A Feminist Reading Of George Eliot's Daniel Deronda

Daniel Deronda is the last novel of British woman writer George Eliot in the 19th century. In accordance with Eliot's other novels'concern for women's problematic situations in the Victorian times, the novel gives the depictions of women characters of different social status and cultural background in England of 19th century, which is the era of man-domination in every domain of society.The purpose of the thesis is to give a research reading on Daniel Deronda from the perspective of feminism by analyzing"gender role", the estrangement between the opposite genders and women's subversion against patriarchy which have been embodied in the novel.This thesis analyzes the"gender role"based on the details of the novel. In Daniel Deronda, George Eliot gives depiction on the female characters who have been trapped in the conventional mold—the"weaker"gender, and the prospect of domesticized femininity is figured as a terryfying spectacle of bondage and captivity. The female characters in Daniel Deronda belong to different social class and cultural background in England of 19th century, but what makes them similitude is they all have suffered in the society of male-centered culture and dominance. The women in Daniel Deronda are all oppressed and denied self-fulfilment. It would be impossible for the ambitious and unresigned women as Gwendolen and Alcharisi to have fulfilment of self-worth because male ideology forbids them to; Mirah wins men's adoration because her humbleness and obedience cater to the male-criteria which give judgements on women's virtue from men's perspective.Through the female characters in the novel, George Eliot interprets her understanding of"gender role", she advocates equal education and opportunities for both sexes, suggests that only equality of education and options can adequately prepare both men and women for their roles in creating a more productive and progressive future; she insists that men must realise the damage done to women by keeping them in ignorance—and Gwendolen is a supreme example. She blames the education society encourages women to have, and this education, she asserts, is ultimately the fault of men, who find themselves attracted to women of ornamental accomplishments rather than to women of substance. She also argues that the gender-associated behaviour is linked arbitrarily by patriarchal society to each biological sex, and gender-role stereotyping ensures the social control of women, because from childhood women are trained to accept a system of patriarchal gender categorization which divides society into male and female spheres and gives public power to males, and gender role is a form of oppression because it keeps women from social activity. Women's only function is to be inferiority to men, they are framed as the"Angel in the house"—self-sacrificing, passive, powerless, innocent, more importantly, and they should be unconditionally submissive to their husbands and other male predominators.By analyzing the gender role, the thesis reveals that gender inequality and injustice are the root of conflicts between the opposite genders. In a society of male-centredness, men are outwardly courteous to women, and nobly play the role as women's protectors, but in fact, women are"over-protected"and constrained, men have denied all possibilities of women's having their own personality, and diminished them as domestic pets and private slaves of no self-identities and rights. Being conventionally defined as the"weaker gender", women have no freedom which is based on social, political and economical independence, thus they are completely under the male-monopoly—when they are in trouble, they can only count on the noble-minded men to rescue them; they should have no notion of choosing their own life, even marriage while their male"protectors"have the"duty"to guide them to the"right"way which the male ideology would permit; they should have no complaint about having lost their happiness and their egos in marriage and domestic fetters because there is no perfect equality of rights between the husband and wife—the former is conferred a cetain degree of superiority over the latter.Eliot shows her sympathy to her female characters in the text, meanwhile, through depicting them, she utters women's voice of revolt—to break out from the limits of their gender and paternalistic assumptions about the roles of women; to condemn men's selfishness that they only care for their own happiness and pride; to criticize masculine values and injustice of masculine society bequeath to women.Eliot allows her female characters a voice of resistance to the strategy in male-dominance, but the conservative side of her attitude toward women's problems can not be neglected. In the characterization of main female characters, it suggests that any woman of personal power is bound to be bad and dangerous. The conflict between her potential and the paucity of opportunity will inevitably result in evil and disaster. That would explain why Gwendolen, the initially rebellious heroine, has been abandoned to a seemingly hopeless and lifeless future of emulating"good"female behavior; Alcharisi, the only woman in all George Eliot's fictions who finds a vocation and sticks to it, painfully finds out that she cannot gain professional excellence and personal happiness symbiotically.George Eliot's attitude toward women's problems and female consciousness, especially which is embodied in Daniel Deronda, is worth further exploration.