Mr. Dick

Mr. Dick, whose full name is Richard Babley, is a character in the 1850 Charles Dickens novel, David Copperfield. He has childish traits and an obsession with work on his memorial from which he is constantly distracted by thoughts of King Charles' head. He may represent Dickens' difficult role as the author of this work, which alluded to Dickens' own traumatic childhood.[2][3]

Mr. Dick (R) drawn by Fred Barnard talking to David Copperfield (L): "'Then, I have got it, boy!' said Mr. Dick. And he stood up before me, more exultingly than before, nodding his head, and striking himself repeatedly upon the breast, until one might have supposed that he had nearly nodded and struck all the breath out of his body. 'A poor fellow with a craze, sir,' said Mr. Dick, 'a simpleton, a weak-minded person – present company, you know!' striking himself again, 'may do what wonderful people may not do. I'll bring them together, boy. I'll try. They'll not blame me. They'll not object to me. They'll not mind what I do, if it's wrong. I'm only Mr. Dick. And who minds Dick? Dick's nobody! Whoo!' He blew a slight, contemptuous breath, as if he blew himself away."[1]

Portrayals

Actors who have portrayed Mr. Dick in films and TV:

References
  1. Charles Dickens (1850), "ch. 45 – Mr. Dick fulfils my Aunt's Predictions", David Copperfield
  2. Stanley Tick (1969), "The Memorializing of Mr. Dick", Nineteenth-Century Fiction, University of California Press, 24 (2): 142–153, doi:10.2307/2932600, JSTOR 2932600
  3. Xiaohua Li (2011), "An Insight into the Diversity of Mr. Dick's Roles in David Copperfield", Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 1 (1): 112–114, ISSN 1799-2591


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