Salem House: Time and space in David Copperfield
ONE
That was Tungay, the wooden legged. He was once associated in Mr Creakle's hop business. He was a caretaker, but his primary job was to assist his master in terrorizing boys.
As they entered, the wooden legged eyed David all over. They went up, and he locked the door behind them.
They were going upto the house; among some dark heavy trees, when he called after Master Mell.
They looked back. He was standing at the door of a little lodge where he lived, with a pair of boots in his hand.
He threw the boots towards Mr Mell and said that the cobbler could not mend them. There was not a bit of original in them.
Mr Mell went back to pick it up. Later David observed that the boots he had on were similar and the stocking was just breaking out like bud in one place. Mr Mell was the son of an Alms House inmate. The boots expose the extreme poverty of Mr Mell. It also showed how poorly paid he was.
Salem House was a square brick building with wings.
David was sent to school as a punishment, because he defended himself against the violence of Mr Murdstone, his stepfather. The school looked desolate and forlorn because they reached there during vacation.
A long classroom with three rows of desks and six of forms. Pegs all round for caps and slate. Dirty floors littered with scraps of old copy-books and exercises. Silkworm houses - a part of craft study - scattered all over the desks. Mice left behind by their owners were running up and down a fusty castle. Mouse was a pet, in those times. Mouse was also believed a remedy against bedwetting among children. A bird in a cage little bigger than himself. The classrooms were roofless. The school building was not properly maintained.
David came upon a pasteboard placard with the words: TAKE CARE OF HIM. HE BITES. David got upon a desk fearing a dog. He looked everywhere around. But no dog anywhere. Mr Mell asked him why he was on the desk.
David told that he was looking for a dog as written in the placard.
'No, Copperfield,' said he gravely, 'that's not a dog. That's a boy. My instructions are, Copperfield, to put that placard on your back. I am sorry to make such a beginning with you, but I must do it.'
He tied the placard on David's shoulders like a knapsack, and wherever he went, it travelled with him.
The gravelled playground was open to all. David knew that the servants read it. The baker read it. Everybody who came backwards and forwards read it.
Throughout the vacation David fancied how each of the boys would read the placard on his back. There was an old door in the play ground on which boys carved their names. Five and forty names were there - J. Steerforth, Tommy Traddles and George Demple were some of these.
There were long tasks with Mr Mell, which David had accomplished without difficulty or disgrace.
Throughout the vacation Mr Mell was his company. He never talked much. But he was never harsh to David. He did all clerical work including the preparation of last half year's bill. After the work he would take his flute and blow it.
Mr Creakle had returned after his vacation. David was brought before him by the wooden legged. Mr Creakle was a stout gentleman with a bunch of watch-chain and seals; and he sat in an armchair, with a tumbler and a bottle beside him.
Mr Creakle: So! This is the young gentleman whose teeth are to be filed.
The wooden legged first turned David to exhibit the placard, and after inspection by Mr Creakle turned him about again to face Mr Creakle. A fiery face with small eyes, deep in his head. Thick veins in his forehead, a little nose and large chin. Bald on the top of his head with some thin and wet looking hair that was just turning grey, brushed accross each temple so that the two sides interlaced on his forehead. He had no voice, but spoke in a whisper. The exertion to speak made his face more angry; and his thick veins more thicker.
Mr Creakle: Now what is the report of the boy?
Wooden legged: There's nothing against him yet.
He was disappointed. Mrs and Miss Creakle who were present by now, were not disappointed.
Mr Creakle: Come here, sir!
Wooden legged: Come here!
Mr Creakle: I have the happiness of of knowing your stepfather. (He took David by his ear.) A worthy man he is, and of a strong character. He knows me and I know him. Do you know me? Hey? (Pinching David's ear with ferocious playfulness)
David: Not yet sir. (Flinching with pain)
Mr Creakle: Not yet? Hey? But you will soon. Hey?
Wooden legged repeated this.
Mr Creakle: I will tell you what I am. I am a Tartar.
This he said with a parting screw of David's ear.
The cruel sadist is amply portrayed in Mr Creakle. A true representative of the teacher of that era. (Refer Wackford Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby) At the end of the interview David asked him whether he could take the placard off before the other boys come.
The answer was an explosion, and David retreated without waiting for the Wooden legged, and found himself in his bed.
[Dickens's education began in Chatham at a dame's school. Dame's schools were the precursor of nursery or playschool. They were run by women in their homes. Later, when the family moved to Marshalsea, he went to Wellington House Classical and Commercial Academy run by William Jones; Jones had a penchant for ruling ciphering-books, and cutting the boys with the same instrument. Mr Creakle was modelled after him. It is now quite clear that Murdstone arranged his friend Mr Creakle to inflict bodily injury and disgrace on his stepson. It was a general trend of those days. Parents might have some ulterior motive. [refer Smike Nickleby's experience in Nicholas Nickleby.]
Sharp was the first Master. He was superior to Mr Mell, who dined with the boys. But Mr Sharp dined with Mr Creakle. But he had only one choice between cold and hot meat - cold meat; and he always stuck to it. He was a limp, delicate looking gentleman, with a big nose. He had a way of carrying his head on one side. His hair was very smooth and wavy; but some boys said to David that it was a whig; and that he would go every Saturday to get it curled.
Tommy Traddles was the first boy who returned after holidays. He enjoyed the placard on David's back very much and he cleverly turned the embarassment into a joke. He presented David to every other boy (pointing to the placard) with the words, "look here is a game!"; there were mixed responses, and on the whole it was much better than David had anticipated.
Then came James Steerforth, a boy six years senior to David, and also senior to most other students. Steerforth promised David to take care of him. He arranged a banquet for students at the cost of David's money. He asked David whether he had got a sister. [ Steerforth was not a boy, but an adolescent; the chemistry of love began to work in him.]
Creakle was a small hop dealer who lost his capital, and had turned to school business, with Mrs Creakle's money. He took Tungay, the wooden leg who had assisted him in the hop business. Mr Creakle had a son who was not in good terms with his father. He protested against the cruelty of his father in school and of his treatment of his wife. Mr Creakle had turned him out.
The session in the school was started with an exordium of caning by Mr Creakle. Everybody was cut left and right without any reason. All were in tears. Like miserable dogs, with hearts sinking into boots, the boys sat looking at the manoeuvres of the brute conducting his caning. Traddles was the most miserable boy; he had been caned every day; and he would draw skeletons on his slate after each caning, to get himself some relief.
Traddles held that it was a solemn duty of the boys to stand by one another. When Steerforth laughed in the church, the Beadle mistook it for Traddles, and took him out. He never said who was the real offender. He was imprisoned for so many hours next day, and he came with a whole churchyard-full of skeletons swarming all over his Latin Dictionary. But he had his reward when Steerforth said there was nothing of the sneak in Traddles.
David literally worshipped Steerforth. In his own words, "Mr Sharp and Mr Mell were notable personages in my eyes; but Steerforth was to them what sun was to two stars."
Steerforth came to know that David was a voracious reader. He encouraged him to tell stories at bedtime to induce him to sleep. Thus David started his storytelling; which remained with him through out his life. The foundation stone to his career in later life was laid by Steerforth.
One day, came a letter from Peggotty together with a cake in a nest; a perfect nest of oranges and two bottles of cowslip wines. Steerforth arranged that the wine should be preserved for David to whistle his storytelling, because he found David getting hoarse in its course.
The class in the first half started with Mr Creakle's exordium: come fresh to the lessons, or I come fresh up to the punishment. Then Mr Creakle came to David, referred to his biting of Mr Murdstone; and showed him the cane and started cutting him with the cane. Every cut was followed by a silly question or a joke. This ritual of caning was repeated on every student. All were writhing and crying. And Mr Creakle enjoyed it with pleasure. The whole class witnessed the ritual. Everybody waited for his turn with ash white face and sinking heart. Mr Creakle found that the placard on David's back stood in his way to cut him conveniently while taking a stroll between files, and for this reason it was soon taken off.
One day Mr Creakle was indisposed to attend the school. Being holiday it was properly a half day. But as the noise in the playground would have disturbed Mr Creakle, and weather was not favourable for going out, the boys were ordered into the classroom and set some lighter tasks. Mr Sharp went out to get his wig curled. Mr Mell kept the school by himself. The boys behaved as if they were in the ground. Mr Mell was trying to get on with his work amidst the uproar that the boys made.
The children started in and out, playing puss in the corner with other boys; there were laughing boys, singing boys, and talking boys, dancing boys, howling boys, boys shuffled with their feet, and so on. Boys whirled about Mr Mell making faces, mimicking him behind his back and before his eyes, mimicking his poverty, his boots, his coats and his mother, everything belonging to him. Mr Mell, rising up and striking his desk with the book said: 'Silence! What does this mean! It's impossible to bear it. It's maddening. How can you do it to me boys?'
And the boys all stopped, some surprised, some afraid, and some sorry.
Steerforth was at the bottom of the classroom. He was lounging with his back against the wall, and his hands in his pockets, his mouth shut up, as if he were whistling when Mr Mell looked at him.
'Silence Mr Steerforth!' said Mr Mell.
'Silence yourself,' said Steerforth turning red, 'Whom are you talking to?'
'Sit down,' said Mr Mell.
'Sit down yourself,' said Steerforth, 'and mind your business.'
There were some titter and some applause. But silence immediately succeeded. One boy who darted behind him to imitate his mother, changed his mind and pretended to want a pen mended. Then Mr Mell said that Steerforth was instigating his juniors against every sort of outrage. And he continued that Steerforth was making use of his position of favouritism to insult a gentleman.
Here Traddles cried out 'shame James Steerforth! Too bad!'
Mr Mell requested Steerforth not to insult an unfortunate gentleman. But Steerforth came forward and called Mr Mell an impudent begger. The situation was very tense, they stood face to face; and the boys lingered around and Mr Creakle was in the midst of the crowd. The wooden legged stood at his side. Mrs Creakle and her daughter were at the door looking frightened.
Mr Mell, with his elbows on his desk and his face in his hands, sat for some moments, quite still.
The conversations that followed revealed to Mr Creakle that Mr Mell's mother was an inmate of a charity house. To keep the dignity of Salem House Mr Creakle wanted Mr Mell to leave the school. He was obliged to leave, and after he left Mr Creakle congratulated Steerforth and shook hands with him and the boys gave him three cheers. David joined the chorus. But Traddles did not. He was in tears, and he received caning for it.
The class conscious Steerforth thought that he could buy everything with money, later boasted that he would arrange to send some money to Mell as a compensation for his loss of job.
David to whom Mr Mell had a soft spot was really aggrieved for his sharing the information about Mell's mother to Steerforth, but he was under the spell of fear and awe of Steerforth.
In the absence of Mr Mell, Steerforth conducted some of Mr Mell's classes in an easy, ameture way till a new master came. According to Steerforth the new master was a 'brick'. In Victorian English the word was used as a term of high praise.
David was informed that there were visitors for him. At first he thought of his mother; and it brought a sob which he checked behind the door before entering the place where visitors were seated. David to his surprise found that Mr Peggotty and Ham were waiting for him. They had brought lobster, crab and shrimps to David, all boiled by Missis Gummidge. While they exchanged news and pleasantries Steerforth came the way. David introduced him to Mr Peggotty and Ham.
Steerforth behaved to David's friends with ease and grace. Even at the time of writing the story after years, he was under the spell and charm of Steerforth. Then the holiday came. David was on his way home inside the Yarmouth mail.
(Chapters Six and Seven)
TWO
David did not give us any account of his life in second half of the year, except that of news of the death of his mother.
He received the news on the anniversary of his birthday. The news was presented to him by Mrs Creakle. It may seem that the character was created only for this purpose. She did this superbly: in presentation and language. All her previous presence in the novel had been for the accomplishment this tragic job. None else could have done this except she, at the Salem House. She sat with David throughout the day, and scarcely left him alone. Arrangements were made for his departure by next night, not by the Yarmouth mail but by a night coach, used for short journey.
The role of Salem House in the story ended here. There was only a two months gap between David's return to Salem House and this memorable birthday day anniversary.
(Chapter Nine)
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