Compare and contrast agnes and dora in david copperfield
Answers
But he loved Dora from the starting as lover.
Agnes was well versed in almost everything
But Dora was not able to do many things
In David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Dora and Agnes are two different figures. Wherein, Dora represents the idealized figure of women beauty and Agnes represents the practical beauty.
Dora was David's first wife, being angelic she was young, pretty, helpless and cheerful. She was so young that she could not bear childbirth and merely being a doll more than being a woman. As David's describe her:
"She was more than human to me. She was a Fairy, a Sylph, I don't know what she was- anything that no one ever saw, and everything that everybody ever wanted. I was swallowed up in an abyss of love in an instant."
The description clearly depicts the physical attraction of David towards Dora. Dora's strengths were her beauty and youth which didn't last. She lost them by dying young.
After Dora's death David married for a second time to someone who more practical and sane, Agnes. She was intellectual and simple and kind. David more than beauty was attracted to her personality. David still take time to realizes that she was the one for her,
"I see her, with her modest, orderly, placid manner, and I hear her beautiful calm voice, as I write these words. The influence for all good, which she came to exercise over me at a later time, begins already to descend upon my breast."
Therefore, for the second time when he marries, that is his correct decision. Therefore, it depicts the difference between Dora and agnes that dora being the epitome of beauty, lasted not much. Beauty fades with time whereas, practicality and intelligence stay lifetime.