A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

34.
moral regeneration; remorse as an agent oft:he conscience is a sign of
potential moral strength, not of psychological insufficiency.
If, then, a morally neutral exercising of t he will is not permitted,
what is George Eliot saying in the early part of Daniel Deronda? VIe see
Gwendolen's superb self-confidence that she will make a mark on the
world suffer a series of shocks until in her final outpouring of her
soul to Deronda . after Grandcourt' sdrowning, we can scarcely recognise the
self-contained, proud young lady of the opening scenes. Th6 underlying
commentary points constantly to the exaggerated and unrealistic quality
of Gwendolen' s expectations, both of herself and what she can-achieve,' -/ fi,.-;}
and of the world. Grappling with the implications of their loss of fortune,
she says pettishly to her mother: '''It seems to me a very extraordinary
world if people in our position must sink in this waY all at
once' •••• the other worlds with which she was conversant being constructed
with a sense of fitness that arranged her mm future agreeably. II 109
We encounter similar solipsistic beliAfs in other egoists, for example,
Arthur Donnithorne or Rosamond Vincy. George Eliot sums up such mistaken
notions when she points out that "the most obstinate beliefs that mortals
entertain about themselves are such as they have no evidence for beyond a
constant pulsing of.their self-satisfaction--as it were a hidden seed of
madness, a confidence that they can move the world without precise notion
of standing-place or lever. II 110 The key words from this statement are
"evidence" and "precise notion." For George Eliot, as we have seen, the
world was governed by irreversible laws and freedom consisted in recognising
these laws, co-operating with them where possible and not straining
against those that were immutable. In these terms, Gwendolen's ignorance
or partial ignorance that this is how things are makes meaningless
her defiant claim that "she did not mean to submit, and let misfortune
(10 what it would with her." 111 It is inevitable tha.t she should suffer