'An indistinct desire': Psychogeography in David Copperfield.

This article argues that Charles Dickens employs psychogeography—the study of how geographic environments affect emotions and behavior—in his novel *David Copperfield* to expose social inequality and injustice in Victorian London's impoverished neighborhoods. The protagonist, nicknamed Trot, acts as a psychogeographic flâneur by traversing the city's slums and reflecting on how the physical environment shapes the lives and psyches of marginalized individuals, notably the prostitute Martha Endell, whose association with the polluted Thames River symbolizes societal misogyny and classism. By linking urban decay to psychological trauma, Dickens critiques the capitalist structures that perpetuate poverty and dehumanization, positioning his work alongside early psychogeographic literature despite his exclusion from the field's traditional canon. The article suggests that Dickens's narrative approach fosters empathy for the urban poor and challenges prevailing middle-class assumptions, offering a framework for reexamining the social and spatial dynamics in his and other Victorian texts.