LIII: Another Retrospect explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Love and Marriage

  Dora reflects on her unsuitability as a wife, suggesting that her youth and frivolity made the marriage imperfect, and that it is 'better as it is.'

• Memory and Nostalgia

  David's retrospective narration is filled with tender memories of Dora, their wedding day, and their early love.

• The Role of Women

  Dora's self-assessment as a 'silly little creature' who was not fit to be a wife reflects Victorian expectations of domestic competence and maturity.

Characters to notice

• David Copperfield

  Narrates the chapter, grieving over Dora's illness and death, reflecting on their marriage and his undisciplined heart.

• Dora Spenlow

  David's 'child-wife,' dying from a long illness; she expresses regret about being too young for marriage and asks to see Agnes.

• Agnes Wickfield

  Visits Dora at her request; Dora speaks with her alone before dying.

• Betsey Trotwood

  Sits at Dora's bedside, caring for her, and is present during the final days.

• Jip

  Dora's dog, grows old and feeble, dies at David's feet just after Dora's death.

Key passages

• “O, my child-wife, there is a figure in the moving crowd before my memory, quiet and still, saying in its innocent love and childish beauty, Stop to think of me—turn to look upon the little blossom, as it flutters to the ground!”

  David addresses his deceased wife Dora, asking readers to pause and remember her innocent beauty as she fades away like a falling flower.

  Opening lines of the chapter, establishing the elegiac tone.

• “I am afraid, dear, I was too young. I don't mean in years only, but in experience, and thoughts, and everything. I was such a silly little creature! I am afraid it would have been better, if we had only loved each other as a boy and girl, and forgotten it.”

  Dora confesses to David that she was too immature and inexperienced to be a good wife, and that their love might have been better left as a youthful romance.

  Key moment of self-awareness and regret from Dora.

• “I said that it was better as it is! ... Oh, Doady, after more years, you never could have loved your child-wife better than you do; and, after more years, she would so have tried and disappointed you, that you might not have been able to love her half so well!”

  Dora insists that dying now is for the best, because David's love for her is at its peak and she would only have disappointed him later.

  Dora's rationalization of her impending death as a mercy.

• “He lies down at my feet, stretches himself out as if to sleep, and with a plaintive cry, is dead.”

  Jip, Dora's dog, lies down at David's feet and dies with a sad cry.

  Symbolic death of Jip immediately following Dora's death.