Identity & Literature: David Copperfield & The Cruelty of Class

Beyond income brackets and net worth, the concept of class eludes Americans. We recognize that two people with identical tax returns may have different lifestyles, but class envy in America zeroes in on finances. In Europe, and Britain in particular, class is a different beast.

Dickens, who himself ascended out of lower-class poverty, prods at class dynamics in all his novels. He never has much esteem for upper class snobbery and the art of stepping on necks to get there.

The trouble with building an identity around class-climbing, whether financial or otherwise, is that its currency is exclusion. Obsessing over class means obsessing over being better than. The spiritually corrosive element of class-identity comes in its competitive, even spiteful spirit. It’s impossible to pursue class-climbing without developing a disdain for those you’re trying to leave behind.

One of the catalytic events in Copperfield comes when one of David’s friends, the high-born James Steerforth, runs away with Emily, the low class fiancé of another of David’s friends, Ham Peggotty. The cruelty of class identity breaks out out in multiple directions.

Case Studies in the Cruelty of Class:

James Steerforth

James’ insecure sense of superiority drives him to steal Emily. He meets this attractive but shy girl through their mutual friendship with Copperfield. Like King David with Uriah’s wife, James can’t stand that someone “lower” than him (Ham) would have something he might want. His drive to steal Emily arguably stems more from his need to assert his own superiority than any interest in her.

Emily

Since Emily was a little girl, she felt the power of her beauty and wanted to rise above her station. She can’t resist the lure of the lifestyle and identity that James represents. She comes to rue her decision which necessitated abandoning her family and fiancé and ultimately drives her and James to misery. But her willingness to throw off all that was dear came from her drive to rise to a higher class no matter the cost.

Mrs. Steerforth and Miss Dartle

James’ mother and an upper class girl who always loved James (Miss Dartle) do not receive the news of his elopement well. Their cruelty has a particularly vicious flavor that helps contextualize some of what James was running from. They mostly disown James yet also place the blame entirely on Emily whom they see as a seductress and scorn to help the Peggotys find the couple.

All these catastrophes of character come from an obsessive hunger to build an identity on class superiority. In contrast, the Bible tells us: “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways” (Proverbs 28:6).

How Christianity Conquers Class

Jesus rejected class-climbing identity. His mission was to move in the opposite direction—from a state of glory to the humiliation of taking our sin and death (Philippians 2:3-10). When his disciples are debating about who is the greatest, he elevates a child. It is child-like dependence on God that makes you great, so his counsel is to humble ourselves (Matthew 18:1-4).

Christianity carries an unparalleled power to level class into a pure, authentically egalitarian brotherhood we cannot manufacture through any worldly means. “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation,” James advises (James 1:9-10). Whatever your class, you have equal grounds for spiritual elevation and lowliness with every other person in this world.

A lower-class woman can boast that she possesses the highest status any person can hold as a co-heir and ruler with Christ Jesus. She does not need to grasp for something or someone else who can validate her worth. Likewise, an upper-class man can boast (yes the Bible says boast) in his low standing. He can set down his burden of trying to act a part and maintain aloofness. He can drop his mask of pretense—he’s just another Joe who struggles with sin.

The gospel removes the cruelty of class because it emphasizes the centrality of our common identity in one class—the class of people who need salvation from Jesus and to be transformed into his image by his spirit. Finding yourself in one class of people with everyone you meet changes a mindset of exclusion to one of support and dependence.

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