A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

124.
nance which, in her mind, releases her from any obligation towards him.
Hence she feels perfectly free to leave him, and Florence, in order to
seek out a new life for herself in Northern Italy.
She felt that there could be no law for her but the law of her
affections. That tenderness and keen fellow-feeling for the near
and the loved which are the main 9utgrov~h of the affections, had
made the religion of her life: they had made her patient in spite
of natural impetuosity; they woulC'.. have sufficed to make her
heroic. But now all that strength was gone, or, rather, it was
converted into the strength of repulsion •••• She was going to
solve the problem in a way that seemed to her very simple. Her
mind had never yet bowed to any obligation apart from personal
love and reverence; she had no keen sense of anY other human relations,
and all she had to obey DOW was the instino':t to sever herself
from the man she loved no longer. 2
It is for this failure to acknowledge a continuing obligation in the
absence of love that Savonarola attacks her most forcibly. He draws a
parallel between Tito's faithlessness and her own which reluotantly she
comes to accept. We know more about Tito's behaviour, his "explaining
away" 3 Baldassarre's claim than Romola does, and are in a better position
to assess just how morally lightweight he is. Vie may feel that Tit 0' s
£lotions are more reprehensible than Romola's, but onoe we understand the
underlying principle by means of which George Eliot is examining the
motivation of them both, we can see the force of Savonarola's suggestion
that there is something similar in their behaviour.
Under the powerful influence of the Frate's personality and despite
her rejection of the outward forms of Christianity, Romola returns to
Tito, and to Florence, and starts a new phase of her life .. When love and
duty were combined, sacrifice was easy for her; now she has to overcome
a certain inherent distaste for the tasks she imposes on herself .. Only
the vision of a "transcendent moral life" 4 keeps her buoyant. "She had
no innate taste for tending the siok and clothing the ragged •••• Her
early training had kept her aloof from such womanly labours; and if she
had not brought to them the inspiration of her deepest feelings, they