A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

ignore the fact that we have only the one set of alternatives. Dorothea
is regarded as unconventional and daring in marrying a man whose genealogy
is as confused as 1adislaw's; unless we are very much on our guard,
we find ourselves accepting George Eliot's presentation of the possibilities
which confront Dorothea and we do not recognise the sleight-ofhand
involved. Given the available choices, Dorothea is :Yndoubtedly rebellious
when she decides to discard her fortune to marry Will, but in
a wider context than the novel such rebelliousness surely does not count
for much.
The third rebellious character, Catherine Arro ....'lPoint in Daniel
Deronda, has an amusing interview vdth her outraged parents when she
tells them she is going to marry Herr Klesmer. They had fully expected
her to sacrifice herself by marrying some impecunious, but high-ranking
gentleman. Informed by her mother that it is her duty '''to place a great
property in the right hands,'" she answers tartly that Ilf people can
easily take the sacred word duty as a name for what they des~re
any one
else to do. t II 49 It is a sentiment t hat we might vlell wish other of
George Eliot's heroines had been able to utter. But Catherine is not a
protagonist. Her function in the novel is to provide a foil to Gwendolen.
T~Air respective attitudes to music, for example, are contrasted.
Catherine's character shows strength and integrity and her approach to
the sacred world of art is a mark of her moral worth. A fine musician,
she would never have contemplated using her music as a mere means of
earning money as Gwendolen does. The scene I have just referred to,
shows her choosing comparative poverty for the sake of love. Gwendolen
will shortly accept a loveless but wealthy marriage. But Catherine is a
static character of little account in her ovm self and appears only in
explicitly patterning episodes. Therefore, it is safe to entrust such
a subversive speech to her. Besides, her parents' expectations of her