Editing David Copperfield (section)

=====Steerforth=====
[[File:Steerforth from David Copperfield art by Frank Reynolds.jpg|thumb|upright|Steerforth from ''David Copperfield'', by Frank Reynolds]]
For David, Steerforth represents all that Heep is not: born a gentleman, with no stated ambition or defined life plan, he has a natural presence and charisma that immediately give him scope and power.  However, his failure as a model is announced well before the episode at Yarmouth where he seizes, like a thief, Little Emily before causing her loss in Italy. He already shows himself as he is, brutal, condescending, selfish and sufficient, towards Rosa Dartle, bruised by him for life, and Mr Mell who undergoes the assaults of his cruelty. The paradox is that even as he gauges his infamy, David remains from start to finish dazzled by Steerforth's aristocratic ascendancy, even as he contemplates him drowning on Yarmouth Beach, "lying with his head upon his arm, as I had often seen him at school".<ref>{{harvnb|Dickens|1999|p=640}}</ref>