Not affiliated with Harvard College. David is impressed with Mrs. Gummidge: she spends the whole day running useful errands without ever complaining or quarreling as she used to do. Steerforth buys a boat and learns to sail from Mr Peggotty. [1] During this visit, Steerforth catches sight of Dan's niece Emily (known by her family as "Little Em'ly"), and plans his seduction of her.
David goes out in the late evening for a walk and returns to Mr. Omer's shop. Mr. Omer is so upset that he has gone to bed early. Steerforth abandons her. Do you imagine that I bestow a thought on it, or suppose you could do any harm to that low place, which money would not pay for, and handsomely? In retrospect, it seems clear that Steerforth feels guilty about his plan to seduce and run away with little Em'ly, and is paying particular attention to his mother in an attempt to make up for it. The two quickly become friends and childhood sweethearts, but any possibility of a romance between the two ends when David introduces Emily—now a grown woman … Only now does Miss Mowcher realize that Littimer deliberately deceived her. LitCharts Teacher Editions. David is embarrassed to admit that might be true. He throws a hammer at her face, leaving Miss Dartle with a scar on her lip.
Knowing he'd ruined her reputation, Steerforth even advised her to marry Littimer. Although Steerforth is clearly joking about Rosa's need to "compensate," it's a joke that again allows him to ignore her feelings for him, and the role he has played in encouraging them: he attributes her bad mood to her natural temperament rather than his own words.
As a much older boy, Steerforth meets David at Salem House, when Steerforth is head boy.
He asks whether Steerforth will marry Emily.
He goes for a walk with Mr. Peggotty and Ham. Ham pulls David aside and tells him to look after Mr. Peggotty. and what David sees—and fails to see—in his youthful naïveté. He and David separate once more, and David heads to Peggotty's house for the evening.
What made miss betsey leave in a huff? As David leaves Steerforth, what does the narrator foretell? And on that part of [the shore] where she and I had looked for shells, two children—on that part of it where some lighter fragments of the old boat, blown down last night, had been scattered by the wind—among the ruins of the home he had wronged—I saw him lying with his head upon his arm, as I had often seen him lie at school. He is a few years older than David, and is first seen when dealing with a group of younger boys who are taunting David about biting his stepfather. They stop and chat with David and Steerforth, and David notices that, ...used to be his sweetheart. (clings to him, seems distressed) What is her behavior toward Ham? Their bodies are afterwards dragged ashore. He remains infatuated with, ...a pirate who has used Mr. Peggotty's house to kidnap and drown both David and, ...are doing well. Mr. Peggotty wants to see Mrs. Steerforth.
Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. You were a part of the trade of your home, and were bought and sold like any other vendible thing your people dealt in.".