Betsey Trotwood is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 from Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

' 1850 novel David Copperfield

David Copperfield (novel)

The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery , commonly referred to as David Copperfield, is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850. Like most of his works, it originally appeared in serial...

.

Role in novel

She is David's great-aunt on his father's side, and has an unfavourable view of men and boys, having been ill-used and abandoned by a worthless husband earlier in life. She appears in the novel's first chapter, where she demonstrates her uncommon personality and her dislike of boys when she storms out of the house after hearing that David's mother has had a son, rather than the daughter to whom Trotwood intended to be the godmother

Godparent

A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...

.

Betsey Trotwood plays a bigger role in David Copperfield's later life by taking him in after he has run away from labelling wine bottles in the factory in Blackheath

Blackheath, London

Blackheath is a district of South London, England. It is named from the large open public grassland which separates it from Greenwich to the north and Lewisham to the west...

 where his stepfather, Edward Murdstone

Edward Murdstone

Edward Murdstone is a fictional character and one of the primary antagonists in the first part of the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield...

, had placed him to work after the death of David's mother. She provides him with a place at a good school in Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

 and opportunities for a career in Doctors' Commons

Doctors' Commons

Doctors' Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil law in London. Like the Inns of Court of the common lawyers, the society had buildings with rooms where its members lived and worked, and a large library...

, thus showing her complex character.

The character is based on Miss Mary Pearson Strong who lived at Broadstairs

Broadstairs

Broadstairs is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about south-east of London. It is part of the civil parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes St. Peter's and had a population in 2001 of about 24,000. Situated between Margate and...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 and who died on 14 January 1855; she is buried in the St. Peter's-in-Thanet churchyard. Her sister Ann married Stephen Nuckell, who was a prominent bookseller in Broadstairs from around 1796 to 1822. Mary Pearson Strong's former home now hosts Broadstairs' Dickens House Museum.

There is a public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 in Clerkenwell, Central London called The Betsey Trotwood. It adopted the name in 1983, having previously been The Butcher's Arms.

Film and television portrayals

Year	Title	Betsey Trotwood played by:
1911	David Copperfield David Copperfield (1911 film) David Copperfield is a 1911 American black-and-white silent film based on the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. It is the oldest known film adaptation of the novel....	Viola Alberti
1935	David Copperfield	Edna May Oliver Edna May Oliver Edna May Oliver was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the best-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.-Early life:...
1969	David Copperfield David Copperfield (1969 film) David Copperfield is a 1969 American television film directed by Delbert Mann based on the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens adapted by Jack Pulman, who later went on to adapt the Roman saga I, Claudius for BBC Television. The film was made in the UK for 20th Century Fox Television.The film...	Edith Evans Edith Evans Dame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
1993	David Copperfield David Copperfield (1993 film) David Copperfield is a 1993 traditionally-animated musical feature-length adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic story of the same name. It was directed by Don Arioli and features the voices of Sheena Easton, Julian Lennon, Howie Mandel, Andrea Martin, Kelly LeBrock, Michael York, Joseph Marcell...	Andrea Martin Andrea Martin Andrea Louise Martin is an American and Canadian actress and comedienne. She has appeared in films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, on stage in productions such as My Favorite Year, Fiddler on the Roof and Candide, and in the television series, SCTV.-Personal life:Martin, the oldest of three...
1999	David Copperfield David Copperfield (1999 film) David Copperfield is a two part BBC television drama adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield, adapted by Adrian Hodges. The first part was shown on Christmas Day and the second on Boxing Day in 1999...	Maggie Smith Maggie Smith Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, DBE , better known as Maggie Smith, is an English film, stage, and television actress who made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 59 years...
2000	David Copperfield David Copperfield (2000 film) David Copperfield is a 2000 film that was a joint US/Irish TV film adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel David Copperfield. It was filmed in Ireland, and broadcast on the TV Channel TNT as a Hallmark Entertainment production on December 10–11, 2000....	Sally Field Sally Field Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...

External links

• Information, Illustrations, Analysis, Select Resources on the novel and characters