Unlike many novels, including some of Dickens’s own, David Copperfield is not formally divided into separate sections nevertheless, the divisions in this work are no less present. Essentially, these chapters appear to exist outside of linear time and use this vantage point to better contextualise and segment the rest of the narrative. They make frequent references to earlier chapters, reflect on the past using the historical present tense, eliding the distance in time between events and their recording, while setting the stage for the next phase in David’s life and pointing toward future developments. These transitional chapters, marking important milestones and giving structure to David’s life, further set themselves apart through their relationship to time: merging past, present, and future. They are perhaps the most crucial chapters in terms of the novel’s structure, as they effectively segment the novel into four distinct sections, in a manner not unlike how many novels are formally divided into several “books,” “parts,” or “phases.” The four resulting sections of David Copperfield are each extremely well defined, dealing with childhood, young adulthood, marriage, and finally widowhood, grief, and acceptance. These are the four “Retrospect” chapters. Out of the many chapters of David Copperfield, four stand out as peculiar in name, content, and function. “A Retrospective”: Time, Structure, and the Informal Segmentation of David Copperfield
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