Something that's interesting about guilt and blame in David Copperfield is that they don't have a lot to do with good and evil. David feels wicked after being beaten by Mr. Murdstone. Mrs. Strong feels guilty for her mother's exploitation of Doctor Strong. On the other hand, we don't see much remorse at all from the truly cruel characters like Uriah Heep or Littimer. Indeed, an overactive conscience seems to be one of the main characteristics of decent people like David. The interesting gray area in this novel – and one that Dickens leaves almost unexplained, unlike his laborious reasons for why Uriah Heep and Mr. Murdstone are the way they are – are the two bad characters who do the wrong thing even though it hurts them. These two are Emily and Steerforth. They each seem genuinely remorseful about choosing the morally and socially questionable paths they choose. At the same time, they blunder on anyway. We find the perverseness of this decision fascinating, since the motivations of nearly every other character, including our beloved narrator, are made so painfully clear.