - My 'First Half' At Salem House)

A warning that he will whip them if they don't study their lessons and work hard.

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"my memorable offence..."   (Chapter 8 - My Holidays. Especially One Happy Afternoon)

An allusion to Davy's biting Mr. Murdstone, which resulted in Davy's being sent away to boarding school.

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"the tears which were engendered in her affectionate nature..."   (Chapter 8 - My Holidays. Especially One Happy Afternoon)

Her affectionate nature was the source and the cause of her tears.

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"all my sorrow has been nothing to the sorrow it calls forth..."   (Chapter 9 - I Have A Memorable Birthday)

In other words, Davy's grief is nothing compared to the grief he will continue to feel for his loss.

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"She sat up at night still, and watched..."   (Chapter 9 - I Have A Memorable Birthday)

Peggotty maintained a vigil beside the body of Davy's mother.

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"porpoise..."   (Chapter 9 - I Have A Memorable Birthday)

A type of whale similar to a dolphin. In context, an allusion to Mr. Omer's bulk.

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"a black crape round it for my mother..."   (Chapter 10 - I Become Neglected, And Am Provided For)

Davy's hat bore a piece of black fabric indicating that he was still in mourning for his mother.

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"Mr. Murdstone's means were straitened at about this time; but it is little to the purpose..."   (Chapter 10 - I Become Neglected, And Am Provided For)

Mr. Murdstone's income was not as great, causing him financial hardship, but financial hardship was not the reason he disliked and ignored Davy.

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"fairy little woman..."   (Chapter 10 - I Become Neglected, And Am Provided For)

A description that suggests Davy finds her to be like a fairy, a tiny magical being in human form who is clever and mischievous.

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"wiping the heat consequent on the porterage of Peggotty's box from his forehead..."   (Chapter 10 - I Become Neglected, And Am Provided For)

Carrying Peggotty's box of belongings caused him to sweat with exertion.

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"It looked just the same, except that it may, perhaps, have shrunk a little in my eyes..."   (Chapter 10 - I Become Neglected, And Am Provided For)

A reference to the feeling people sometimes have when visiting a place from their childhood; it often seems smaller to them than they remember it since they were smaller when they last saw it. 

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"town traveller for a number of miscellaneous houses..."   (Chapter 11 - I Begin Life On My Own Account, And Don't Like It)

Worked for a number of businesses as a traveling salesman. Earlier at the warehouse, Mr. Quinion says that Micawber earns commissions on the orders he takes for them, when he can drum up any business.

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"the blinds were kept down to delude the neighbours..."   (Chapter 11 - I Begin Life On My Own Account, And Don't Like It)

To prevent the neighbors from looking in and discovering that the first floor of the Micawbers' house lacked furniture. The implication is that the Micawbers don't want their neighbors to know how poor they are.

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"a turn at a neighbouring pump..."   (Chapter 11 - I Begin Life On My Own Account, And Don't Like It)

Davy paid for water with his dinner. Drinking water was in short supply in the slums of London; there were not enough pumps to supply water to the enormous number of poor people.  

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"he applied that maxim to our marriage, my dear; and that was so far prematurely entered into, in consequence, that I never recovered the expense..."   (Chapter 12 - Liking Life On My Own Account No Better, I Form A Great Resolution)

Mr. Micawber is referring to the proverb just mentioned, that procrastination is the thief of time. Mrs. Micawber's father, he says, encouraged them to waste no time in marrying, they married too soon, and as a result, Mr. Micawber was never able to gain a sound financial footing.

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"Take him for all in all, we ne'er shall - in short, make the acquaintance, probably, of anybody else possessing, at his time of life, the same legs for gaiters, and able to read the same description of print, without spectacles..."   (Chapter 12 - Liking Life On My Own Account No Better, I Form A Great Resolution)

Mr. Micawber compliments her father for some of his good qualities.

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"to give me a high character..."   (Chapter 12 - Liking Life On My Own Account No Better, I Form A Great Resolution)

To speak highly of Davy's character; to give him a recommendation.

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"confident in the character and behaviour of the girl who never was born..."   (Chapter 13 - The Sequel Of My Resolution)

An allusion to Davy's aunt's wanting a girl when he was born.

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"make it an exchange..."   (Chapter 13 - The Sequel Of My Resolution)

He wants to give Davy something from his shop in exchange for Davy's jacket.

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"why, in the mysterious dispensations of Providence, you ever did see her, is more than humanity can comprehend..."   (Chapter 14 - My Aunt Makes Up Her Mind About Me)

This line can be restated as the following: "Why it was in God's plan for you to meet her at all is impossible to understand."

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"it threw him into a fever. ..."   (Chapter 14 - My Aunt Makes Up Her Mind About Me)

Mr. Dick's fear of his brother and having to watch his sister being mistreated by her husband created in Mr. Dick a great emotional disturbance, very likely severe depression.

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"a wise man he must have been to think so! Mad himself, no doubt..."   (Chapter 14 - My Aunt Makes Up Her Mind About Me)

Davy's aunt feels great contempt for Mr. Dick's deceased father, as well as for his brother.

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"my entrance put her meditations to flight..."   (Chapter 14 - My Aunt Makes Up Her Mind About Me)

Davy's aunt has been lost in thought; when he comes into the room, her reflections are interrupted, and she focuses on him.

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"my strolling fancy..."   (Chapter 15 - I Make Another Beginning)

Davy's mind is wandering as he studies Mr. Wickfield's appearance.

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