Putney

Putney is the residence of Dora Spenlow’s aunts and becomes a central domestic setting in the aftermath of her father’s death. Dora is brought there to live with them, and the house is where David Copperfield seeks access to her and gradually establishes a permitted pattern of visits. The place’s narrative importance lies less in a broad portrait of the town than in the family refuge and carefully regulated courtship it contains.

The Aunts’ Home

Dora’s two aunts, maiden sisters of her father, had been estranged from him for years without having quarrelled outright. Their withdrawal followed a disagreement over the arrangements for Dora’s christening: they had expected to be invited to dinner, but were invited only to tea, and responded in writing that it would be better for everyone if they stayed away. After her father’s death, they re-enter her life and propose taking her to live with them in Putney.

Dora accepts the move while grieving, asking that Julia Mills and her dog Jip accompany her. The aunts take her there soon after the funeral. Putney thus becomes the setting for an immediate change in her household: she leaves her father’s home and settles with relatives whose earlier distance from the family has not prevented them from offering her a place to live.

The House and Its Visitors

The house provides a quiet, orderly setting for David’s formal encounter with the aunts. On the way there, his friend Thomas Traddles offers him a glass of ale at a nearby public house, as David is so nervous that Traddles considers him in need of a gentle stimulant. The maid admits them into a hall with a weather-glass, then into a ground-floor drawing room overlooking a neat garden. David looks around for Dora but sees no sign of her before meeting the two elderly women.

David’s account also places Miss Mills within the Putney surroundings. She keeps a journal recording Dora’s continuing grief and sometimes meets David on the Common to read from it or lend it to him. The journal gives him news of Dora when he cannot be with her, while the meetings make the nearby common part of the practical geography of his courtship.

Courtship and Permission

Putney is a considerable distance from Highgate, where David has daily journeys of his own, and he wants to visit Dora as often as he can. The proposed tea visits prove impracticable, so he reaches an arrangement with Miss Lavinia Spenlow: he may visit on Saturday afternoons, in addition to his privileged Sunday visits. The weekly appointment gives structure to his time; the close of each week becomes something to anticipate while he gets through the days before it.

The visits take place under the supervision of Dora’s aunts, whose approval is part of the practical conditions of the relationship. David’s aunt, Betsey Trotwood, also visits them after the conference about his access to Dora. The two households maintain formal calls, generally separated by several weeks. Betsey’s habit of walking to Putney at unconventional times and disregarding the usual dignity of travelling by hired carriage initially unsettles Dora’s aunts, but they come to accept her as eccentric and strong-minded. She, in turn, moderates some of her own habits for the sake of harmony.

Narrative Role

Putney gathers the private consequences of bereavement and courtship into one domestic setting. Dora’s relocation follows her father’s death; David’s access depends on negotiated permission, distance, and regular visiting hours; and Miss Mills’s journal helps bridge the intervals between visits. The house is therefore both a place of family care and a boundary David must approach through formal arrangements. Its recurring visits show how their relationship develops within, rather than outside, the constraints imposed by household guardianship.