A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

14-3.
Deronda t S
specifically Jewish racial inheritance, of \'Ihich he is
ignorant for much of the book, provides an explanation for many of the
seemin{';ly irrational and non-realistic elements of the book, and most
particularly for the relationship '::ith the dying vi~ionary,
Mordecai. It
is as if, in order for us to accept that Deronda will be grateful to have
the responsibility of his Jewishness revealed to him, we have also to
accept that it is so strong an influence on h1s1ife that it manifests
itself before he himself is aware of it. Deronda refers to "an inherited
yearning--the effect of brooding, passionate thoughts in many ancestors
--thoughts that seem to have been intensely present in mygrandi'ather."
43
The notion of duty as "hereditary conditions, II 44 enlarges our understanding
of the complex interplay of plots in this novel. Daniel. Derond.,:3.,
has frequently been criticisecl for the overweighting of the IIJewish
question. II F. R. Leavis even went. so far as to suggest at one stage,
l .. 5
(although he later changed his mind), h·6 JGhat it would make H much more
satisfactory novel if· the Jewish question were omitted altogether and a
new novel called Gwendolen Harleth were salvaged from the remains. This
complaint and others like it point mainly to the fact that in writing the
Jewish dimension of the book, George Eliot was havinG to rely heavily on
. research; vie have seen something similEI' in the Italian background of
Romola. The
Jewish dimension was not somethinG directly related to her
Drm experience; it required a supreme eff'ort of imagination for her to
construct the necessary situations and the strain is evident. However,
we need to decide whether the complaint against Danie 1.
~onda is a response
to this feeling of strain, a recognition that George Eliot was
not moving confidently in this un:Camiliar element, so that the sections
dealing with beronda when he is apart from Gwendolen lack the vividness
and spontaneous inevitability of the Gwendolen/Grandcourt sections, or
whether it concerns a more basic structural flaw. A brilliant psych-