His ambition, unlike Gwendolen's, is marked by a desire to emulate the heroes of past ages. Early on, Daniel sacrifices his own studies in order to help a wounded friend obtain a scholarship to college. Inherited custom is a burden, but it is also a directing force.ĭaniel, by contrast, yearns for communion with those around him. Sensitive readers will discern a significant challenge in this freedom, and sense that Gwendolen's predicament is not unlike the predicament many young people face in our own times. And yet, her private moments of terror remind the reader that there is an awful emptiness in the lack of custom and social support built into inherited tradition. To compound this problem, Gwendolen's circumstances allow her to determine her own destiny and path through life-she is a 'new woman,' in Wisse's phrase, free of the customs that bound previous generations. For all her youthful confidence, she is visited in her private moments by a terror of isolation for a person who wishes to elevate herself above those around her, a fear of isolation is a big problem. Yet we quickly learn that Gwendolen, whose beauty and bearing elevate her above her lady peers, lacks the foresight and self-control to guide herself.

Gwendolen Harleth desires above all else to distinguish herself, to raise herself above the common herd. Daniel Deronda opens with a splendid picture of the protagonist. While Wisse prepares viewers for her lectures, Eliot throws readers into the deep end. This technique is helpful to alert the viewer to the questions she raises without spoiling their wonder. Not only does Wisse deliver the lectures, she also frames them beforehand in small interview segments.

Wisse's lectures combine a tone of disciplined studiousness with conversational banter. It would be impossible for a mere mortal to get through without someone to talk to about it. It is over 800 pages (in my Penguin edition, at least) and requires careful attention. It is important to have an expert guide for this novel, which, however familiar to our times, is also intricate and extraordinarily subtle. Indeed, Wisse insists that Deronda is a book uniquely suited to our time because it presents characters struggling with the same forces we struggle with today: the breakdown of inherited custom and morality, the fruits and challenges of love and its relation to family life, and the place of the nation in the world. Wisse is full of such wisdom, and she draws out the wisdom of George Eliot in a way that makes the book come alive.

Eliot daniel deronda