Saturday, June 30, 2018

Where was the banquet held in David Copperfield?

In chapter 6, Steerforth arranges a "banquet" in the dormitory room he and David share with other schoolboys at David's new boarding school. Steerforth manages the banquet by using all the money David has brought to school with him—seven shillings—for a feast. Steerforth buys currant wine, biscuits, almond cake, and fruit, which the boys all share in the moonlit room. As David describes it:

How well I recollect our sitting there, talking in whispers; or their talking, and my respectfully listening, I ought rather to say; the moonlight falling a little way into the room, through the window, painting a pale window on the floor, and the greater part of us in shadow

While David has a bad feeling about spending all his money on food and drink, the banquet does help him to get to know the other students and to find out the school gossip. As David puts it, what he hears that night "outlasts" the banquet itself for sometime. This is the beginning of David's involvement with Steerforth, a person he much admires. He thinks of him as having "great power," and at this time, his image of Steerforth is untarnished.

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