One of My Favorite Old Books: David Copperfield.

Of all the old books I own, my favorite is the copy of David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens I own. It is a blue leather bound book, with gold lettering and nice semi-white pages. Besides the prettiness of the thing itself, it's a charming and moving story. One worth reading over and over...

Here is a little review I wrote on the one character in the book that you would be least likely to think to write about; Miss Dartle. She intrigued me as I read through the work, and so afterwards, I wrote about her.

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Miss Rosa Dartle...

...has an uncomfortable way of extracting information she wants from you by feigning ignorance or misunderstanding and then pleading to be “corrected” aright. What bothers you most about her is that she knows she is pretending in this way and she knows you know this too; but continues to use this tactic and it works because politeness dictates that you cannot refuse her the information she ‘kindly’ asked for.

   She is extremely bitter (and consequently vengeful) and this surfaces when ever she becomes to coolly irate to cover behind the ignorance act. Rosa desires the man she watched as a child, Steerforth, to be her own, but for pride does not show it to him except for one way; by lashing out when he tries to humor or caress her.

  As, for Steerforth , he cares little for his bitter, mad nurse; though it appears he might pity her sad fate and life. When he runs away with another girl (Emily) Miss Dartle sees this not as an act of Steerforth’s bad character, but Emily’s (even though Steerforth enticed the girl.)Miss Dartle declares Emily ‘ruined’ her Steerforth and that “he was too good for her”, Dartle lashes out with jealousy and other hidden feelings she has harbored against the very man she is jealous for and ‘loves.’ She knows Steerforth does not care for her or even care that she does.  Because she so earns the right for you to hate her, you cannot help but feel sorry when she retires from life present to, with extreme bitterness and increased age, tend the mother of the now deceased man she wanted so jealously. She says to the mother often during the rest of their dreamy nightmare like days, “I loved him more than you ever did!”  And we wonder if she actually came to ‘love’ her bitterness and jealousy toward Steerforth more than the man himself. 

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What piques my curiosity is who (if anyone) was Rosa modeled after? Her character is so distinct and long-remembered in my own mind that I wonder if Dickens has someone to ascribe to in the back of his mind for her character and personage. Who knows? ...
~Titmoss

P.S.- Members: Feel free to post some more here! ;) *Hint-hint*

References: 

Dickens, Charles; David Copperfield

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/turkey/turlit14.html

http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/copperfield/section23.html