In David Copperfield, Charles Dickens depicts a wide array of marital situations occurring in Victorian society.  These different marriages show weaknesses, wrong-doings, and ideals.  Of the many marriages in the novel, the most prominent are the marriages of Mr. Murdestone and David's mother, Dr. Strong and Annie Strong, and David and Dora.  Within each of these marriages, Dickens portrays a substantial aspect concerning the strengths and weaknesses of marriage.  Of these three marriages, Dr. Strong and Annie Strong hold the most equal and loving marriage while theirs is considered to be unequal in class.  The marriages of Mr. Murdestone to Clara Copperfield and David to Dora Spenlow share many similarities because the characters are unalike in personality and both not ready for marriage in their respective relationships. 

            Very early on in the novel, Dickens lays out the marriage of David's mother to Mr. Murdestone.  Before this marriage, David, his mother, and his nurse, Peggotty, enjoy a peaceful and joyful life where they are all equals.  Almost out of nowhere, Mr. Murdestone is introduced and David's mother marries him.  Mr. Murdestone wastes little time in taking over the family and changing David's life in a devastating manner.  Mr. Murdestone treats David's mother like a child: forming her character, correcting her behavior, and reprimanding her actions: “ ‘Now Clara,' says Mr. Murdestone, ‘be firm with the boy.  Don't cry ‘Oh, Davy, Davy!' That's childish.  He knows his lesson, or he does not know it'” (52).  Mr. Murdestone treats his wife as a child and takes over the parenting of David.  He turns the house into an unloving, dark, and dreary place where David is not allowed to receive or show affection to his mother or Peggotty: 

He beat me then, as if he would have beaten me to death.  Above all the noise we made, I heard them running up the stairs, and crying out—I heard my mother crying out—and Peggotty.  Then he was gone; and the door was locked outside; and I was lying fevered and hot, and torn and sore, raging in my puny way, upon the floor (56).

Not only does Mr. Murdestone take it upon himself to beat David, but he also decides it best to send David away to school, away from his mother.  David's mother has no say in this matter because she is lawfully the property of Mr. Murdestone.  She, herself, begins to believe that he is doing what is best for her after his constant brain-washing:

…When you talk of Mr. Murdestone's good intentions, and pretend to slight them, you must be as well convinced as I am how good they are, and how they actuate him in everything.  …He is better able to judge of it than I am; for I very well know that I am a weak, light, girlish creature, and he is a firm, grave, serious man (104).

David's mother is not strong enough to stand up to Mr. Murdestone or the treatment her son receives from him.  Her weaknesses cause her to accept the way he belittles her and controls her in marriage.

            Dickens uses the marriage of Dr. Strong and Annie Strong to show that although two people may be unequal in age or experience, they can be equal in the love and honor they share for one another.  Besides David's later marriage to Agnes, the Strong's marriage is Dickens' best example in the novel of a truly equal marriage.  Other characters in the novel criticize this marriage because of the age difference and the fact that Annie's family is poor.  This marriage proves that love can overcome obstacles if there is equal trust and respect present.  The scene in Chapter XLV where Annie Strong explains to Dr. Strong that she loves him more than anything portrays this equality in their honor for one another strongest:

 Oh, hold me to your heart, my husband! Never cast me out! Do not think or speak of disparity between us, for this is none, except in all my many imperfections.  Every succeeding year I have known this better, as I have esteemed you more and more.  Oh, take me to your heart, my husband, for my love was founded on a rock, and it endures! (560).

Dr. Strong and Annie Strong share an extremely strong bond although there have been accusations of her infidelity.  Dr. Strong never believes that his wife did wrong and this faith in his marriage is what makes it so strong.  They may not be equals in class or age, but they carry an equal love, honor, and understanding for one another that creates an ideal marriage.

            Dickens utilizes the marriage of David and Dora Spenlow to show problems with marrying at a young and frivolous age.  Neither David nor Dora is ready to jump into such a large responsibility, and this becomes very apparent when they can barely keep their home in order.  David's strong infatuation for Dora blinds him and leaves him married to a childish young woman: “I doubt whether two young birds could have known less about keeping house, than I and my pretty Dora did” (535).  The older narrator David looks in retrospect and can see that he and Dora were not ready for marriage.  David finds himself unhappy with his marriage because Dora is not his mental equal.  He finds it impossible to have an intimate conversation with her, and he decides to try to “form” her mind.  After his failure in doing so, David faces the realization that Dora's personality can never be changed to the way he would like it.  He is forced to accept his “child-wife” for who she is.  Although they may have loved each other deeply, both characters acknowledge that this love may have been better off left behind with their childhood memories:

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.  I have begun to think I was not fit to be a wife (645).

When David is alone he also considers this thought that Dora has just left in his mind:

…Ever rising from the sea of my remembrance, is the image of the dear child as I knew her first, graced by my young love, and by her own, with every fascination wherein such love is rich.  Would it, indeed, have been better if we had loved each other as a boy and girl, and forgotten it? Undisciplined heart, reply! (647).

David begins to see that his love for Dora blinded him into marrying her and becoming not only her husband, but more of a father-figure in her life.  Dora could never be David's equal, and although he tried to form her into his perfect woman, he was really just ignoring the woman who was truly his equal and ideal for him in all respects.

            With these three marriages in David Copperfield, Charles Dickens shows a marriage based on control, a marriage based on fidelity, and a marriage based on blind infatuation.  Dickens shows that although during this period in time, men and women were not equal in status by law, they should still be considered equal in love and marriage.  Marriages where this did not occur, such as David's mother and Mr. Murdestone, failed miserably, ending in tragedy for all characters involved.  Marriages where equality between the sexes existed created a strong enduring love filled with trust and fidelity no matter what others thought.  Marriages between young adults were almost always doomed to be unsuccessful because they were so distracted by one another that they failed to see their faults.  Dickens also shows that the strongest of these marriages are filled with more work, and sometimes they should not be with the most obvious person.  Love can make someone oblivious to the right decisions, and it may take a large amount of mistakes and unhappy years to lead to the right person.  The right person could be there all along standing in the shadows created by a lover's child-like perception of what love is. 

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles.  David Copperfield.  Ed. Buckley, Jerome H.  New York: Norton, 1990.