David Copperfield, Chapter 61 summary

What happens

1. David works in Dover, uses Traddles’s address for correspondence, and discovers that Sophy learns legal handwriting to help her husband.
2. Traddles describes their inexpensive pleasures, and David accepts Creakle’s invitation to inspect a prison.
3. Creakle and his companions praise solitary confinement, while David questions the prisoners’ supposed isolation and uniform expressions of remorse.
4. The celebrated prisoners prove to be Uriah Heep and Mr. Littimer, who profess repentance while condemning other people.
5. A warder explains Heep’s bank fraud and Littimer’s theft, including Miss Mowcher’s determined capture of Littimer.
6. David and Traddles leave unconvinced, regarding the prisoners as unchanged and the officials’ confidence as misplaced.

In this chapter

What to notice

Heep flatters the institution while condemning everyone outside it. His claim exposes the self-serving nature of the repentance that impresses Creakle.

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