Novel: Daniel Deronda

Overview
George Eliot’s final novel intertwines two narratives that meet at a crossroads of conscience, identity, and social destiny. Set in England and on the Continent in the 1860s–70s, Daniel Deronda pairs the glittering yet constraining world of the British gentry with the newly insistent question of Jewish nationhood. The novel follows the moral education of a spoiled, intelligent beauty, Gwendolen Harleth, and the spiritual awakening of the generous, searching Daniel Deronda, an English gentleman by upbringing whose origins are uncertain. Their paths cross at moments of crisis that test freedom, obligation, and the possibility of renewal.

Gwendolen Harleth’s Story
Gwendolen is first seen at a German spa, poised and self-admiring, when Daniel quietly witnesses her at the roulette tables. When a family financial collapse forces her home, she pawns a necklace in panic; Daniel redeems it and arranges its anonymous return, introducing a moral counterpoint to her self-will. Back in England, Gwendolen calculates for survival. Desiring independence and social command, she accepts the suit of Henleigh Grandcourt, a wealthy, emotionally withholding aristocrat, despite a plea from his abandoned mistress, Lydia Glasher, who confronts her with the existence of his children and his broken promises. Marriage brings luxury and imprisonment. Grandcourt’s cold tyranny and Gwendolen’s mounting dread corrode her resolve. During a Mediterranean yachting excursion, a boating accident leaves Grandcourt drowning before her eyes. Paralyzed by fear and complicated by a guilty wish for release, she fails to save him, and his death becomes the pivot of her moral reckoning.

Daniel Deronda’s Discovery
Raised by the benevolent Sir Hugo Mallinger, Daniel suspects illegitimacy yet lives as a model gentleman, generous and reflective, troubled by the aimlessness of privilege. His life changes when he rescues Mirah Lapidoth, a young Jewish woman about to drown herself in the Thames after fleeing an abusive father. Placing her with the affectionate Meyrick family, Daniel enters London’s Jewish circles and meets Mordecai, a visionary thinker consumed by a dream of Jewish national revival and ethical mission. Mordecai recognizes in Daniel the ideal interlocutor and potential leader he has imagined. Seeking the truth of his past, Daniel confronts his mother, the celebrated Princess Halm-Eberstein, who reveals that he is Jewish by birth. Having rejected her people to pursue an artist’s freedom, she reared him apart from Judaism; the revelation frees Daniel to claim what she refused. He embraces his heritage, pledges himself to Mirah, and becomes the bearer of Mordecai’s hope.

Intersecting Arcs
Gwendolen, shattered by Grandcourt’s death, turns to Daniel as a figure of moral authority. Their charged conversations, initially sparked by his silent judgment at the casino, now press on responsibility, remorse, and the possibility of choosing better ends. Daniel’s compassion steadies her without eclipsing her agency. When he and Mirah commit to a future oriented toward Jewish restoration in the East, Gwendolen must relinquish any unspoken longing and reimagine a life grounded in duty rather than dominion.

Themes and Significance
The novel juxtaposes two quests: a woman learning to replace self-worship with ethical self-command, and a man discovering a collective identity that enlarges personal virtue into historical purpose. It interrogates the coercions of marriage and class, the costs of aesthetic egoism, and the redemptive force of sympathy. Eliot’s serious, respectful portrayal of Jewish life, through Mirah’s dignity, Mordecai’s visionary idealism, and Daniel’s chosen belonging, anticipates modern debates about nationalism and cultural continuity. The ending sends Daniel and Mirah toward a hopeful, arduous mission, while Gwendolen remains in England, chastened yet awakened to a more humane freedom.