Daniel Deronda

Gwendolen Grandcourt is the secondary protagonist of Daniel Deronda. Her tragic descent into despair is one of the important narrative strands. This descent is juxtaposed against the version of Gwendolen who is first introduced to the audience. Both at the gambling table and in her mother’s company, Gwendolen is self-assured, cynical, and headstrong, doing just as she likes. Unlike Deronda, she is convinced that she knows herself, and she constantly describes her ambitions and desires. Her main goal is to be in control of her own life. She does not want to subject herself to other people, as she believed her mother subjected herself to her second husband. Instead, she wants to be the center of attention on her own terms. Gwendolen does not believe in marriage because she believes that, in the patriarchal society in which she lives, marriage requires a woman to subject herself to a man. Instead, she wants to be free and revered for her beauty and talent.

Gwendolen’s early flirtations with Grandcourt give her the hope that she might be able to control him or otherwise influence him in marriage. She is proved terribly, tragically wrong. The reveal of Lydia’s existence shows Gwendolen that Grandcourt is more brutal than she imagined. She runs away from him, only to have her family immiserated by a bank collapse. To save her family’s fortunes and her own pride, Gwendolen subjects herself to marriage. She goes through the social dynamic she has long proclaimed to hate, largely for the sake of others. This act of self-sacrifice is new to Gwendolen. Indeed, the irony of her marriage is that she gets everything she wants but only in an aesthetic sense. She becomes the center of the community, the beautiful young bride of the richest and most influential aristocrat in the area. When she enters a room, everyone turns to admire her. The cost of this attention and admiration, however, is emotional abuse. Grandcourt limits her freedoms and curbs the agency she once savored. He delights in destroying the strong ego that once defined Gwendolen’s character. She is given all the riches in the world and all the attention she ever wanted, but her subjection to Grandcourt leads only to suffering, to the point where she considers murdering her husband.

After Grandcourt dies in an accident, Gwendolen believes that she and Deronda are destined to be together. Throughout her suffering, she has unilaterally elevated him in her mind to become her savior. Though Deronda never indicated to her that he had the capacity to save her from her abusive relationship, he was the one to whom she turned in her most desperate state. With Grandcourt gone, she—like many others—expects them to be married. Deronda does not marry Gwendolen. Instead, he marries Mirah. The shock to Gwendolen is a devastating but necessary one, lifting the final veil from Gwendolen’s mistaken interpretation of society. She is now forced to reckon with the world as it really is, not with the world as she imagined it to be. Her last assumption is removed and she is left alone, but with the capacity to determine her own future at last. By marrying Mirah and defying Gwendolen’s expectations, Deronda helps Gwendolen come to terms with her reality. She does not need to depend on other people to be happy any longer. She is financially independent, free from her mistaken beliefs about the world, and free from subjection. She can live exactly as she pleases.

Henleigh Grandcourt is the rich, privileged antagonist of Daniel Deronda. In many ways, he is Deronda’s opposite. While Deronda exudes empathy, Grandcourt lacks the capacity to feel anything for anybody, valuing only his own emotions. He is only interested in others insofar as he can bend them to his will; when their subjection no longer interests him, he discards them. He convinces Lydia to leave her husband and child, only to leave her alone with four children when he grows tired of her. Similarly, he was not overly interested in Gwendolen until she ran away to Europe. Her defiance made her fascinating to Grandcourt and he was determined to bend her to his will. Once they marry, he sets about this domination with a ruthless attitude. He limits her freedoms and emotionally manipulates her until she is driven into absolute despair. Grandcourt delights in his wife’s despair, using this as an indicator of his success in breaking her.

Ultimately, Grandcourt is killed by his desperate need to dominate. Arriving in Genoa, he insists that Gwendolen join him on a boat. He is certain that she and Deronda have not arranged to meet, but he notices that Deronda’s presence gives his wife a little hope and he wishes to take this away from her. Grandcourt revels in casting Gwendolen even further into despair. On the boat, he slips and falls in the sea. In this moment, the power dynamic of their marriage suddenly reverses. She is the one who can determine the outcome, and he is totally dependent on her. Gwendolen hesitates for a moment before throwing him the rope, and he drowns. As he drowns, she jumps into the sea to try to save him. Yet the moment of hesitation is a product of Grandcourt’s abuse. Even then, by leaping into the sea, Gwendolen shows that she is more humane than Grandcourt could ever hope to be. She is willing to risk her life to save the man she loathes. Grandcourt, in a similar situation, would not do the same. He dies as a result of his abusive behavior.

After Grandcourt dies, people turn to his will to understand how to distribute his vast fortune. The will disgusts moral men like Sir Hugo, as they can see that the will is a plain attempt to spite Gwendolen from beyond the grave. More importantly, however, the practicalities of the will demonstrate that Grandcourt never truly understood his wife. Since Gwendolen did not furnish Grandcourt with a male heir, the majority of his estate passes to Lydia’s son. Grandcourt meant this as an insult to Gwendolen. He never entertained the idea that Gwendolen—feeling guilty for her own actions—might desire this outcome. The will suits Gwendolen in a way that Grandcourt would never imagine because he would never be able to conceive of taking pleasure in losing a fortune or being deemed second best to someone else. Furthermore, the will gives Gwendolen the opportunity to turn down the inheritance. This is an opportunity to reassert the agency Grandcourt destroyed. Though Gwendolen ultimately accepts the money, the fact that it is her choice sets her on a path toward rebuilding her happiness. In his death, Grandcourt’s final attempt to be spiteful and controlling to his wife only succeeds in showing his lack of empathy and his lack of humanity. He wanted to control Gwendolen, but ultimately he could not, because he never truly understood her.