Kathy answers “I have read a couple of articles that said...”

A Goodreads user asked this question about Daniel Deronda:

I have read a couple of articles that said Gwendolen had been sexually abused as a child by her step-father. What do you think?

Kathy I've just read 999 pages and if George Eliot wanted me to think that something as significant as this had happened during Gwendolen's childhood, I thi…moreI've just read 999 pages and if George Eliot wanted me to think that something as significant as this had happened during Gwendolen's childhood, I think she would have squeezed it in somewhere. Eliot seems fairly clear that the wound that Gwendolen felt was the lack of security and boundaries that could have been supplied by a good father. For the purpose of the narrative, we are shown that Gwendolen has been damaged by being spoilt and over-indulged by her silly mother and that she has been harmed by the neglect of her moral character: something that a father or stepfather could have corrected, but did not. (less)

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