IMPACT: International Journal of Research in

Humanities, Arts and Literature (IMPACT: IJRHAL)

ISSN (P): 2347–4564; ISSN (E): 2321–8878
Vol. 10, Issue 9, Sep 2022, 23–34
© Impact Journals

INSTABILITY OF MOTHER-SON RELATIONSHIP IN CHARLES DICKENS’ NOVEL

DAVID COPPERFIELD

Dr. Farah Abdul-Jabbar Al Manaseer1 & Aysar Basheer Hasan Radhi2

1
Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, College of Arts, Al-Mustansiriyah University,
Baghdad, Iraq
2
M.A Student, Department of English Language and Literature, College of Arts, Al-Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq

Received: 13 Sep 2022 Accepted: 17 Sep 2022 Published: 19 Sep 2022

ABSTRACT

Dealing with motherhood issue is considered a controversial one since building a child identity and preparing him/her to
be a good and successful person depends mostly on the relationship between the child and the mother. Though different
studies tackled toxic, good, stable etc. Mother-son relationships; still there is more can carried out to explore instability in
mother-son relationship. This article intends to investigate instability in mother-son relationship in Charles Dickens’ novel
“The Personal Life of David Copperfield”. The Data involves certain extracts representing David’s relationship with his
mother Clara Copperfield. The article aims to identify how David’s instable relationship with his mother is portrayed and
point out the difference emotional reflections drawn in David’s mind concerning his mother. The data is analyzed
qualitatively through a content analysis approach following Austin’s (1962) and Searle’s (1979) models of speech acts
theory. The article concludes that Dickens relies on three types of speech acts including the representatives, directives and
expressives to portray the instability of mother-son relationship in the novel. David has instable relationship with his
mother due to her weak and irresponsible personality. Another point is that David’s mother attitudes towards her son have
changed completely after her marriage to Mr. Murdstone and this reflects the bad influence of her husband.

KEYWORDS: Instability, Motherhood, Mother-Son Relationship, Novel, Speech Acts

INTRODUCTION

Throughout the history, mothers have occupied a contradictory space in literature. Poets, novelist and play writers
employed the concept of mother and motherhood in their writings. As a subject and thematic concern, motherhood needs to
be approached by scholars as an institution, an ideology and as lived experience. Portraying mother in literature is
symbolic of how she is understood in society. Novels, like the personal history of David Copperfield, paints a picture of
the types of the relationships holding between a mother and her son. David Copperfield is chosen because it provides a
range of mother-son relationship and a division in the relation compared to the duration when his mother was a widow and
when she got married. In literature, mother is the character that remains present whether as a direct role in, or absence
from, the individual's life. Thus, she has always been the source of struggle, given the fact that her relation to the individual
struggle continues. This paper intends to answer two questions:

• How does David Copperfield portray his instable relationship with his mother?

• What are the emotional reflections drawn in David’s mind concerning his relation with his mother?

Impact Factor(JCC): 6.5423 – This article can be downloaded from www.impactjournals.us

 24 Dr. Farah Abdul-Jabbar Al Manaseer & Aysar Basheer Hasan Radhi

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Motherhood from a Literary Perspective

The common definition of motherhood is a woman who gives birth or is responsible for the physical and emotional well-
being of a kid. On the other hand, a mother figure is defined as a male or a female having the role of a mother and being
the person, a child can turn to for help, advice, or support (Collins, 1999).

The concept of Motherhood is sought and claimed by the majority of women (Kelly, 2009). The term might refer
to women who have children, but there is another way to conceptualize motherhood. It is the experiences that can be
undergone by a childless female or male on equal footing (Arendell, 2000). Thus, gendered connotations of the word
mother need to be removed from this term (Ribbens-McCarthy & Edward, 2011)

Hetherington (1998) suggests that during childhood, individuals build their understanding of the world in respect
to their gender identity, their class status and their race either plainly or ambiguously. During such period, a personality is
built due to the interaction that is taken place between powerless children and adults. Moreover, Bird (1989) believes that
mother as a human being and motherhood as a perspective indicate two contradicted meanings that are built into a mother
in cultural history: the bad mother who destructs and the good mother who raises and nurture. Such types of mothers
prevail in mother representations in our community.

In literature, mother is the character that remains present whether as a direct role in, or absence from, the
individual's life. Thus, she has always been the source of struggle, given the fact that her relation to the individual struggle
continues. The mother's role is regarded as the source that uncovers something built in the individual personality (Burks,
2013). Portraying mother in literature is symbolic of how she is understood in society. Novels, like “the personal history of
David Copperfield”, paints a picture of the mother-son relationship.

Mother-Child / Mother-Son Relationship

Parents play a vital role in their children’s life. They are the source of support, guidance, and love. Family is where life
begins and love never ends. No matter how old a child gets there’s nothing more comforting and soothing than their
parent's arms. The role of parents in a child’s life is beyond the idea of prompting. Parenting takes action long before a
child’s birth and eventually parents become their children’s alter ego and vice-versa. There is nobody like them who can
shape a child’s behavior and development. (cuemath.com)parents/

However, literature presents different examples of mother-child /mother-son / mother-daughter relationships

which can be described as either inspiring or disappointing and this depends on the mother personality. As far as this paper
is concerned, the focus is on mother-son relationship in which his mother Clara Copperfield caused emotional pain rather
than support specially after her marriage to Mr. Murdstone. She subconsciously taught David to become weak and naïve.
Clara was strongly controlled by Mr. Murdstone and inhered this feature of weakness to David. David was also tricked and
taken advantage of by many adults because of his superficial lifestyle with Clara. Clara received a fortune from her dead
husband and had no reason to work, and thus taught David laziness. She didn’t prepare for him the real (familycetic.net).
This paper is intended to explore David’s relationship with his mother before her marriage and after her marriage.

NAAS Rating: 3.10 – Articles can be sent to [email protected]

 Instability of Mother-Son Relationship in Charles Dickens’ Novel David Copperfield 25

Speech Acts Theory

People use language in different situations such as greeting, requesting, ordering, etc. These acts are known ‘speech acts’
and are made in speech (Sadock, 2006). According to Wales (1989), they are closely related to pragmatics as the Greek
origin of (pragma) means; an act or an activity or a deed. Speech acts constitute an integral part of pragmatics. When a
speaker says an utterance, there is an aim or a message expressed through words or phrases which are related to the action
by the produced utterances. One can carry out an action by producing an utterance (e.g., word, phrase, sentence). A number
of scholars have developed their theories in this field. Speech act theory deals with the way words are utilized to provide
information and to implement actions (Kemmerling, 2002).

According to Crystal (2003), speech acts determine the role of an utterance with regards to the behavior of both
the addresser and the addressee during an interpersonal communication. Bachman (1990, p.5) states that speech act theory
studies utterances not sentences. An utterance is an expression that is uttered by a speaker in the presence of a hearer
(addressee) in order to communicate a certain message. An example of an utterance is: “Hello!”.

Speech act theory shows the suitable balance between convention and intention (Nunan, 1993). It is important to
differentiate between intentional and conventional speech acts. Intentional speech act deals with the intended meaning of
the speaker and not the convention that force him to future acts. On the other hand, conventional speech acts are almost
influenced by the circumstances where speech acts take place (Adams, 1985). Normally, speakers utilize language to make
different speech acts such as: statements, questions, commands and exclamations. One can also use other forms of speech
acts such as threats, apologies or promises.

Allot (2010, p.2) suggests two kinds of utterances. The first is constative utterances. These utterances have truth-
values. To elaborate, such utterances can be either true or false, they can be made sure of and tell something about a state
of affairs. Examples of constative utterance are; “Warsaw is bigger than New York” and “There are seven students in this
classroom” (Allot, 2010). The second is performative utterances. The utterances of this kind are neither true nor false.
They can be appropriate or inappropriate and this depends on certain conditions such as, ‘conditions of felicity’ “Shut up”
and “get out of here at once” (Austin, 1962, p.305).

Felicity conditions identify the circumstances under which the speaker’s utterance is appropriate. These
circumstances include but not limited to: time, place, and the right person etc. Thus, if a performative sentence satisfies the
felicity conditions, then the utterance is felicitous and vice versa. Not a lot has been told about the state of affairs. Instead,
they do something; they are used in the performance of certain actions (Bach & Harnish, 1979). In addition, Yule (1996)
stresses that these utterances can be either explicit or primary. On one hand, explicit performative includes a performative
clause which is the main clause of the utterance as in : I ask, order, ask you, etc. On the other hand, primary performative
does not include a performative clause as part of its structure. Rather, primary performative can be construed as if it is
implicit in the meaning as in, “Shut up and get out of here at once” (Yule, 1996, p.2). Another difference is set by Austin
(1962) including ‘explicit performatives’ and ‘implicit performatives. Explicit category comprises cases such as; “I
promise I will take the trash out” and “I will be there at two o’clock”. Implicit category includes cases such as the
following examples: “I am sorry I stepped on your toe” and “I will be sure to take out the trash”.

Austin (1962) indicates that “explicit performatives include some highly significant and clear expressions such as
‘I bet’ and ‘I promise’”. The explicit performative is an expression used often to name the act, an example is the utterance

Impact Factor(JCC): 6.5423 – This article can be downloaded from www.impactjournals.us

 26 Dr. Farah Abdul-Jabbar Al Manaseer & Aysar Basheer Hasan Radhi

“I am performing”. Other examples of explicit performatives are betting, promising, bequeathing. The same applies to the
explicitly performative commands such as “Close the window!” and “I order you to close the window”. Therefore,
according to the theory of speech act, there are many things that speakers could do by saying words and sentences. Making
statements of fact or assertion is an example. One can also make a guess, ask questions, make promises, place bets, take
marriage vows, give orders, make requests and so on (Allot, 2010).

Based on the utterance forces, Austin (1962) distinguishes three types of speech. They are locutionary,
illocutionary and perlocutionary acts. He infers that a locutionary act represents the literal meaning of an utterance. To
elaborate, a locutionary act refers to the production of a linguistic utterance that carry meaning. Allot (2010) points out this
act is a basic-level of uttering a word, a phrase or a larger unit with a certain reference. This can also be divided into three
components. First is a phonic, the act of producing particular speech sounds. Second is a phatic act, the act of producing
certain utterances (words and phrases). Third is a rhotic act, the intention of referring to particular entities. The three
mentioned components are related to the traditional three-way division in linguistics; phonetics/ phonology, syntax and
semantics.

The second type of acts is the illocutionary act. According to Leech (1983), it is the act of uttering which is
“committed with the intends of the speaker by uttering a sentence”,. Examples of this type of act are ask, state, question,
promise, order, apologize, threaten, and request. Tsui (1994) believes that an illocutionary act is shown by confirming that
“by saying something, one does something”. An example is a minister who attends the wedding of a couple. Austin (1975,
p. 14) highlighted that “an illocutionary act is an act for: the performance of which makes it clear to some other person that
the act is performed, and the performance involves the production of what Austin calls ‘conventional consequences’ such
as rights, commitments, or obligations”. Vershueren (1999) adds that on the addressee, the illocutionary acts are tied with
physical or psychological effects called ‘perlocutions’.

The perlocutionary act, according to Austin (1962), is “the expected effect on the hearer by uttering the sentence”
(p.150). By saying something, the addresser assumes the addressee would be affected. Accordingly, the conditions for a
successful perlocutionary act require involving both what an addresser utters and the effect of his/her utterance on the
addressee. An example is when one utters: “Where’s your necklace?”, a quick reaction would be touching the neck or may
respond with something like “Oh, I put it in the drawer” (Wardhaugh, 1976).

To clarify the difference between the three acts (locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts), the example
“You can’t go there” is taken into consideration. The locutionary act is represented through the meaning “you can’t do it”,
which is giving a warning: “I warn you not to go there”. On the other hand, the perlocutionary act can be represented by
the impact of this utterance on the listener or the receiver; “there may be dangerous to go there” (Kratzer, 1991). Finally,
speech act is viewed as a communicative activity (locutionary act), explained by its reference to the speaker’s intended
meanings (the illocutionary force of their utterances) and the effect they realize on the hearers (the perlocutionary effect of
the utterance) (Crystal, 2008). Austin (1962) supports the notion that by means of speech acts, one can communicate
physical action via words and phrases only. He classified speech acts into three categories. They are:

• Locutionary speech act: it is the act of saying something. It includes a statement or information while
communicating with others. Thus, the utterance only has one meaning.

NAAS Rating: 3.10 – Articles can be sent to [email protected]

 Instability of Mother-Son Relationship in Charles Dickens’ Novel David Copperfield 27

• Illocutionary speech act: it is the act where one says something to communicate something such as request or
advice.

• Perlocutionary act: it is the impact of a certain saying on the speaker. The two examples above is considered
perlocutionary act if the speaker says them while doing the implied need i.e. switching on the air conditioner in
the first example and trying to open the door in the second example.

Austin (1962) draws a distinction between five categories by means of which all performative speech acts could
be divided as per the purpose which the act of uttering achieves. Austin’s (1962, p.) classification is an attempt to provide a
general picture of illocutionary acts: what illocutionary act types someone can perform in saying a word or larger units
(phrase, sentence).

• Verdictives: they provide verdicts. A typical example of such kind of utterances is a court sentence or a referee
decision in a match.

• Exercitives: they reflect the act of showing power and authority. A typical example is to order, to appoint or to
dismiss.

• Commissives: they are the acts that show the speaker’s commitments to undertake or carry out an action.
Promises are an example of commissive.

• Behabitives: as the name suggest, this category is related to behaviors. Examples of such kind of speech acts are
cursing, insulting, and greeting. Austin believes that this category may vary due to sociality attitudes.

• Expositives: these acts clarify how utterance should be comprehended. Swearing or guaranteeing are examples of
such kind of acts

This, in turn opens controversy among other scholars such as Grice, Searle and Vanlmiron who contribute to
strengthen Austin's theory and make broader and inclusive of other concepts like that of pragmatically based intentionality.
(Austin, 1962, p.3; 1975, p.1). The speech act theory was developed in 1969 by one of Austin’s students named John R.
Searle. It is a theory of the constitutive rules for carrying out illocutionary acts. These rules were categorized into four
groups. The first group of rules is propositional content. Such rules placed norms on the propositional content of certain
illocutionary acts. The second is preparatory rules. These rules show the implication of the performer when performing
illocutionary acts. The third is sincerity rules; they show the psychology of the performer. The fourth is essential rule;
which indicates what the action consists is essential. These four rules are built on a relationship between two important
aspects and Searle is the one who set the association among intentionality and social, and institutional and intersubjective
views with regards to the communicated meaning.

METHODOLOGY

A. Research Design

This paper is carried out through the mixed research method approach. Extracts from the original novel are selected to be
the data under investigation. Three extracts are selected to represent David’s relation with his mother before and after her
marriage to Mr. Murdstone. The analysis followed Autin’s (1962) and Searle’s (1979) models of speech acts theory.

Impact Factor(JCC): 6.5423 – This article can be downloaded from www.impactjournals.us

 28 Dr. Farah Abdul-Jabbar Al Manaseer & Aysar Basheer Hasan Radhi

B. Analysis and Discussion

Analysis of Extract (1)

“There is no Peggotty now, as in the old time. Again, I listen to Miss Murdstone mumbling the
responses, and emphasizing all the dread words with a cruel relish. Again, I see her dark eyes roll round the
church when she says ‘miserable sinners’, as if she were calling all the congregation names. Again, I catch rare
glimpses of my mother, moving her lips timidly between the two, with one of them muttering at each ear like low
thunder. Again, I wonder with a sudden fear whether it is likely that our good old clergyman can be wrong, and
Mr. and Miss Murdstone right, and that all the angels in Heaven can be destroying angels. Again, if I move a
finger or relax a muscle of my face, Miss Murdstone pokes me with her prayer-book, and makes my side ache.”

(Dickens, 1849, p.55)

This extract is taken from chapter four which is entitled “I Fall into Disgrace” and this chapter presents David’s
unhappiness. The extract takes place when David’s mother accuses Peggotty of spoiling her child and makes him hates her
and her new husband Mr. Murdstone who later threatens to hurt David for not respecting his mother as she holds his name.

The extract begins with the utterance “there is no Peggotty now, as in the old time” in which David is talking
about what happened between his nanny and his mother. He starts with an existential statement including negation through
using the negation word ‘no’ followed by the name ‘Peggotty’ and the contradictory time deixis ‘now’ and ‘as in old
times’. David is affirming that his situation has changed and his relationship with Peggotty is no more like before”. The
representative speech act of confirmation to indicate that David is aware that his life after his mother’s marriage has
changed totally. The second utterance “again ,I listen to Miss Murdstone mumbling the responses, and emphasizing all the
dread words with a cruel relish” implies a representative speech act in which David confirms that he listens to his mother
which he called Miss. Murdstone to indicate that he is no longer feels that she is his mother rather the wife of another
person. The use of the verb ‘emphasizing’ confirms the change in his mother and how she became cruel towards him as
well as Peggotty.

The utterance “again, I see her dark eyes roll round the church when she says ‘miserable sinners’, as if she were
calling all the congregation names.”, includes a representative speech act of asserting presented through the verbs ‘see’,
‘says’ and ‘calling’. David describes clearly his mother impressions and words against him and his nanny. David gives
more and more examples of how his life has really changed and he is falling into disgrace as a result of his mother
marriage. David in the utterance, “again, I catch rare glimpses of my mother, moving her lips timidly between the two,
with one of them muttering at each ear like low thunder”is using a representative speech act of asserting. The use of
different assertive verbs including ‘catch’ , ‘moving’ and ‘muttering’ represent David’s assertion of his mother’s change
and how she speaks describing her words as ‘low thunder’ . The utterance, “Again, I wonder with a sudden fear whether it
is likely that our good old clergyman can be wrong and Mr. and Miss Murdstone are right”, implies a representative
speech act in which David is arguing about old situation and the current one in his life. He uses the personal pronoun with
the verb ‘wonder’ to state that he is now confused and believes that Mr. and Miss Murdstone opinions about him are
correct.

NAAS Rating: 3.10 – Articles can be sent to [email protected]

 Instability of Mother-Son Relationship in Charles Dickens’ Novel David Copperfield 29

The last utterance, “Again, If I move a finger or relax a muscle of my face, Miss Murdstone pokes me with her
prayer-book, and makes my side ache” implies a representative speech act of assuring through the use of the verbs ‘move’ ,
‘relax’ , ‘pokes’ and ‘makes’. The utterance includes a conditional clause to confirm the stimulus-response of David and
Mr. Murdstone’s actions. In other words, he points out that he is now aware of the fact that if he moves a finger, Miss.
Murdstone would hurt him with her prayer-book. Finally, the extract involved the use of the hedging device ‘again’ for
five times to confirm that his mother has changed towards him after being Miss. Murdstone. The table below shows the
frequency and percentage of the illocutionary speech acts in the extract:

Table 1: The Breakdown of Illocutionary Speech Acts and their Frequency in Extract (1)
Illocutionary Speech Act Type of Speech Act Frequency Percentage
Asserting Representative 2 33.3%
Confirming Representative 2 33.3%
Arguing Representative 1 16.7%
Assuring Representative 1 16.7%
Total 6 100%

Analysis of Extract (2)

“No Peggotty,’ returned my mother, ‘but you insinuated. That’s what I told you just now. That’s the
worst of you. You WILL insinuate. I said, at the moment, that I understood you, and you see I did. When you talk
of Mr. Murdstone’s good intentions, and pretend to slight them (for I don’t believe you really do, in your heart,
Peggotty), you must be as well convinced as I am how good they are, and how they actuate him in everything. If
he seems to have been at all stern with a certain person, Peggotty—you understand, and so I am sure does Davy,
that I am not alluding to anybody present—it is solely because he is satisfied that it is for a certain person’s
benefit. He naturally loves a certain person, on my account; and acts solely for a certain person’s good. 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 that he is a
firm, grave, serious man. And he takes,’ said my mother, with the tears which were engendered in her affectionate
nature, stealing down her face, ‘he takes great pains with me; and I ought to be very thankful to him, and very
submissive to him even in my thoughts; and when I am not, Peggotty, I worry and condemn myself, and feel
doubtful of my own heart, and don’t know what to do.”

(Dickens, 1849, p.121)

In chapter eight, the main focus is on the fact that David deeply torn between his love for his mother and the
desire to be near her, and his hatred towards for Mr. Murdstone.

In this extract, it is evident that Mr. Murdstone completely dominate David’s mother (Clara) and have such
control over her that she ends up defending the Murdstone. An argument is taking place between David’s mother and
Peggotty. David in the utterance, “When you talk of Mr. Murdstone’s good intentions, and pretend to slight them (for I
don’t believe you really do, in your heart, Peggotty), you must be as well convinced as I am how good they are, and how
they actuate him in everything” is talking about his mother behavior towards Peggotty and how she defends Mr.
Murdstone. The utterance includes a directive speech act of urging in which that David’s mother talks to Peggotty urging
her to talk about the Murdstone in a different way. Then, in the same utterance, there is a representative speech act of
confirming through the modal verb ‘must’ and the comparative through the expression ‘you must be as convinced as I am’.

Impact Factor(JCC): 6.5423 – This article can be downloaded from www.impactjournals.us

 30 Dr. Farah Abdul-Jabbar Al Manaseer & Aysar Basheer Hasan Radhi

This utternace confirms that David’s mother has changed totally after her marriage to Mr. Murdstone to the point that she
is defending him and confirming the point that he is a good person despite his bad treatment to her son David.

The utterance “If he seems to have been at all stern with a certain person, Peggotty – you understand, and so I am
sure dose Davy, that I am not alluding to anybody present – it is solely because he is satisfied that it is for a certain
person’s benefit.”, presents a representative speech act of asserting. David’s mother asserts her attitude towards
Murdstone. Clara thinks that the way Murdstone behave towards David is for David’s benefit. As for the utterance “He
naturally loves a certain person, on my account; and acts solely for a certain person’s good” involves an expressive
speech act of praising in which Clara is praising Mr. Murdstone. The utterance “He is better able to judge of it than I am;
for I very well Know that I am a week, light, girlish creature, and that he is a firm, grave, serious man”. David’s mother
uses the expressive speech act of praising as she praised Murdstone and states many qualities. In the last utterance of this
extract, David’s mother makes a confession through the representative of admitting that Mr. Murdstone is the right and
most suitable person for her and for her family as well. The utterance “And he takes, said my mother, with the tears which
were engendered in her affectionate nature, stealing down her face ‘he takes great pains with me;” includes a
representative speech act of asserting in which David points out clearly that his is asserting the point that she and
Mr.Murdstone are the best couple since he can feels her and her pain.

Finally, the utterance, “and I ought to be very thankful to him, and very submissive to him even in my thoughts;
and when I am not, Peggotty, I worry and condemn myself, and feel doubtful of my own heart, and don’t know what to do”
presents a directive speech act of advising in which David’s mother advices him to be thankful for Mr.Murtdstone for all
his good deeds which she is totally convinced in. Moreover, the utterance includes another expressive speech act of
condemning because David states that is he is not going to follow his mother advice both he and Peggotty would worry and
feel lost cause his mother role as a director to his actions are no more trusted. Having analyzed the extract qualitatively
through content analysis, the frequency and percentage of the different speech acts identified are given in the table below:

Table 2: The Breakdown of Illocutionary Speech Acts and Their Frequency of Extract (2)
Illocutionary Speech Act Type of Speech Act Frequency Percentage
Arguing Representative 1 12.5%
Advising Directive 1 12.5%
Confirming Representative 1 12.5%
Asserting Representative 2 25%
Condemning Representative 1 12.5%
Praising Expressive 2 25%
Total 8 100%

Analysis of Extract (3)

“I made out, without much difficulty, that she could not take quite kindly to my aunt yet. The notice was
too short after so long a prepossession the other way. We never knew a person, she wrote; but to think that Miss
Betsey should seem to be so different from what she had been thought to be, was a Moral!—that was her word.
She was evidently still afraid of Miss Betsey, for she sent her grateful duty to her but timidly; and she was
evidently afraid of me, too, and entertained the probability of my running away again soon: if I might judge from
the repeated hints she threw out, that the coach-fare to Yarmouth was always to be had of her for the asking. She
gave me one piece of intelligence which affected me very much, namely, that there had been a sale of the

NAAS Rating: 3.10 – Articles can be sent to [email protected]

 Instability of Mother-Son Relationship in Charles Dickens’ Novel David Copperfield 31

furniture at our old home, and that Mr. and Miss Murdstone were gone away, and the house was shut up, to be let
or sold. God knows I had no part in it while they remained there, but it pained me to think of the dear old place as
altogether abandoned; of the weeds growing tall in the garden, and the fallen leaves lying thick and wet upon the
paths.”

(Dickens, 1849, p.264)

In chapter (17) David writes to Peggotty several times to inform her that he has been taken by his aunt and that he
has started school with Doctor Strong. Peggotty writes back to David, and her letter is splotched with tears on David’s
behalf and she tells him that if he needs to run away again, he can come to Yarmouth.

In this extract, the utterance “I made out, without much difficulty that she could not take quite kindly to my aunt
yet.” implies a representative speech act of predicting in which David predicts Peggotty’s feelings towards his aunt. He
clarifies that she could not be a friend of her yet. He is talking about both mother figures in his life (his aunt and his
nanny). David uses the representative speech act of stating in which the utterance “The notice was too short after so long a
prepossession the other way.”, points out David’s disappointment about the length of the message received from Peggotty
in comparison with the long time they did not see each other. The utterance, “We never knew a person, she wrote; but to
think that Miss Betsey should seem to be so different from what she had been thought to be, was a Moral!-that was her
word.” includes Peggotty’s words about Miss. Betsey and the regret she feels for misjudging her. David uses the
representative speech act of reporting Peggotty’s words. In the utterance, “She was evidently still afraid of Miss Betsey, for
she her grateful duty to her but timidly ‘and she was evidently afraid of me, too, “David uses the representative speech act of
confirming through using the word ‘evidently’ twice and the focus on pointing out that Peggotty’s feeling resulted from being
afraid of Miss. Betsey as remembers her in her old personality. Moreover, he confirms that she was afraid that David would
not be able to live with his aunt and she kept telling him that he can come to Yarmouth whenever he wants to run away.

Finally, the utterance “ and entertained the probability of my running away again soon: if I might judge from the
repeated hints she threw out, that the coach-fare to Yarmouth was always to be had of her for the asking.”, David uses the
representative speech act of reporting Peggotty’s feelings towards both David and his aunt. Moreover, the utterance involves a
representative speech act of suggesting in which Peggotty is still not aware of the type of the relationship between David and
his aunt and therefore, she keeps offering support to David and tells him that he can come to Yarmouth if he wants to run
away from his aunt. In addition, the utterance, “She gave me one piece of intelligence which affected me very much, namely,
that there had been a sale of the furniture at our old home, and Mr. and Miss. Murdstone were gone away, and the house was
shut up , to be let or sold” involves a representative speech act of informing in which Peggotty has told David that his mother
and her husband sold the furniture and the house. The verbs ‘gave’ , ‘affected’ , ‘ shut up’ , ‘let, ‘sold’ provide details
concerning what happened to his family house. Peggotty informs David about all the details concerning his mother and his old
house and this implies the point that he has no one to support him and take care of him except her.

Finally, the utterance, “God knows I had no part in it while they remained there, but it pained me to think of the
dear old place as altogether abandoned ; of the weeds growing tall in the garden, and the fallen leaves lying thick and wet
upon the paths.”, involves a directive speech act of telling details about his feelings towards his old house and his
memories about that house which he did not spend long time in it but he got lots of memories about the place. The use of
the verbs ‘ pained’ , ‘ think’ , ‘ abandoned’ , ‘growing’ , and ‘lying’ express clearly David’s feelings about the news which

Impact Factor(JCC): 6.5423 – This article can be downloaded from www.impactjournals.us

 32 Dr. Farah Abdul-Jabbar Al Manaseer & Aysar Basheer Hasan Radhi

Peggotty told him. He, as a narrator shared his feelings with the readers as far as his childhood memories which he has just
know that all vanished and abandoned. The table below includes the frequency of the speech acts in the extract:

Table 3: The Breakdown of Illocutionary Speech Acts and Their Frequency of Extract (3)
Illocutionary Speech Act Type of Speech Act Frequency Percentage
Predicting Representative 1 11.1
Stating Representative 1 11.1
Reporting Representative 3 33.3
Confirming Representative 1 11.1
Suggesting Representative 1 11.1
Informing Representative 1 11.1
Telling Directive 1 11.1
Total 9 100

CONCLUSIONS

Having analyzing extracts related to the relationship holding between David and his mother Clara, the findings point out
that, their relation is instable in which Clara is not performing her roles are usual mothers. Before her marriage she offers
his love but not support and care because she was young and inexperienced concerning children. This is portrayed clearly
by David when he tries to remember the good days he spent with his mother. His relationship with his mother gets worse
when she gets married to Mr. Murdstone and his effect upon her life and her relationship with her son. She becomes hard
and uncaring when her husband punishes her son and kicks his away from her. The instable relationship is presented
through using different types of speech acts to portray the relationship between David and his mother. Basically, he relied
on three types of speech acts involved representative, directives and expressives and identified through the illocutionary
acts of (arguing, assuring, confirming, asserting, presenting, stating, telling , informing, praising, advising, condemning ,
reporting and predicting. Each illocutionary act draw a lar cut line in the mother-son relationship. David was sure that the
appearance of Mr. Murdstone in his life a truing point in his relation with mother. Emotionally, after all the suffering he
got for Mr. Murdstone, he still has his own memories about his mother and their old house.

REFERENCES

1. Adams, J. (1985) Pragmatics and Fiction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins publishing Co.

2. Allot, N. (2010). Key Terms in Pragmatics. UK, London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

3. Arendell, T. (2000). Conceiving and investigating motherhood: The decade's scholarship. Journal of marriage
and family, 62(4), 1192-1207.

4. Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

5. Austin, J. L. (1975). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford university press.

6. Bachman, L. F. (1990). Fundamental considerations in language testing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

7. Bird, D. (1989). 'Mother, I won't never go drovin'': motherhood in Australian narrative. Westerly, 34(4), 41-50.

8. Burks, B. (2013). The Source of Desire: The Mother In Three Twentieth Century Novels (Published Master thesis,
University of Dayton, Ohio, USA).
https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_etd/send_file/send?accession=dayton1366636032&disposition=inline.

NAAS Rating: 3.10 – Articles can be sent to [email protected]

Instability of Mother-Son Relationship in Charles Dickens’ Novel David Copperfield 33

9. Collins & Philip. (1999). “Dickens and David and Pip: Selves More Or Less at Risk.” In M. G. Gurdrun & S.
Bahn Coblans (Eds.). The Self at Risk in English Literatures and Other Landscapes (pp. 187192). Innsbruck,
Austria: Institut für Sprachwissens chaft, Universität Innsbruck.

10. Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language (2nd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486999.

11. Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th Ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444302776.

12. Dickens, C. (1849). The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the
Younger of Blunderstone Rookery, (Which He never meant to be Published on any Account). New York: New
American Library.

13. Hetherington, P. (1998). The sound of one hand smacking: History, feminism and childhood. Journal of
Australian Studies, 22(59), 2-7.

14. Kelly, M. (2009). Women's voluntary childlessness: a radical rejection of motherhood?. Women's Studies
Quarterly, 37(3/4), 157-172.

15. Kemmerling, A. (2002). Speech acts, minds and social reality: Discussions with John R. Searle. Expressing an
intentional state. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 79, 83-86.

16. Kratzer, A. (1991). Modality. In A. v. Stechow & D. Wunderlich (Eds.). Semantics: An international handbook of
contemporary research (pp. 639-650). Berlin: de Gruyter.

17. Leech, G. N. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.

18. McCarthy Ribbens, J., & Edwards, R. (2011). Key concepts in family studies. London, SAGE Publications Ltd.
https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446250990.

19. Nunan, D. (1993). Introducing discourse analysis. London: Penguin Group.

20. Sadock, J. (2006). Ch. 3: Speech Acts. In The Handbook of Pragmatics (pp. 53-73). Malden: Blackwell Publishing
Ltd.http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470756959.ch3

21. Searle, J. R. (1979). A taxonomy of illocutionary acts. Expression and meaning: Studies in the theory of speech
acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

22. Tsui, A. B. (1994). English conversation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

23. Verschueren, J. (1999). Understanding pragmatics. London: Arnold; New York: Oxford University Press.

24. Wales, K. (2001). A Dictionary of Stylistics. London: Longman.

25. Wardhaugh, R. (1976). The contexts of language. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers.

26. Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford. Oxford University Press.

Impact Factor(JCC): 6.5423 – This article can be downloaded from www.impactjournals.us