Daniel Deronda By Eliot Essay Research Paper

Daniel Deronda By Eliot Essay, Research Paper

Leonora Alcharisi.s Individualism in George Eliot.s Daniel Deronda

Although Daniel.s mother is only in two chapters of George Eliot.s Daniel Deronda, she stands out as one of the novel.s most memorable, and shocking, characters. Leonora Alcharisi completely obliterates any preconceptions that Daniel, and the reader, had about what his mother might be like. The crux of why she is so shocking is that her character is bereft of any motherly qualities. Leonora.s renouncing of the role that society values most in women, that of mother, is emblematic of her rejection of every design that society projected on her. Leonora.s struggle with the society that doesn.t value her because she is a Jewess is embodied in her relationship with her father, Charisi. Her nature is one that needs freedom. This causes her to chafe under the constraints of her strict Jewish upbringing. Although she is only concerned with personal liberation and is thus not a true feminist, Leonora articulates many ideals that are very feminist in nature. By examining her successes and failures, the reader gains insight into the novel, and society as a whole.

Eliot describes Leonora.s beauty as having .a strangeness in it as if she were not quite a human mother. (Eliot 536). In one sentence Eliot establishes that Leonora does not appear motherly and for that reason seems a bit inhuman as well. Throughout Daniel.s meeting with his mother Eliot uses descriptions such as .without maternal delight. and .with the manner of a queen rather than of a mother. to describe Leonora.s actions (Eliot 538, 565). Leonora.s every move seems to reflect her want of maternal instinct or emotion. Her words do not betray her appearance as Leonora tells Daniel that she neither wants his affection nor is able to give him hers. Daniel is .repelled by the frank coldness which had replaced all his preconceptions of a mother.s tender joy in the sight of him. (Eliot 542). This repulsion is shared by the reader who, like the novel.s hero, is forced to reconcile Leonora with the .most cherished emotions and principles. society holds in regards to female motherly inclination (Eliot 542).

Mrs. Meyrick inadvertently defines exactly what is at the heart of society.s expectations of motherhood when she tells Mirah .oh, my dear, women are made to like pain and trouble for the sake of their children. (Eliot 556). Society expects women to sacrifice any dreams of their own for the greater good of others, be it their children, fathers, husbands, or communities. Leonora chose a different path. She

cast all precedent out of her mind. Precedent had no excuse for her, and she could only seek justification in the intensest words she could find for her experience. (Eliot 537)

Leonora dedicated her life to the pursuit of her own happiness, with no regard for anyone else. Since her personal happiness is paramount to all other things, .her experience. is the only .justification. she needs to needs to validate her giving up of Daniel. She couldn.t be .hampered with other lives. (Eliot 536).

Leonora rejects society’s roles because of her father. Placing all value on herself is Leonora.s way of rebelling against a culture that, embodied in her father, places no value on women except as mothers. Of her father she says

He never comprehended me, or if he did, he only thought of fettering me into obedience. I was to be what he called .the Jewish woman. under pain of his curse. I was to feel everything I did not feel, and believe everything I did not believe. (Eliot 540)

Caring more about .the grandson to come. than he did about his daughter, Charisi fails to recognize the strength within his daughter (Eliot 544). Thus he doesn.t worry about the consequences of his daughters love of singing .because he felt he could hinder them if he liked. (Eliot 542).

Charisi.s strength makes him .a man to be admired in a play-grand, with an iron will. But such men turn their wives and daughters into slaves. (Eliot 541). Leonora.s will is too strong to be cowed into submission by her father or the Jewish culture. Daniel recognizes something in his mother.s nature that his grandfather never did. Despite the frustration he feels at his mother.s lack of tenderness, Daniel is aware of a personal

admiration of a forceable nature whose errors lay along high pathways, which he would have felt if, instead of being his mother, she had been a stranger who had appealed to his sympathy. (Eliot 542)

Leonora inherits her strong will from her father, the man who never placed enough importance in her to recognize it. Her .strong will. is what causes her to chafe at the constraints society places on women and which she suffered doubly as a Jew. She rages that .every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else be a monster. (Eliot 539). When Daniel attempts to empathize with her she tells him

You may try-but you can never imagine what it is to have a man.s force of genius in you, and yet to suffer the shame of being a girl. To have a pattern cut out-.this is the Jewish woman; this is what you must be; this is what you are wanted for; a woman.s heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by fixed receipt.. (Eliot 541)

Drawing upon her char