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Mr. Dick
Edward Murdstone is Clara Copperfield's second husband, whom she marries when David is roughly eight. Murdstone is handsome and capable of being quite charming, although David instinctively distrusts him from the start (probably in part because of his own jealousy). After the marriage, however, it quickly becomes clear that Murdstone is dictatorial and cruel. Together with his sister, Miss Murdstone, he attempts to teach Clara "firmness"—supposedly for her own good, but more likely because he enjoys bending people to his will. He is even nastier to David, whom he uses as a means of manipulating Clara and eventually beats for botching his lessons. After Clara's death, he pulls David out of school and sends him to work at a counting-house he partially owns. David loses touch with Mr. Murdstone after running away to Miss Betsey's, but he learns years later that he has married another naïve and impressionable young woman he can control. With all that said, there is a hint of humanity to Mr. Murdstone: his love for Clara is possessive and twisted, but he does seem genuinely grieved by her death.
Mr. Murdstone Quotes in David Copperfield
The David Copperfield quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Murdstone or refer to Mr. Murdstone . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8
Quotes
Ah, what a strange feeling it was to be going home when it was not home, and to find that every object I looked at, reminded me of the happy old home, which was like a dream I could never dream again! The days when my mother and I and Peggotty were all in all to one another, and there was no one to come between us, rose up before me so sorrowfully on the road, that I am not sure I was glad to be there.
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Chapter 14
Quotes
The two things clearest in my mind were, that a remoteness had come upon the old Blunderstone life—which seemed to lie in the haze of an immeasurable distance; and that a curtain had for ever fallen on my life at Murdstone and Grinby's. No one has ever raised that curtain since. I have lifted it for a moment, even in this narrative, with a reluctant hand, and dropped it gladly.
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Mr. Murdstone Quotes in David Copperfield
The David Copperfield quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Murdstone or refer to Mr. Murdstone . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8
Quotes
Ah, what a strange feeling it was to be going home when it was not home, and to find that every object I looked at, reminded me of the happy old home, which was like a dream I could never dream again! The days when my mother and I and Peggotty were all in all to one another, and there was no one to come between us, rose up before me so sorrowfully on the road, that I am not sure I was glad to be there.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14
Quotes
The two things clearest in my mind were, that a remoteness had come upon the old Blunderstone life—which seemed to lie in the haze of an immeasurable distance; and that a curtain had for ever fallen on my life at Murdstone and Grinby's. No one has ever raised that curtain since. I have lifted it for a moment, even in this narrative, with a reluctant hand, and dropped it gladly.
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