David Cooperfield’s Relationship With Steerforth
David Cooperfield’s Relationship With Steerforth
Charles Dickens is a famous Victorian writer known for his unique way of developing multiple plots and counter plots by intertwining the lives many unique characters. In Dickens’s novel David Copperfield, the reader follows David the main characters life from adolescence to adulthood. Through out David’s journey he encounters a wide variety of characters that affect him in some way. One character that comes to mind is David’s school friend Steerforth. This is a complex character that helps to illuminate David’s growth from adolescents into adulthood. Steerforth is presented to the reader in a way that David, as an adolescent is too naive to see. It’s not until David begins to grow up and question Steerforth’s motives that he begins to change and develop as a man. Through out the course of the story Steerforth's interactions with David develop and reveal the true nature of his character helping David to grow up and not be so naive.
David first meets James Steerforth at the Salem House boarding school for boys. David immediately is drawn to Steerforth due to his charm and strong position in the school. David looks up to Steerforth and holds him in the highest of regards, and desires to be like him. “To see Steerforth walk to church before us, arm-in-arm with Miss Creakle, was one of the great sights of my life… I felt proud to know him, and believed that she could not choose but to adore him with all her heart… Mr. Sharp and Mr. Mell were both notable personages in my eyes, but Steerforth was to them what the sun was to two stars” (pg. 100) In contrast to the charming and confident Steerforth, David is shown and a innocent and weak adolescent. Once the story continues, Steerforth’s true nature is revealed to the reader. Because David is naive he does not see these deceptive and cruel qualities of Steerforth and continues to adore him. One of the first indicators of Steerforth’s cruelty is when Mr. Mell is
Charles Dickens is a famous Victorian writer known for his unique way of developing multiple plots and counter plots by intertwining the lives many unique characters. In Dickens’s novel David Copperfield, the reader follows David the main characters life from adolescence to adulthood. Through out David’s journey he encounters a wide variety of characters that affect him in some way. One character that comes to mind is David’s school friend Steerforth. This is a complex character that helps to illuminate David’s growth from adolescents into adulthood. Steerforth is presented to the reader in a way that David, as an adolescent is too naive to see. It’s not until David begins to grow up and question Steerforth’s motives that he begins to change and develop as a man. Through out the course of the story Steerforth's interactions with David develop and reveal the true nature of his character helping David to grow up and not be so naive.
David first meets James Steerforth at the Salem House boarding school for boys. David immediately is drawn to Steerforth due to his charm and strong position in the school. David looks up to Steerforth and holds him in the highest of regards, and desires to be like him. “To see Steerforth walk to church before us, arm-in-arm with Miss Creakle, was one of the great sights of my life… I felt proud to know him, and believed that she could not choose but to adore him with all her heart… Mr. Sharp and Mr. Mell were both notable personages in my eyes, but Steerforth was to them what the sun was to two stars” (pg. 100) In contrast to the charming and confident Steerforth, David is shown and a innocent and weak adolescent. Once the story continues, Steerforth’s true nature is revealed to the reader. Because David is naive he does not see these deceptive and cruel qualities of Steerforth and continues to adore him. One of the first indicators of Steerforth’s cruelty is when Mr. Mell is