Suffolk

Suffolk is the region toward which Betsey Trotwood sends David Copperfield on a period of independent travel, intended to help him judge his future with greater maturity. In the narrative, the journey’s importance lies not in a detailed account of the county but in its pull toward old attachments: David is to revisit the country and see Clara Peggotty, while learning to look about him and think for himself.

Setting and Association

The journey is framed as a return to the old part of the country and to people David has known since childhood. Betsey’s description of Clara Peggotty is teasing and disparaging, but David’s eagerness to visit her makes plain that the region carries more intimate associations for him than for his aunt. Suffolk thus becomes a setting for renewed contact with the dependable figures of his earlier life, rather than simply a point on a travel itinerary.

Betsey Trotwood’s Plan

During the Christmas season, with an important decision about David’s future still unresolved, Betsey proposes that he take a breathing-space and approach the question as more than a schoolboy. She believes a change of scene and a glimpse of life outdoors may help him form a cooler judgment, and suggests a journey into the old country to see Clara Peggotty. David responds that this is what he would like most.

Betsey equips him with a purse and portmanteau and gives him three weeks or a month to travel as he chooses. Her freedom comes with a purpose: he is to look about him, think, and write three times a week with a faithful report of himself. Suffolk is therefore part of a deliberate interval between schooling and a decision about work and adult life.

The Journey and Its Test

David goes first to Canterbury to take leave of Agnes Wickfield, Mr. Wickfield, and Doctor Strong; he has not yet given up his old room at the Wickfields’ house. The sequence makes the planned journey a passage among relationships that have shaped his life, before he continues toward the old country. When he meets Steerforth, David says that he must see Clara Peggotty first, and Steerforth offers to accompany him for part of the visit.

Betsey’s hope that travel will prompt reflection meets David’s susceptibility to distraction. When her reminder arrives, he admits that he has done little of the thinking she asked for and has nearly forgotten the purpose of the expedition. Suffolk’s narrative function is consequently double: it is both the destination of a homeward visit and the setting for Betsey’s attempt to make David exercise independent judgment. The plan establishes an opportunity for reflection; David’s admission shows that opportunity alone does not ensure it.