A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

Felix's decision to embrace the cause of the working class. Deronda sets
out with the full weight of his author's approval and as I have shown
with Dorothea, unless we are careful, we find ourselves accepting too
uncritically the terms in which George Eliot presents her characters'
choices. In this case we may tend to forget that when Deronda sets out
to slay dragons he is far from penniless; he is provided with a
gentleman' 5 annuity and a tender, submissive wife to administer to his
needs.
In Individualism Reconsidered, David Riesman bemoans the loss from
life of what he calls "marginality,1I which includes possibilities of
originality and creativity, as well as the capacity to stand somewhat
outside the existing systems and redesign them. In discussing the shifting
balance between what he terms "inner-direction" and "other-direction, II
he writes that
no ideology, however noble, can justify the sacrifice of an individual
to the needs of the group. Vfuerever this occurs, it is the
starkest tragedy, hardly less so if the individual consents (because
he accepts the ideology) to the instrumental use of himself ••••
Sometimes the point is pushed to the virtual denial of individuality:
since we arise in society, it is assumed with a ferocious
determinism that we can never transcend it. A1lsuch concepts are
useful correctives of an earlier solipsism. But if they are extended
to hold that conformity w'ith society is not only a necessity
but also a duty, they dest~oy that margin of freedom whioh
gives life its savour and its endless possibility for advance. 51
In defining her characters in moral t~s, stressing relationship
as opposed to identity, George Eliot effectively limits the "margin of
freedom" that Riesman is tal1i:ing about. Her characters undoubtedly
accept the instrumental use of themselves. They define themselves, choose
their own lives, as Jerome Thale puts it, 52 in ways that are in conformity
with an idea of universal, social good. Hence the three women,
Romola, Dorothea, and Catherine, can find no greater area of selfdefinition
than in the quiet domestic ','Jorld of caring for others and
especially for children. They are not constrained by social pressures