# Mr. Creakle — David Copperfield character guide

> Mr. Creakle in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Creakle, Old Creakle

**First appearance:** 0010-vii-my-first-half-at-salem-house

## Snapshot

A headmaster who governs Salem House by ear-pinching and terror, calling himself a Tartar and meaning every syllable of it.

## Who they are

Creakle rules his school through fear, whispering threats and pinching ears with what he calls ferocious playfulness, while a wooden-legged assistant echoes his every word like a human megaphone. His cruelty extends even to his own household, where his thin, quiet wife and daughter sit wiping their eyes as he declares that flesh and blood rising against him is no flesh and blood at all. For the young David, newly arrived and already branded with a placard, Creakle is the first lesson that authority can be arbitrary, theatrical, and genuinely frightening.

## In the story

### [I Am Sent Away from Home](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/david_copperfield_se/chapters/v-i-am-sent-away-from-home)

Mr. Creakle is the feared headmaster, whose arrival David dreads; the man with the wooden leg unlocks the gate for him.

### [VI: I Enlarge My Circle of Acquaintance](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/david_copperfield_se/chapters/vi-i-enlarge-my-circle-of-acquaintance)

The tyrannical headmaster of Salem House, known for his whispery voice and harsh discipline.

### [My "First Half" at Salem House](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/david_copperfield_se/chapters/vii-my-first-half-at-salem-house)

The brutal headmaster who takes sadistic pleasure in caning the boys.

### [XIII: The Sequel of My Resolution](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/david_copperfield_se/chapters/xiii-the-sequel-of-my-resolution)

David mentions Mr. Creakle's boys as he creeps away from Salem House.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/david_copperfield_se/characters/mr_creakle
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/david_copperfield_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/david_copperfield_se/characters