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PARTISAN REVIEW
Gwendolyn initially thinks only of her needs in relationships. Her
self-centeredness does not allow her to comprehend the spiritual com–
ponent of her life. Like other Eliot female characters-Hetty Sorrel
(Adam Bede)
and Rosamond Vincy
(Middlemarch)-she
has a socially
pleasing exterior. Also like these heroines, the possessive male gaze tends
to objectify Gwendolyn by defining her as a commodity. The narrator
sums up this point well in the beginning of the novel:
She had a
naive
delight in her fortunate self, which any but the
harshest saintliness will have some indulgence for in a girl who had
every day seen a pleasant reflection of that self in her friends' flat–
tery as well as in the looking-glass. And even in this beginning of
troubles, while for lack of anything else to do she sat gazing at her
image in the growing light, her face gathered a complacency grad–
ual as the cheerfulness of the morning. Her beautiful lips curled
into a more and more decided smile, till at last she took off her hat,
leaned forward and kissed the cold glass which had looked so
warm.
The obvious parallels to the myth of Narcissus, whose mesmerizing
sense of self leads to his death, abound here. Gwendolyn, who delights
in her own beauty, also thinks that she can escape any troubles by rely–
ing on her looks as a last resort in case anything debilitating should hap–
pen. Vanity guides her throughout much of the novel, even when it
comes to marrying a man who reflects her worst characteristics. After
she rebukes a suitor, she despairingly declares to her mother, "I shall
never love anybody. I can't love people. I hate them." The only image
she can trust and love is the reflection that can only return a cold kiss.
Significantly, Eliot does not blame Gwendolyn for her self-absorption.
Her narcissism has been encouraged by friends and by the dominant cul–
ture's valuing beauty in women above all other traits. For the narrator,
"only the harshest saintliness" can condemn her for her feelings. This
leaves Gwendolyn in a difficult situation: looking within or outside her–
self, she cannot find any escape from her culture's spiritual vacancy. In
fact, the majority culture wants her to retain her superficial sense of self
in order to confirm its own values.
If
Gwendolyn can imagine herself as
a pristine commodity, then the culture can pride itself on the production
and use of such commodities. For Gwendolyn to reject these values
would threaten basic cultural assumptions, although her willingness to
question her status opens up a potential for reform. Daniel, and what his
evolving Jewish sensibility represents, offers a possible alternativc.
