Traumatized at how things have changed at home, David cries himself to asleep. When he awakes next morning, David’s mother and Peggotty are at bedside. Mrs. Copperfield hugs her boy, but David resists. Mrs. Copperfield accuses Peggotty for having turned David against her. Peggotty objects. By and by, Mr. Murdstone appears. He asks Clara (David’s mother) to wait for him downstairs as he will have a talk with the boy before escorting David down himself. Before dismissing Peggotty, Mr. Murdstone reminds the housemaid that Mrs. Copperfield is now Mrs. Murdstone.
Alone with David, Mr. Murdstone poses the hypothetical question as to what David thinks Mr. Murdstone will do when faced with an obstinate and an intractable horse or dog. “I beat him,” Mr. Murdstone says, answering his own question. Having had David clean his tear stained face, which David avowed was mere dirt, Mr. Murdstone accompanies David downstairs for a meal. After the meal, Mr. Murdstone, Clara, and David are passing their time in the parlor when a visitor calls. It is Jane Murdstone, Mr. Murdstone’s sister.
At once, Miss Murdstone takes David to task, saying he has no manners. She is given a guest room, but David senses that she will be a permanent guest. Like her brother, Miss Murdstone is dark haired and of a gloomy and a severe aspect. Believing that a female house servant invariably has a man secreted in the house, Miss Murdstone sleeps with one eye open, or so Peggotty claims.
On the morning after her arrival, Miss Murdstone announces that she will henceforth dispense of Clara’s household duties. Though at first Clara doesn’t object to giving up her keys, eventually she reveals the true state of her mind. Weeping all the while, Clara demands to be consulted before household matters are settled. Alas, when Miss Murdstone threatens to leave the house, Clara backtracks and eventually complies with the Murdstones.
Affected by his mother’s distress, David, who has been ordered to go to bed, makes his way to his bedroom in tears. Next morning, David is a witness to his mother begging Miss Murdstone for forgiveness, and he realizes that the Murdstones’ dark, severe influence is all encompassing; his former, happy life is a distant memory. After attending church, David wonders about the thoughts of the congregation who in turn must be wondering about the changed state of affairs in the former Copperfield household.
There is talk between his mother and the Murdstones of sending David to a boarding house. David’s fate is decided when he fails to learn his lessons to the Murdstones’ satisfaction. David can’t help himself. The presence of Mr. and Miss Murdstone, who both pretend to be engrossed in their own activities while David’s mother administers to David’s lessons, makes David so nervous that he finds himself unable to recite his lessons. The mental torture continues at dinner where Mr. Murdstone poses David math word problems which David is at wit’s end to solve. Needless to say, he fails miserably. During this time of trial and ordeal, David finds consolation in a secret nook of the house where his deceased father had kept a small collection of books. The collection includes stories involving Tom Jones, Don Quixote, and Robinson Crusoe. David reads these books and often daydreams, pretending he is the hero and the Murdstones the villains.
One morning when David reports for his lessons, he senses an ominous air in the parlor. His mother is uneasy and Mr. Murdstone has a cane, which he has just finished binding. By and by, the lessons begin. David is confident that he is prepared, but again he finds himself unable to recite his lessons. Suddenly, Clara, David’s mother, cries. Mr. Murdstone chides Clara before isolating David to be caned. David resists to the extent of biting Mr. Murdstone’s hand. In a rage, Mr. Murdstone canes David. In tears, David lays prostrate in his room, which is locked from without, for five days which seem like years to David. During that time, the only person who visits David is Miss Murdstone who brings David some food.
Then on the last night of his restraint, Peggotty appears at his door, whispering through the keyhole. She informs David that the Murdstones have decided to send David to a school in London. Weeping, Peggotty assures David that she will take good care of David’s mother, and that she—Peggotty—loves David as if he were her own child. David is grateful.
Next day, after breakfast, during which David could hardly swallow a morsel on account of his tears, David bids his mother a teary farewell.