Wilkins Micawber is the amiable, perpetually optimistic character who says “Something will turn up” in David Copperfield.
Micawber is one of Charles Dickens’s most memorable comic creations. He is perpetually short of money, pursued by creditors, and eventually imprisoned in the King’s Bench debtors’ prison. Yet he remains confident that circumstances will improve, even when his financial situation appears hopeless.
The character is widely understood to have been partly based on Dickens’s father, John Dickens, who also experienced serious financial difficulties and imprisonment for debt. Micawber’s long-suffering wife, Emma, reinforces his optimism with the declaration, “I will never desert Mr. Micawber!”
Readers sometimes confuse Micawber with Tommy Traddles, another important figure in the novel. Traddles is hardworking and dependable, while Micawber is eloquent, impractical, and habitually hopeful. Micawber’s outlook became so recognizable that “Micawber” later entered English usage for a person who expects better fortune despite poverty or difficulty.