A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

192.
conceit of means whereby sequences may be compelled ••• precipitates
the mistaken soul on destruction?tt 1
Gwendolen's determination to be free of the petty restraints that
bind the people she sees about her is frequently presented to us within
the ironic frame of her general ignorance of the world and its conditions,
as in the following comment of her conception of the marriage state. ''For
what could not a woman do when she was married, if she knew how to assert
herself? Here all was construotive imagination. Gwendolen had about as
acourate a conception of marriage--that is to say, of the mutual influences,
demands, duties of man and woman in the state of matrimo~--
2
as she had of magnetic currents and the law of storms. tl
As Gwendolen' s moral education progresses her "ignorance of the true
bond between events tl and her "false conceit of means whereby sequences
may be oompelled" are presented less ironically. Her mistaken belief that
the world is ordered for her convenience is still contrasted with the
actuality of a world governed by universal laws; there is thf;} same metaphoric
frame,)but her sufferings now call forth the compassion of her
creator. For instance, the final description of her distress when she
realises she has lost Deronda, that they inhabit totally different
mental spaces, is couched in terms which emphasise the pathos of her
ignorance. Her: sense of loss is presented as an awareness of her own
insignificance and powerlessness and a corresponding awareness of the
immensity of the world, which "seemed getting larger round poor
Gwendolen, and she more solitary and helpless in t he midst •••• She was
for the first time feeling the ~S$ure of a vast mysterious movement,
for the first time being dislodged from her supremacy in her own world,.
and g.~tting
a sense that her horiz on was but a dipping onwe.rd ot an.~ ex-
, ,., .. ," ., '-
istence With which her ownwasr§Jvoiving." 3 We need to reJ.l.!.6!1l1t~; .. £tP. earlier
comment_$bout Gwendolen if ... wfJ f:lZ'e- to feel :tb~ full p§.tn.~s .... 9f'. tl:Q.s de-