An Attempt for Deconstruction and Reconstruction in Daniel Deronda － George Eliot’s Vision of the Jewish Story －

Our aim is to make clear how George Eliot is trying to hold up a mirror in Daniel Deronda against later nineteen-century Britain in her social and spiritual context. Christian tradition, in her view, has long been settled more or less into a dead-letter conventionalism. She finds in Jewish way of life a comparative viewpoint from which she can look closely at her own cultural background. In order to restore a living religion into the whole fabric of society, Hebrew language and its organic vision of history seem to Eliot to give a valuable hint for British people to learn from. Her awareness of this finds expression in a thread of the Jewish story woven in parallel with the English one. We will examine this sense of purpose on the part of the novelist on the evidence of the text.