DD Book II - Meeting Streams

[Alexa]

Our discussion of Book II of Daniel Deronda - Meeting Streams

[Alexa]

The conversation between Gwendolen and Grandcourt at the archery match, with all of his pauses and all of her thoughts is quite amusing!

[Alexa]

So here we have all sorts of people meeting each other, and we get to know Daniel Deronda finally. A group of thoroughly nice people, which perversely makes me even fonder of Gwendolen, who is so clearly never just "nice."

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

Here are my thoughts about book II:

1) More on the very interesting structure of the novel:

As was mentioned in the discussion of book I regarding the structure of the novel--very brief passing mention is made of the protagonist.

It is revealed in book II that the novel actually opened "en medias res" or in the middle of things. Book II shows us the events leading up to GH on travel out of the country in the first place. This structure also lead me to believe that the economic situation that we find for GH's family in book I WAS the greatly reduced living situation that was as alluded to in book I from an unnamed financial crisis.

2) Grandcourt:

I was suspicious that HMG as a "desirable" prospective marital partner because of his potential of becoming a baron or a baronet, but bypasses the heiress for GH who is poor. I can only surmise that despite GH's confidence in herself as an object of universal desire, she in fact does not have a dowry. If it turns out that she has a modest dowry, I will be much surprised. By marrying woman without a dowry, she will be more completely in his power to victimized if he is not a good man with good intentions.

3) We finally see more of the protagonist, DD.
My impression is that DD is mysterious and impractical.

He is mysterious because neither DD nor the reader know anything about who he is in terms of origin. Is Sir Hugo DD's father or other relative or is Sir Hugo some sort of unrelated guardian? If Sir Hugo is a guardian, who place DD in his charge?

DD seems impractical (or perhaps silly) for "blowing off" a chance for an education and to enter the profession of his choice. If he does not want to complete the requirements of a university education or to study anything to prepare for a profession, what does he expect to do? How does he think he will support himself? How does he think that he will live?

[Theresa]

Andrea (Catsos Person) wrote: "He is mysterious because neither DD nor the reader know anything about who he is in terms of origin. Is Sir Hugo DD's father or other relative or is Sir Hugo some sort of unrelated guardian? If Sir Hugo is a guardian, who place DD in his charge?..."

I agree, DD is a very mysterious presence in this part of the book.

[Alexa]

Andrea (Catsos Person) wrote: "DD seems impractical (or perhaps silly) for "blowing off" a chance for an education and to enter the profession of his choice. If he does not want to complete the requirements of a university education or to study anything to prepare for a profession, what does he expect to do? How does he think he will support himself? How does he think that he will live?"

That's not how I understood it at all, I thought he was simply deciding to finish his education in Europe rather than England, to take a more "continental" path, rather than the exclusively "English" path he had earlier seemed to prefer. Later on mention is made of his "reading law," so I think he is indeed working towards a profession, although perhaps not with a lot of dedication. I find this a quite evocative bit:
"He was in another sort of contemplative mood perhaps more common in the young men of our day - that of questioning whether it were worth while to take part in the battle of the world: I mean, of course, the young men in whom the unproductive labour of questioning is sustained by three or five per cent on capital which somebody else has battled for."

[Alexa]

I'm also quite impressed with the way she presents his dilemma of whether or not he should inquire into his past: the curiosity of wanting to know, the fear that the facts might be quite painful, the wish not to seem ungrateful to Sir Hugo or to bring up a subject which Sir Hugo has chosen to ignore. He's really caught in the middle here and I think Eliot presents it quite well, one minute making me entirely see the reason for Daniel's inaction, the other minute making me want to shake him and say, "ask already!" As I understand it, a lot of adoptive children (who usually have a much better sense of the facts of the situation) feel a lot of the same ambivalence.