Why was Aunt Betsey disappointed at the birth of the narrator?
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Answer:
Betsey Trotwood is David Copperfield’s father’s aunt. This ”formidable person” is a sharp-tongued, rigid widow who thinks highly of her own opinions. Miss Betsey’s strength of character is shown when she pays her husband, who physically abused her, to leave and go to India, where he dies. After that, she re-takes her maiden name and calls herself single rather than widowed.
Miss Betsey is doubly disappointed. First, she disapproved of her nephew’s marriage without ever having met his bride, because she believed her to be too young and insipid (“a wax doll”). She became estranged from her nephew and only meets his wife after he dies and right before David was born. She arrives unannounced at their home one day and continually criticizes Mrs. Copperfield. Aunt Betsey decides that the baby will be a girl and declares that she will be her namesake. She expects to make the baby’s life easier than her own life has been.