Introduction: Explain who the characters are
(Dora, Agnes, Miss Lavinia, Miss Clarissa).
A critical moment: David is in love with Dora but he
worships Agnes (his “guardian angel”). The two are about to meet for the first
time and the stakes are high for David. He knows very well, even though he does
not want to face it, that he has every reason to be afraid of Agnes’s judgment.
If she disapproves of Dora, his affection, even his whole being, will be split
irreconcilably.
This moment is a test for Dora, who
is going to be “submitted” to Agnes. “Dora was fraid of Agnes” (“What nonsense”
may be ambivalent: it may mean either “you are not silly” or “Agnes could not
have made you more clever, you are silly.”)
Consequently it is also a test for
David, because he has chosen Dora so Agnes’s judgment will reflect on him.
Moreover, it will be a test in another, deeper way: if the two do not get along
well, David will have to make a choice between two parts of him: his love for
Dora and his admiration of Agnes.
Eventually, it is a test for Agnes too: it will show if she understands David and stands by him in a crucial moment of his life. If she does not, her role as David’s guardian angel will necessarily undergo revision.
Agnes is David’s “guardian angel”. He says she has now become Dora’s too. Explain why.
Dora immediately gains Agnes’s seal of approval. From the beginning, the two characters are united, almost fused (§3, last 3 paragraphs). Agnes’s approval adds value to Dora (last § but one): David loves Dora more because she has been “blessed” by Agnes.
In the light of the rest of the novel, the reader has the impression that the two girls “form a pact” for David’s happiness. This is necessary for the novel’s development: David will marry both girls in turn but if he appeared deeply conflicted, it would not be consistent with Dickens’ vision.
Dora reveals an unexpectedly hidden depth in this passage. She seems to foresee the end of the novel. She even appears to be more clever than David when she asks him the right questions and he sidesteps them. Both Dora and Agnes seem to sacrifice themselves to David: Agnes smothers her own feelings because he loves Dora; Dora already appears ready to disappear so that David may enter a more rewarding marriage.
Character/narrator tensions: The providential aspect of David’s story seems to indicate narrative reconstruction with a view to accommodate the different parts of the story. Some characters seem to share the narrator’s knowledge of future events.