74 pages • 2 hours read
George EliotDaniel Deronda
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1876A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Property
The events of Daniel Deronda largely take place in the vast country estates of the English elite. Men such as Grandcourt and Sir Hugo own these properties, which symbolize their wealth and status. The working class is relegated to the peripheries of society, as well as those of the novel, illustrating the extent to which Victorian England is defined by the relation between social classes. Each country estate is a symbol of an unequal social order that privileges one group of people over another, largely due to the circumstances of their birth. These houses are inherited and passed down in a system that perpetuates economic inequality; the working class could never dream of owning such properties.
Most characters value their estates for concrete reasons such as property value or the quality of the local hunting. For some characters, however, properties have a sentimental value. Sir Hugo is a wealthy man, though not as rich as Grandcourt. He wants to move his family to Diplow as this particular property has an immense sentimental value for him: He grew up in Diplow and he would like his family to do the same. Unfortunately for Sir Hugo, the property technically belongs to Grandcourt. Sir Hugo knows that Grandcourt is indifferent to Diplow but he also knows that Grandcourt would hold on to it simply to spite Sir Hugo. As such, Sir Hugo is forced to enter into a complicated series of theatrics to buy the property without divulging its sentimental value to Grandcourt. Grandcourt, the richest man in the novel, has no sentimental connection to anything. He withholds happiness from others, however, simply because he can. Sir Hugo’s sentimentality and Grandcourt’s spitefulness represent the differences in character among the wealthy elite of Victorian society.
At the end of the novel, Grandcourt’s will carefully divides his property in accordance with his wishes. From beyond the grave, he hopes to spite Gwendolen one last time by leaving most of his estate to his son with Lydia and only leaving Gwendolen the house he once gave Lydia. He does this to punish Gwendolen, forcing her to witness her supposed rival, Lydia, get everything while she gets almost nothing. Grandcourt would have been humiliated by such an outcome, so he assumes that Gwendolen will feel the same. Instead, Gwendolen is pleased. She plans to return to her beloved Offendene with her family, and she is content with her modest financial status, accepting her reduced place in society as Grandcourt never could. Grandcourt’s property symbolizes his inability to empathize with anyone, but it also symbolizes Gwendolen’s dramatic growth. She has put aside her ambitions and her ego to return to where she started. What Grandcourt intended to be a spiteful insult is instead a symbolic opportunity to heal.
Jewelry
Jewelry appears throughout the novel, and the characters often invest these items with personal significance. The first appearance of jewelry is the turquoise necklace Gwendolen attempts to pawn after losing at roulette. Deronda buys the necklace and returns it to her without anything more than a note. To Gwendolen, Deronda’s return of the necklace is a confusing and perhaps judgmental act that she cannot comprehend, just as she cannot comprehend Deronda. As she gets to know him, however, the necklace comes to symbolize his kindness and the unspoken bond that they share. She wears the necklace as a bracelet when she wishes to reaffirm this bond with Deronda, though Grandcourt mocks her. The turquoise necklace stands out to him because it is too cheap to be part of his world. Something so cheap could only have sentimental value, so he projects a conspiratorial meaning onto the necklace. He is correct that it carries a hidden meaning for Deronda and Gwendolen, but he cannot truly understand what they mean to one another. As such, the necklace symbolizes both the bond between Gwendolen and Deronda and Grandcourt’s inability to comprehend the nature of their friendship.
As a wedding present, Grandcourt gives diamonds to Gwendolen. He once gave these same diamonds to Lydia as a symbol of their love and he demands them back to give to his new bride. When she sends the diamonds to Gwendolen, Lydia includes a note. This note, unlike Deronda’s, places a curse on Gwendolen for breaking her promise and marrying Grandcourt. Gwendolen’s marriage never recovers from this point. Nevertheless, Grandcourt insists that she wear the diamonds. By this time, the diamonds have taken on a symbolism for both of them. For Grandcourt, the diamonds symbolize his control over Gwendolen. He can make her do as he pleases, even when she does not want to do something as simple as were specific jewelry. For Gwendolen, the symbolism is darker. Every time she wears the diamonds, she is reminded of her husband’s true character and her own broken promises. The diamonds symbolize the extent to which she has subjected herself to a man she loathes. At the same time, they symbolize the tragic irony of her marriage. At parties, everyone in the room stops to admire the diamonds. They make Gwendolen the center of attention, just as she always wanted to be. Now, however, this attention is tainted by what the diamonds signify. She cannot enjoy the reverence they bring her because they are inextricable from the horror of her marriage.
In his brief meetings with his mother, Deronda receives a necklace containing her portrait as a young woman. This item of jewelry is a symbolic attempt by Leonora to dictate the terms of her own remembrance. The two meetings in Genoa are her only interactions with Deronda; he meets her as a sickly older woman. She cannot abide the idea that he would remember her in this way, however, so she gives him a portrait of her younger self. This is Leonora as Deronda never knew her, Leonora as the beautiful young singer that she still believes herself to be. The necklace symbolizes her regret and her fears. She gave up her singing career prematurely and she is marked by regret in her later years. She is still clinging to her past and her memories, desperate for people to remember her in her prime. Even someone like Deronda, who never knew her then and who is so fascinated with her present self, must remember her as a young woman. The necklace symbolizes Leonora’s refusal to be subject to anyone or anything, even the passage of time.
Horses
In Daniel Deronda, horses function as symbols of “command and luxury” (255). While the working classes might use horses to plow fields or deliver mail, the wealthy use horses as playthings. They are an expensive hobby, as they need to be fed and stabled. A horse does not come on its own, Mr. Gascoigne explains to Gwendolen when she asks him whether the family can afford one; rather, they must be accompanied by a team of workers to maintain the horse. Mr. Gascoigne mulls over whether the horse is financially viable; his own horse is notably rundown and ragged. When Grandcourt takes an interest in Gwendolen, however, he gifts her a horse without a second thought. The sheer cost of riding symbolizes the gap between the rich and the poor, but also the varying degrees of wealth among the English elite. Gwendolen might see herself as above the working classes, but her family is not at the same level as someone like Grandcourt.
The need for horses as a means of passing the time also hints at the emptiness of the characters’ lives. Though Sir Hugo routinely urges Deronda to choose a vocation, very few of the characters are ever seen working in any meaningful sense. The wealthiest characters instead turn to riding as a way to spend their days. Once Grandcourt and Gwendolen are married, they frequently go riding together. These rides and their frequency foreshadow the tragedy of the marriage. The couple has nothing to talk about, so they take to their horses instead. Riding is a way to fill the time in a wealthy household, particularly when the members of the household cannot stand one another’s company. Gwendolen, in particular, savors these rides, which provide an opportunity to get out of the house and enjoy some degree of freedom. For Grandcourt, then, horses become yet another way to abuse and control his wife. By denying her the chance to ride—by forcing her to take a yachting vacation in the Mediterranean, for example—he limits her freedom and happiness. Horses symbolize the vapidity of the lives of the wealthy, but they also symbolize freedom, which can be withheld as a means of social control and abuse.
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By George Eliot
