In Henry James’ brilliant critique “Daniel Deronda: A Conversation” one of the participants, Theodora, asserts that it is not Gwendolen’s conscience which makes her tragedy, but “it is the tragedy that makes her conscience, which then reacts upon…
As George Eliot's Introduction to Felix Holt would lead one to expect, the crux of the tragedy which this novel embodies is the "pity and terror" evoked by the "downfall of blindly-climbing hopes", rather than mere peripeteia - the 'discovery' of…
