A comical, chronically indebted figure best remembered for his constant assurance that "something will turn up," the character of Wilkins Micawber is widely believed to have been modeled on that of Dickens' father, John, who spent time in a debtors prison when Charles was a boy. Although Mr. Micawber is a somewhat ridiculous figure who expresses himself in hyperbolic terms ("If, in the progress of revolving years, I could persuade myself that my blighted destiny had been a warning to you, I should feel that I had not occupied another man's place altogether in vain"), he is also basically a good man who eventually helps to expose the villainy of Uriah Heep and serves as one of the heroes of "David Copperfield."
