Taking into account all of Book I of Deronda, I'd like you to think specifically about the Hermione scene (Chapter 6, p.61) in which Gwendolen freezes in terror. Given that you've all started to think about this novel in theoretical terms, you have the tools with which to read this scene. However, I'd also like for you to think about it in terms of two issues:
1) First, Performance. We've talked about her tendency to think about herself and her world as a performance. How does this scene fit into this and/or alter our understanding?
2) Second, Desire and the Body. Gwendolen has a "physical repulsion" to being wooed directly by Rex (p.70) and is even described as hardening like a "sea anemome" (81). What do you make of her resistance (figured in physical even oddly erotic terms) to eroticism?
Looking forward to talking about these issues.
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The character Gwendolen is seen in this novel performing the role of an angel when she is in the company of such people as her uncle and sings, but a monster when she does not receive what she wants. She is also seen in performing masculinity when she steps out of the traditional female world. However, when Gwendolen attempt the role of an actress, she fails miserly. Gwendolen’s failure may have something to do with the fact that the tableau was “an imitation of acting”, which Gwendolen was hoping for it to succeed because it was not an original. Thus we can conclude that Gwendolen can not perform any role except that of her self, she has to be an original. I believe Gwendolen has a desire to perform an imitation of acting within her life because she is afraid if he is vulnerable and open to others she will fail. Notice that Gwendolen loses her character when she sees the picture of the dead figure hanging over the piano. The thought of the end or death may cause her to fear reality. This event also caused her to be exposed to her audience. Her true self was shown.
I don’t believe Gwendolen’s harden towards Rex as an erotic moment. One could argue that because she holds the phallus in the relationship she may have been aroused to see him display his love for her and thus giving her more power to reject it. However, I feel that Gwendolen’s reaction to Rex was that of disgust because she likes being chased but hates the part when her suitor thinks he has caught her. Gwendolen was solidifying her resolve and emotions that makes her a woman. I believe she hates love and all that is associated with it because she is afraid she will turn out like her mother. Therefore, Gwendolen is rebelling against her mother and all that she stands for.
For Gwendolen all the worlds a stage, literally. Her every thought centers around her staging her life out to be some incredible drama. In the Hermoine scence, though she may have felt real fear, her reaction was over done. It appearred more as if she was trying to recapture the crowds attention from the horrible painting. I didn't particularly feel that the text was calling her a bad actress, because in truth she was never able to "act" out the scene. Perhaps not a subtle actress would be a better description.
Gwendolen is a "drama queen" which I think she would enjoy hearing. She feeds of the high emotions of others, when she herself feels very little. Over compensation to me is the best way to describe her character. It would be interesting to read the book from a psychological stand point; with Gwendolen as the patient. She is clearly over compensating and acting out as a result of some mental instability. Her reaction to Rex is one key example of this, through mental detachment. When she learns of Rex's fall she laughs playing the scene in her head as a comedy. Truly any, "normal" person would feel concern and remorse; but not Gwendolen.
Another example is her complete disgust of Rex's feelings for her. She admits that all she knows of love has been read in books, and she had become sick of it. If you look as every other person in Gwendolens world as her character to create, Rex has just broken the boundaries she has set.
In the Hermoine scene, I couldn't help but think of Freud's explanation of the "uncanny." Seeing the picture again probably did frighten Gwendolen but her fear seems to stem from situations in which she has no control (she has had other moments like this in situations where she is not, or would not necessarily be, in control). She seemed especially upset that the moment had occurred in front of a group of people, rather than in private. Gwendolen tries to perform a "masculine", controlling role but she when she is thwarted, she experiences terror and upset because it is a reminder to herself and others that her exterior of control is only a kind of act in itself.
This leads to the scene with Rex. I believe that this is the same sort of situation. Gwendolen has seen her mother miserable in a marriage and so she is not willing to adopt the role of "wife" in the traditional sense. With Rex, she is "queenly," but she's also powerful and in control. She has expressed he desire to lead and I think that's why she doesn't like "being made love to" because, in both meanings of that statement, she is conceived as not being in control. She knows that women are expected to follow the examples of their husbands and Gwendolen is so entranced with herself that she has decided to adopt a masculine role in order to distinguish herself from other women. This is shown in any number of ways throughout the book.
Gwendolen’s use of performance can be seen as her only means of controlling her life. She requires an audience to charm and possess in order to give herself identity and power. “With human ears and eyes about her, she had always hitherto received her confidence, and felt the possibly of winning empire” (64). She thrives on this manipulation and performance as these are her limited means of control. When playing the role of Hermione, she loses power over herself and her performance is exposed. She reveals her “sensitivity” and the fragility of her character is evident to those around her. Anna recognizes Gwendolen’s continual acting/façade and fears her brother’s adoration for such a person; in Anna’s opinion, Gwendolen is” always thinking of being something extraordinary” (66).
Her performance as a means of control is directly challenged by the character of Rex and the concept of love or equality in a relationship or commitment like marriage. She is frightened by Rex as he threatens her performance identity when he claims: “I shall be able to calculate on you. You couldn’t surprise me…you must give up a plan” (69). This links the idea of Gwendolen’s “fierceness of maidenhood” (70). She is eager to retain her virginity, purity, and beauty as a means of power in her society. In giving herself to Rex, she loses her independence and control.
Gwendolen’s necessity of an audience is also confirmed in the final scene of Chapter 7 when she rejects Rex’s proposition of love. She turns from cold and stiff to emotional sorrow and seeks the comfort of her mother. She casts off Rex’s interest in her and so she must ignite a new person to feel for her. In this example, her mother is that person: “Then the mother began to sob, for this spoiled child had never shown such dependence on her before” (82).
In response to the scene in Chapter 6 and all that we had read of Gwendolen's character in the Eliot's novel, Gwendolen's performance of the Hermione scene sheds light upon her inability to reproduce an imitation of acting as anyone but herself. Gwendolen desires to be an original in every sense of the word. Furthermore, Gwendolen desires to be anything but a representation of the dull social postions of the women around for she advocates a masculine desire for domestic power so as not to involve herself in the tragic lives of the feminine character who acts out of desperation. Gwendolen's complete resistance towards her social position as a female generates negative reactions from Mrs. Arrowpoint who resolves "to be on her gaurd" against Gwendolen. It is Gewndolen's inability to act as Hermoine derives from her desire to assert herself as something other and divorced from her role as a young woman trapped in the social codes of society. She at once desirs self-mastery and to assert herself departed from the social traditions by choosing to define herself through her actions against the actions of the females in society. However, Gwendolen's attempt to assert herself in the performance fails.
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