David Copperfield/YMMV


 * Author's Saving Throw: Miss Mowcher's abrupt transformation from The Grotesque to heroic figure, after the woman on whom she was based recognized herself.
 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: " ... and the name of that scoundrel is - HEEP!"
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: "I have loved you all my life!"
 * "I'll take my chances with the boy."
 * The scene where David gets home from his trans-continental vacation of perpetual depression and meets up with his old buddy Traddles never fails to make me smile.
 * Damsel Scrappy: Agnes, for some readers.
 * Designated Hero: David, increasingly towards the end of the book, is a mere looker-on at the dramatic resolution of others' subplots, including Micawber's expose of Heep and (less plausibly) Dan Peggotty's rescue of Emily.
 * Fair for Its Day: Among other instances, a lot of readers think Dickens' shipping of the Peggottys to Australia after Emily's fall from grace is unfair, but the book actually was a fair look at prostitution at the time (and that kind of thing really happened, too).
 * Foe Yay: Uriah gets very touchy-feely with David, who for his part, is fascinated by Uriah's strange appearance. Once he compares those reddish brown eyes to "two glowing suns", and another time, when Uriah has wormed himself into David's home, David gives in to an irresistible temptation to watch him sleep.
 * Freud Was Right: Inverted, as Freud may have been influenced by this novel?
 * Purity Sue: Agnes Wickfield, David's 'dearest sister'. Albeit somewhat more realistic than most examples, and even quite likeable in spots, she's clearly intended as the 'angel in the house' archetype beloved of most authors of the period. Kinda hard to ignore when she's introduced standing in the light of a stained-glass window, 'pointing upward'.
 * Some readers even loved her the moment they saw her.
 * Toy Ship: David with Little Em'ly, and to some extent with Agnes.
 * Values Dissonance
 * Wangst: Emily's weepy penitence can drive a modern reader up the wall.
 * The Woobie: David as a child. Also his mother, Dora and Little Emily.
 * Let's not forget Mr. Mell, David's good-hearted but weak-willed teacher in Salem House. This troperette cried as a little girl when she read how Steerforth abused him and got him kicked out of the school on a whim.
 * What about Ham, after Emily left him for Steerforth?