George Eliot; a Critical Study of Her Life, Writings and PhilosophyCooke, George Willis
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George Eliot; a Critical Study of Her Life, Writings and Philosophy
Cooke, George Willis
Eliot, George, 1819-1880; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Biography
Then the true artistic arrangement vindicates itself, and the
unity of the book becomes apparent. Deronda moves in both these worlds, and
their influence on him is finely conceived. He finds no spiritual aim and
motive for his life until he is led into the charmed circle of a
traditional environment, and learns to live in and for his race. Living for
self, the life of Gwendolen is blasted, her hopes crushed, and she finds no
peace or promise except in the steadfast spiritual strength yielded her by
Deronda. That such a contrasting of the two great phases of life was a part
of George Eliot's purpose she has herself acknowledged. A comparison of the
spiritual histories of Gwendolen and Deronda will show how earnest was this
purpose of the author. Gwendolen is a type of those souls who have no
spiritual anchorage in the religious life and traditions of their people.
At the opening of chapter third we are told she had no home memories, that
"this blessed persistence in which affection can take root had been wanting
in Gwendolen's life." At the end of the sixth chapter we are also told that
she had no insight into spiritual realities, that the bonds of spiritual
power and moral retribution had not been made apparent to her mind.
Her ideal was to be daring in speech and reckless in braving dangers,
both moral and physical; and though her practice fell far behind her
ideal, this shortcoming seemed to be due to the pettiness of
circumstances, the narrow theatre which life offers to a girl of
twenty, who cannot conceive herself as anything else than a lady, or as
in any position which would lack the tribute of respect. She had no
permanent consciousness of other fetters, or of more spiritual
restraints, having always disliked whatever was presented to her under
the name of religion, in the same way that some people dislike
arithmetic and accounts: it had raised no other emotion in her, no
alarm, no longing; so that the question whether she believed it, had
not occurred to her, any more than it had occurred to her to inquire
into the conditions of colonial property and banking, on which, as she
had had many opportunities of knowing, the family fortune was
dependent. All these facts about herself she would have been ready to
admit, and even, more or less indirectly, to state. What she
unwillingly recognized, and would have been glad for others to be
unaware of, was that liability of hers to fits of spiritual dread,
though this fountain of awe within her had not found its way into
connection with the religion taught her, or with any human relations.
She was ashamed and frightened, as at what might happen again, in
remembering her tremor on suddenly feeling herself alone, when, for
example, she was walking without companionship and there came some
rapid change in the light. Solitude in any wide scene impressed her
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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