Summary Chapter 48




David finishes writing his book to great acclaim, persuading him to give up reporting on parliamentary debates.

The housekeeping situation hasn’t improved however. Indeed, it seems to have gotten worse what with the page who is constantly at knife’s point with the cook and who makes it impossible for David to fire him. For one thing, the page is a mere boy, who has no one to rely on. (His one and only relative, his sister, has left for America as if only too glad to get her brother off of her hands.) Then, when David has every reason to fire him (the page had stolen Dora’s watch), the page goes out of his way to ingratiate himself to the Copperfields by informing on the peccadilloes of his fellow house servants. Eventually, the page himself gets sent away to prison (no doubt the other servants tattled on him).

The episode leaves such a bad taste in David’s mouth that he tries to “form Dora’s mind” anew so as to set an example to the servants and prevent them from taking advantage of the Copperfields. David goes to the extent of edifying Traddles when Traddles visits, which is often, with the hope that Traddles’ adaptability would rub off on Dora. It’s all for naught, however, prompting David to apologize to Dora and to promise her that he won’t ever try to reform her again.

Thus, Dora becomes her happy self again, and yet David notices that Dora has lost the vitality of her youth. In fact, Dora becomes sluggish and infirm to the extent David has to carry her when ascending or descending the stairs. Almost simultaneously, Dora’s pet Jip loses its vitality, and when Dora laments the fact, David’s aunt attributes it to age and reminds Dora that all creatures will diminish with age.



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