A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

125.
would have been irksome to her." 5 It is quite clear that it is her respect
for Savonarola that preserves her, and it is this, also, that
keeps her critical faculty in abeyance. She has abdicated all moral responsibility.
Thus "Romola was so deeply moved by the grand energies of
Savonarola's nature, that she found herself listening patiently to all
dogmas and prophecies, when they came in the vehicle of his ardent
faith and believing utterance.1t 6
But this unthinking discipleship is doomed when Savonarola refuses
to grant the Medicean traitors the right of appeal to the great Council.
Romola's godfather, Bernardo Naro, is involved and her love and reverence
for the old man outweigh her love and reverence for the Frate. This
brings her into direct collision with Savonarola and she is led to examine
closely his motivation. She comes to suspect him of preferring
self-interest, disguised as interest for the Catholic Church, to the
vdder interest of perfect justice. This is, for her, no easy conclusion;
it conveys all the anguish of severe mentaJ. conflict. Her problem.is that
of reconciling the "duty of obedience" with the "duty of resistance. II 7
George Eliot wanted her readers to see in RomOla's dilemma a parallel to
the Frate t s own inner conflict. In a letter she wrote to Richard Holt
. Hutton after his review of Romola in the ~ctator she explaips that
the "great problem" of Romola t slife "ossentially coincides with a
8
chief problem in Savonarola's. II Romola, in a private capacity, is
grappling with the same question concerning the justice and validity
of the law as Savonarola is, in the public sphere. lIer conclusions
affect only herself; he has countless faithful GOuls dependent on him.
His injunction to them to disregard the Pope t s excommunication mandate
may well jeaporCise their spiritual well-being. It is for them both
"one of those moments in life when the soul must dare to act on its
own warrant, not only without external law to appeal to, but in the