Yarmouth

East of England, Yarmouth is a coastal town in Norfolk. It was a major fishing port until the second half of the twentieth century and serves as the home for the Peggotty family in Dickins' David Copperfield.

Here is a link to an image of the Peggotty's boathouse in Yarmouth.

https://norfolktalesmyths.com/2018/05/07/peggotys-boat-house/

Yarmouth serves as an incredibly important conjoining place throughout this narrative and often provokes many epiphatic moments for David. Whether it be for his first time visiting Mr. Peggotty as a young boy and becoming smitten with Little Em'ly, or experiencing the death of Barkis and the loss of Steerforth's friendship after Em'ly has run away with him, Yarmouth feels like a home David always comes back to as he grows older.

As David first describes Yarmouth upon arrival as a child, he says, "When we got into the streets (which was strange enough to me), and Smelt the fish, and pitch, and oakum, and tar, and saw the sailors walking about, and the carts jingling up and down over the stones, I felt that I had done so busy a place an injustice," (p.37).

You can tell the attatchment Dickins feels for a place like Yarmouth and particularly the Peggotty's boathouse. For someone who experienced the hardships of a childhood like David, having a reliable and comfortable place to retreat to seems necessary for his sanity. Not to mention, it is also Yarmouth where Peggotty resides, a woman who has always been like a second mother to David and he loves her dearly as such. Since David's own mother has passed, he feels no great homely attatchment to the Rookery any longer, though Yarmouth will always hold that feeling because of Peggotty. This perhaps makes this location the closest connection to David's childhood that he has that isn't tinged with total sadness.

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