As I mentioned in class, for our next session, I'd like to discuss Deronda's meeting(s) with his mother, both in terms of how they represent Jewishness and race, but also how gender politics affects racial politics (i.e. her ambition and talent, evading the limitations put on women etc...)
A couple moments to think about:
a) Her "mobile" face that is always changing. How does this relate to the issues of race and legibility that we've been discussing (624). Deronda on the other hand is a "young copy" of his grandfather (630).
b) What do you make of the comparison between her and a Melusina (or fairy that is serpent from the waist down)?
c) What do you make of the scene in which his mother explains that despite shedding her outer Jewishness, people looked at them as if "tattoed under our clothes" (635). Deronda's response is driven by the "obstinacy of race in him" (635).
d) In their 'second interview' they discuss the relationship between individual desires and history ("the effects prepared by generations are likely to triumph over a contrivance which would bend them all to the satisfaction of self" (663). How does Inheritance (biological/cultural) work here?
Obviously, we have much to talk about with regard to Gwendolen and what happens with her, but let's start with Deronday (again):)
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I believe Deronda’s mother is another representation of how the “other”, in this case the Jewish body, cannot be clearly translated to Jewish women. Deronda did not know if Mirah was a Jew and now we discover that his mother can also pass. So is Jewishness only detected within the male body? It seems so because everyone knew Deronda was different and perhaps a Jew, except Deronda. Thus is appears that men cannot blur their racial line but women can. This incident is opposite to the Gypsy plays we read where the kidnapped boy could pass but the women could not because they were the embodiment of the Jewish race.
I found the comparison of Deronda’s mother to Melusina affirming Gilbert and Gubar’s theory in their essay “the Mad Woman in the Attic”. She is not described as a monster until she takes on traditional male roles and defies her father. Thus she is masculine. She commands men to fall at her feet, just like she dominated Deronda’s father. When a woman steps out of her traditional role she is viewed as a monster because she threats the men that are around her. In this scene she a threat to the world in which Deronda grew up in. She is transforming his identity. In her conversation with Deronda she has the power.
In the second interview between Deronda and his mother I believe she acknowledged the fact that Deronda is going to embrace his Jewishness because he as a higher calling within that capacity. I think his mother told him of his true identity not only because she is dying. She is aware that his destiny is to hold an important role within the Jewish community. If not, why else would she smile at him with admiration when he stands up while she is sitting and go on a passionate tirade about his connection to the Jewish people. Deronda believes being a Jew is apart of his fate and is now buying into the ideas and aspirations of his fellow Jewish friend. Deronda had a desire to have a history and an origin which provided him with a purpose in life. When a person has a desire for something and learns his history then he creates an identity.
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