Eccentric characters in Dickens’s novel "David Copperfield" and the motif of premonition

Abstract

The coming-of-age story "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens is notable for its internal organisation, revealing the literary style of the author. Dickens’ serialised novels demonstrate a thoughtful unity of content and form. This makes it possible to speak of the existence of common components, making up his works. The unified tone of all Dickens’s works is reached by a special "touch" of the "fantastic", what has already been noted in literary criticism. The significance of the concept of "fancy" for creative work of this realist writer allows us paying attention to the most important "fantastic" structural component in "David Copperfield" – the so-called "premonition moments", experienced by the characters. Even if premonitions may seem incredible at the first mention, they are often justified in the course of action. An analysis of the episodes associated with the premonitions of the characters, both accurate and inaccurate, as well as those containing "fantastic" (fabulous, eccentric, theatrical) portraits, allows us demonstrating how exactly the writer’s individual manner of writing manifests itself.