Diane Kutten, Response to Nussbaum

In her article ‘Steerforth’s Arm: Love and the Moral Point of View’, Martha Nussbaum asks the question of how it is possible that, just like David, we cannot help but love the character of James Steerforth. She leads us into her argument by suggesting that she herself was at the beginning rather critical towards the young man: ‘I felt that I had know long ago […] that he was simply not worthy of a good person’s love.’ Outraged that her daughter is infatuated with him, she resolves to re-read the book and thus prove that she is not prone to the same ‘immature reading’ of the book that her daughter committed. Despite this resolution, she has to admit that, at the end of the book, she has fallen for him as well: ‘I felt my heart […] rushing happily from the firmness of judgement into the eager volatility of desire.’ This first part of her argument is very important, as the reader cannot help but identify himself with her, and thus becomes interested in the question of the ‘why?’. Why is it that we do in fact sympathize with a character that is so clearly, as Nussbaum suggested, ‘not worthy of a good person’s love’?

Martha argues that there is not only the realm of the ‘daylight world’ but also a ‘darker’ one, ‘a world of shadows and spirits’. The distinction between these two worlds becomes central to her argument. This is indeed a very powerful point. As we have already seen last week in ‘The Autobiographical Fragment’, Dickens is fascinated with this ‘shadowy world’. Just like he hovers on the edge of both worlds when he uses parts of his own life in David Copperfield, we feel that he is entering it every time he engages with Steerforth. At this point, we might want to ask ourselves whether ‘The Autobiographical Fragment’ can be applied Dickens himself. David is obsessed with books; not only does he read them, but he actually imagines that he sees the protagonists of these novels in real life. Like Dickens, he dives into this other world, and thus, to him, the characters become, in a way, real. Steerforth is the ultimate example for this, everything about him belongs to this world of fancy. As opposed to that, Nussbaum gives us the example of Agnes, who is clearly part of the other, the ‘daylight’ world. Interesting here is the comparison of these two ‘angels’, good and bad, by means of their arm gestures. Martha’s point here is, that as long as we’re in the ‘daylight world’, the terms of morality apply, but as soon as we enter the ‘other’ world, they become suspended, which is the reason why we, as readers, cannot help but love Steerforth.

Even though her argument is very powerful, I’d like to think that there is more to it than that. Steerforth’s death is clearly central to the book. After the storm, David starts writing his autobiography. The fact that he is telling the story himself makes it possible for us to see into his head, his trail of thoughts becomes clear to us. Thus, we find that there are some hints to a homoerotic relationship between them. The fact that David is so attracted to the charm of this young man makes it impossible for us to argue with David’s feelings, as soon as we get to know him better and start feeling for him. Here, we come back to the more theoretical part of Martha Nussbaum’s argument about the ‘literary spectator’. Even though he cannot grasp love as a concept, the spectator can feel and hope for David, which makes him sympathize with him. It is the way David speaks about Steerforth, for instance, to the Pegotty family, that attract their attention to him, in the same way as it attracts ours. When they finally meet Steerforth, he indeed manages to live up to their expectations, just like he did with ours. Steerforth is a great character, but it is David who makes sure that he is valued as such not only by himself, but also by the reader.