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the new Daniel, emboldened by his acceptance of the minority dis–
course, represents the spiritual possibility for British citizens who would
recognize judaism's cultural and spiritual value.
Moreover, Daniel's responsibility-to translate Mordecai's untrans–
latable fictions-marks his entrance into a spiritual world that retains a
sense of mystery and doubt.
If
Judaism manifests the spiritual through
ethical action, then Daniel's intellectual bequest might be interpreted as
limiting his abilities to convert his spiritual awakening into political
action. That is one reason why he leaves England in a proto-Zionist
attempt to seek out his roots and help establish a "political existence"
for the Jews. As Mordecai demonstrates at the Hand and Banner, virtu–
ally all of his philosophy and spirituality is connected directly to the idea
of a Jewish homeland. Rather than spend years deciphering complex
spiritual codes, Daniel realizes that Mordecai's true commandment
relies on Daniel 's political commitment. Daniel cannot convert to the
idea of scholarship; he can convert to the idea of nation-founding.
Although he recognizes this as a long and difficult journey, it is the only
journey worth his effort. In his heart, Daniel feels that hierarchies must
change to accommodate a spiritually informed politics.
Outwardly, nineteenth-century England, like other European cultures,
did not have much confusion about soc ietal hierarchies. English society
generally relegated Jews to peripheral positions and locations, where
they lived and worked together. Nevertheless, Victorian Jews were often
represented, both positively and negatively, in magazines, journals, car–
toons, and newspapers. Prominent Jews like the Rothschilds, Sassoons,
and Montefiores were often profiled and Jews, as Gideon states in the
novel, achieved "political equality." Additionally, Benjamin Disraeli, the
Prime Minister and author who converted from Judaism to Christianity,
received much scrutiny, both positive and negative, about his Jewish her–
itage. Nonetheless, Jews still existed in the background, even in the liter–
ature of the period-Fagin, one of Dickens's few Jews, is an auxiliary
character. Eliot took a different approach in
Daniel Deronda.
For her, the
presence of the Jews built until that presence finally became a central
issue. Daniel Cottom, in
Social Figures
(1987), argues convincingly how
the individual in
Daniel Deronda
is subordinate to the social dramas that
construct the individual. In this way, a society depends on fruitful cul–
tural interactions that produce strategies of interdependence for its mem–
bers. Judaism, as a marginal part of the greater culture, reorients its
adherents and others affected by its philosophy. Most problematic for
Eliot, then, was the general dismissal of minority cultures, like Judaism,
which conflicted with mainstream conceptions of community and ethics.
