David Copperfield - Chapter 3

During written correspondence with Peggoty David finds out that the Murdstones have left The Rookery abandoned and marks the final loss of his old childhood home. It gives him some cause for reflection.

He also comes to spend a lot of time with Mr Dick who quickly becomes a firm favourite at his school. He confides in David one day that there is a strange man lurking in the shadows around the home he shares with David's aunt. David puts this down to his 'condition'. One day when he is walking with Mr Dick back to his coach he espies Uriah who invites him to take tea with him and his mother. This he does albeit reluctantly, whilst there a stranger pays them a visit.

Miss Betsey proposes that David, whom she has nicknamed “Trot,” be sent to school at Canterbury. They go to Canterbury and visit Mr. Wickfield, a lawyer and a friend of Miss Betsey’s. At Mr. Wickfield’s, they meet Uriah Heep, an unattractive young redhead dressed entirely in black and skeleton-like in appearance.

Uriah takes them to Mr. Wickfield, who recommends a school for David but warns that the dorms are full and that David will have to stay elsewhere. The adults agree that David can go to the school and stay with Mr. Wickfield until they find a more suitable arrangement. David meets Agnes, Mr. Wickfield’s lovely and charming daughter, who dotes on her father and is his one joy since his wife died

David's aunt writes to Mr Murdstone to advise that David is now staying at her house and enquiring what he is to do about it. The meetings between the Murdstone's and Miss Trotwood does not go well but fortunately David is asked his opinion and for once someone actually listens to him.

Determined to reach Miss Betsey's home in Dover, David sets out on foot. He passes a small second-hand clothing store, sells his waistcoat for a small sum, and then spends the night in a haystack near Salem House School.

David, "a dusty, sunburnt, half-clothed figure," arrives in Dover after six days of traveling and inquires about his aunt. After several unsuccessful inquiries, he is directed to Miss Trotwood's cottage. Miss Trotwood, seeing the ragged urchin in her garden, sternly bids him, "Go away! Go along! No boys here!" But when David tells her who he is and what an unhappy life he has led since his mother's death, she takes charge of him with vigor, but it should be added, with abruptness.

On the Sunday before they leave, Mr. Micawber and Mrs. Micawber have David over for dinner, and both thank him for being a friend to them in difficult times. Mr. Micawber urges David to spare himself similar difficulties by avoiding procrastination, though he also notes that "applying that maxim" to his engagement to Mrs. Micawber led him to go into debt to get married. He then reiterates that David should never spend more than he earns, and David promises to heed this advice.

David says goodbye to the Micawbers as they board a coach the next morning, and Mr. Micawber reiterates that he hopes his "blighted destiny" will serve as a warning to David. He also promises to help David if anything "turns up," which he says he is sure it will.

Clearly unwanted by the Murdstone's David is sent to work at their companies counting house in London. Whilst he is mostly concerned with upward mobility, his time at the counting-house is a grim reminder that it's possible to slide down the social ladder as well. David finds himself a member of the working classes, and without any hope of further education, his prospects for climbing back into the middle class are limited.

Shortly after David’s mother’s funeral, Miss Murdstone gives Peggotty, who is being dismissed, a month’s notice. David anticipates constantly being berated by the Murdstones, but instead he finds himself left to his own devices. As the day of Peggotty’s departure nears, Peggotty proposes that David accompany her to Yarmouth and stay there as a guest. When Peggotty poses the proposal to Miss Murdstone, Miss Murdstone, citing her brother’s need for peace, which David is accused of disturbing, begrudgingly gives her consent.

David is sent home from Salem House upon learning that his sweet mother and baby son have died. Peggotty is the only one to provide him with any comfort. The Murdstones are not that p[leased to see him of course.

Pushing aside his fear of Mr. Murdstone and Miss Murdstone, David enters the house only to hear Clara singing. The sound makes David think of his early childhood, and he approaches to find her singing to a baby. When she sees David, Clara embraces him and introduces him to his baby brother. David is so happy that he later wishes he "had died" during the reunion.

The Murdstone's return later that evening and David apologises for having previously bitten Mr Murdstone.

The young Copperfield is very much alone for the first month at school. Eventually it becomes apparent that the school will become fully occupied with other schoolboys. David meets his first real friend in a young boy called Traddles.

David is also summoned to meet the headmaster a certain Mr Creakle who is a terrible brute of a man. He treats his family with disdain and his pupils even worse. David fears the almost daily beatings that he and Traddles have to endure at the hands of the sadistic headmaster.