The past in David Copperfield

Time obviously plays aa large part in Davic Copperfield, as an autobiographical novel relies on memory. It’s a writen memory in a double sens, the writen memory of the character called David & the fictionnal transmutation of Dickens’s memory. The narrative covers a period of time which starts with David’s birth and ends with his personnal & professional success.
This narrative thus constantly moves from the past to the present and from the present to the past. The vision of the past and the remembering consciousness are unifying factors but also a choice of ambivalence.
The different aspects of the past in David Copperfield concern nostalgy, repetition & double consciousness.

1) Nostalgy

The past in the novel is shown as prevailing over the present. Childhood is idealized and arrouses nostalgy in the narrator.

a. A timeless world

He calls up a remote time and he tries to bring back to his consiousness the earliest memories of his childhood. Chapter 2 “ I think the memory...”. Such memories are situated in a sort of timeless Eden, as the child has no consciousness of past, prsent or future. He lives with his mother in an eternal present. In chapter 2 we can see that all seasons are in the same time.
Besides the use of the present time in this episode shows that time is suspended.

b. The early childhood idyll

The successful description of past time is due to keen observation & fanciful imagination. The narrator himself claims such talents. Chapter 2 “I believe the power of observation...”
The narrator makes use of hyperboles to describe the wonderful scenery of the garden. The fruit is “riper & richer than fruit has ever been since”. The image associated with is engraved in his memory. So, when she dies this image supersedes (=supplanter) other images & when he relates such scenes this image has even more reality that the present in his mind: “as distinct in my mind as any face I may chose to look at now”.