Mr. Barkis

Mr. Barkis is a taciturn carrier in David Copperfield’s childhood and later a husband to Clara Peggotty. His repeated message, “Barkis is willing,” turns his awkward courtship into a comic refrain; the guardedness of his daily habits, meanwhile, conceals a fortune that matters after his death. David’s retrospective account presents him as both an eccentric figure of domestic comedy and a consequential member of the family circle.

Identity and Introduction

Mr. Barkis first appears as the carrier who helps David travel away from Blunderstone toward Yarmouth. His temperament is phlegmatic and notably uncommunicative: even a practical exchange with David is a rare amount of conversation. When David offers him one of Clara Peggotty’s cakes, Mr. Barkis asks whether she made it. Learning that she cooks, he recognizes a possible channel for a personal message. He asks David to write that he is willing, making the phrase an indirect proposal and placing the boy in the role of messenger.

The phrase initially leaves David uncertain about what it means. Mr. Barkis later explains that when a man says he is willing, he is waiting for an answer, and he has been waiting since David conveyed the message. He even scripts a possible exchange to help David repeat the proposal clearly. His serious insistence contrasts with the indirectness of his approach: rather than speak to Clara Peggotty himself, he makes his intention travel through the child. Inside the tilt of his cart, he writes her name as a private memorandum, quietly turning an ordinary working space into a record of his hopes.

Courtship and Marriage

Mr. Barkis’s attentions become a recurring part of David’s visits to Yarmouth. He appears each evening at the same hour with a small bundle for Clara Peggotty, rarely acknowledging the gift or explaining why he has brought it. The offerings range from oranges and apples to pigs’ trotters, a pincushion, jet earrings, onions, dominoes, a canary and cage, and pickled pork. Their variety makes his courtship memorable; his characteristic silence makes each arrival more telling than any declaration could be.

His conduct around Clara Peggotty is affectionate but awkward. He sits opposite her by the fire and watches her, and once secretly takes the piece of wax candle she uses for sewing thread. He later produces it from his pocket when it is needed, apparently pleased with this small service rather than inclined to make conversation. On walks across the flats he returns to his familiar question about whether she is comfortable. Clara Peggotty sometimes laughs for a long time after he has left, while Mrs. Gummidge is distressed by the reminders of her own earlier courtship. The repeated question is at once a comically limited form of conversation and a recognizable effort to attend to Clara Peggotty’s comfort.

The marriage is conducted quietly, as Clara Peggotty wishes. When David asks what name he would write on the cart now, Mr. Barkis answers “Clara Peggotty BARKIS!” and laughs. The marriage takes place in church without witnesses; the clerk gives Clara Peggotty away. She is briefly confused by Mr. Barkis’s abrupt announcement that they are married, but embraces David with undiminished affection and says she is glad it is over. The couple then share a meal at a small inn. The ceremony changes Clara Peggotty’s marital status without changing her manner toward David, while Mr. Barkis enjoys the day in his own quieter way.

Family Life and Character

Mr. Barkis remains closely associated with the cart and its journeys. When he collects David and Clara Peggotty, he repeatedly asks whether she is comfortable, nudging nearer each time until David is squeezed into a corner. Clara Peggotty draws his attention to David’s discomfort; Mr. Barkis makes room, but later repeats the same approach. His attempts at gallantry are neither polished nor especially considerate, and David’s account lets the physical inconvenience sit beside the affection that motivates the attention.

Years later, David returns and finds Clara Peggotty cooking. Mr. Barkis is home but confined to bed with rheumatism. He welcomes David enthusiastically despite being unable to shake hands, asking him instead to shake the tassel on his nightcap. He says that seeing David makes him feel as if he is driving him along the Blunderstone road again. The old journey remains part of how he understands their connection: David had carried his message to Clara Peggotty, and Mr. Barkis now recalls that service as a bond between them.

His habits of secrecy and thrift are particularly visible during his illness. He describes himself as a very poor man and points with a stick toward a box beside the bed, identifying its contents as old clothes. Clara Peggotty explains that he has long staged an exhausting ritual before giving away even a single coin: he crawls out of bed, retrieves money from the box, and then pretends to have awakened from a nap with a guinea ready. She does not interrupt him, believing the generous impulse does him good. His pleasure in preserving the secret and completing the performance is as important to him as the gift itself.

Illness, Death, and Inheritance

As Mr. Barkis grows weaker, the box becomes more than a concealed store. Once he can no longer crawl to open it or check its safety with a divining rod, Clara Peggotty has it placed on a chair beside the bed. He embraces it day and night, his arm resting on it even as his strength fails. The contrast between the failing man and the box he has guarded makes his attachment tangible. When he is mute and senseless, Clara Peggotty and Daniel Peggotty stand beside him, and Clara Peggotty tries to reach him by recalling David’s messages and the role they played in bringing the couple together.

Mr. Barkis briefly opens his eyes and calls out “C. P. Barkis,” adding that there is no better woman anywhere. His recognition gives his final moments an unmistakable return to the attachment that began with the message sent through David. After his death, the full contents of the box overturn his claim to poverty. Mr. Barkis has accumulated nearly three thousand pounds, hidden for years behind a written fiction that the box belonged to someone named Mr. Blackboy and was merely being kept until claimed.

His will distributes that wealth among the people he leaves behind. Daniel Peggotty is to receive the interest on one thousand pounds during his lifetime; after Daniel Peggotty’s death, the principal is to be divided equally among Clara Peggotty, Emily Peggotty, and David, or whoever survives. Mr. Barkis leaves the remainder of his property to Clara Peggotty, who is also named residuary legatee and sole executrix. David reads the will aloud, reviews its provisions, and helps Clara Peggotty organize her affairs before the funeral. The fortune converts a private habit of concealment into material support for the family.

Narrative Role and Significance

Mr. Barkis’s story is shaped by the gap between what he says and what he keeps private. His short declaration of willingness requires David to interpret and deliver it; the repeated phrase then becomes an affectionate shorthand for a courtship conducted through gestures, gifts, and pauses. The same reserve governs his money. He claims to be poor, hides the box behind a false explanation, and makes the extraction of a coin into a carefully guarded performance, although he has saved a substantial sum.

David’s recollections preserve the comedy of Mr. Barkis’s manner without reducing him to it. His nudges and repeated question can crowd others, his courtship gifts are eccentric, and his bedside rituals are both painful and absurd. Yet the narrative also emphasizes his affection for Clara Peggotty, his pleasure in David’s return, and his last praise of his wife. His death closes a small but enduring family history: the boy who once carried his proposal becomes the adult who helps explain and administer the inheritance. Mr. Barkis’s carefully hidden wealth thus reveals, at the end, a generosity that his habits had made difficult to see.