Charles Dickens — David Copperfield
Question: Compare and contrast the characters of Dora and Agnes.Ans. In the artistic pattern of the story Dora and Agnes are presented as studies in contrast. Both of them are presented as the objects of love to David, who married them successively. It has been said that the character of Dora is based on Dickens' first love, Maria Beadnell, with whom he had an abortive and unfortunate love-affair at the age of seventeen. The ardours and miseries of the future novelist are represented in the chapters dealing with the David-Dora love-affair. Agnes is drawn after Catherine Hogarth, the dear wife and life-long companion of the mature Dickens, who made a happy home for him.
Somerset Maugham has condemned both the characters as "fearfully tiresome". According tb him, "Dora is too silly and too childish and Agnes is too good and too sensible". In this lies the contrast between the two. Dora is the 'child-wife' of David. Her physical attractiveness, innocence manners and childish silliness captivated David who loved her to distraction. It is an instance of 'calf-love', which is too romantic .to endure long and is little adapted to stand the wear and tear of life. Dora had her superficial accomplishments. She received education in Paris, could sing French ballads and play on guitar and dance exquisitely. But of the training. of the hard school of life she had too little. She was in the poet's word, "a phantom of delight", designed to charm and waylay. But she was not a wife, nobly planned and 'fit for human nature's daily food'. Hence in the actual test of life, she was found wanting. She was too silly and inexperienced to be the queen and mistress of the household. She could not cook, keep accounts, control servants and minister to the mental and spiritual needs of the husband. The result was an unhappy married life. The couple too frequently fell foul of each other on this or that pretext though the ardour of their love had never diminished. The care and tenderness with which David looked- after his ailing wife has something of the idyllic in this picture of their married life.
Agnes, on the other hand, was a sort of 'good angel' to David. She had loved David all her life since their first meeting. But she was wonderfully self-restrained and reticent. Her love flowed unceasingly in the secret channel of her heart and never expressed itself until David declared to her : "I went away, dear Agnes, loving you. I stayed away, loving. you. I returned home loving you." David himself had confessed that his love for Dora would have been imperfect without Agnes' sympathy, and that Agnes had played a large part in making his married life sweet. It is interesting to note that David in course of his courtship with Dora always took Agnes into confidence and consulted her in all crises. If appears passing strange that a sensible girl like her never felt any pang of jealousy and always advised the youth, whom she loved, with the best of motives. Thus it is Agnes who advised David to meet Dora with the permission of her aunts under their roof if possible, when the father of Dora had asked him to stop his amours with her. We can well imagine what a strain on her emotional life was caused by Agnes' playing the mentor to her lover, in his affair with another girl. The strength and sincerity of her love is unconquerable and admirable, indeed.
Again, Agnes could not claim the superficial accomplishments of Dora. The hard lesson of life had sobered her down and developed in her a mind that is genuine gold. In her motherless household, she played the “little housekeeper” to her widowed father and protected the old man like a guardian angel. In the words of Miss Betsey, ‘she carries a wise head on young shoulders’. Her sense of duty, ' responsibility and devotion was indeed, above her age. She was extremely intelligent and saw through the machinations and evil designs of the villainous Uriah, She was always alert and watchful and kept company of her father, who was reduced to a state of imbecility by the hypocrite. She was bold, quick and quite practical and resourceful. She always encouraged and cheered up the miserable David by her friendly counsels. In David's bereavement she like a friend, philosopher and guide, advised him to seek peace and consolation in nature and suggested the trip abroad. She was the main inspiration behind' David's fame and name. She urged no duty on David but always told him in her fervent manner what her trust in him was.
The contrast between the two girls is thus glaring. Dora is ‘a phantom of delight’ while Agnes ‘is a woman nobly planned.’
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