A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

208.
he did not look mood;y; if he declined ~'ome
labour--why, he flung himself
down with such a charming, half-smiling, half-pleading air, that the
pleasure of looking at him made amends to one who had watched his growth
with a sense of claim and possession. n 18 The next two sentences show
the skilful interweaving of the two viewpoints. The ironic question,
''Would anyone have said that Tito had not made a rich return to his benefactor,
or that his gratitude and affection would fail on any great demand?tt
shifts almost imperceptibly into Tito' s musing with the quick
rejoinder that ''he did not admit that his gratitude had failed; but 2:i
!!!. !!2i certain that Baldassarre was, in slavery, mot,;eeJrl;:ain:!bhat'hha"fuls
living." 19
In this instance, it would not be appropriate to describe the second
narrative voice as sympathetic; it would be even more accurate to say that
here there is only the one narra.tive VOice, the ironic. The iron;y occurs,
as with .Arthur Donnithorne, because of George Eliot' s skilful presentation
of the two points of view. We see Tito from the" outside" the extraspective
view, and we see the workings of his consciousness, the introspective
view. Thus we are constantly aware of the contradiction between
what is the case and what Tito thinks to be the case. It is not merely
that he is mistaken; it is the element of self-deception which is emphasised
by George Eliot's subtly controlled narr.ative voioe.
The examples I have offered so far, Mr Casaubon and Tito Melema,
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illustrate sucoessfUL oontrol of aesthetic distance in George Eliot's
presentation of character. However, there is a group of idealised cbaracters
towards whom George Eliot fails to achieve the necessary blend
of detached observation and sympathy; instead of the double narrator
we have only the sympathetic narrator and the tone of ironic detachment
is missing. George Eliot' s failure to maintain an adequate aesthetic
distance is a major factor in the general dissatisfaction felt with