History Literature / DanielDeronda

* AccidentalMurder: [[spoiler: Grandcourt's drowning.]]

* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar: Unlike Eliot's other novels, ''Daniel Deronda'' is set just a decade before its publication. The characters and the narrator occasionally reference what's going on in the United States, both as a moral touchstone and as a reminder that Gwendolen's worldview is extremely narrow.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Grandcourt.]]
* BaitTheDog: Grandcourt, both literally and figuratively. He rapidly veers into KickTheDog, however.
* BaldOfEvil: Grandcourt has lost most of his hair.
* BettyAndVeronica: Gwendolen and Mirah.
** A case of BettyAndVeronicaSwitch : Gwendolene is a well-liked Christian with blond hair and she seems very grounded, and Mirah is a jewish outcast with a melancholy disposition, [[spoiler: but Mirah is simply traumatized and very sweet, while Gwendolene, despite her good points, is a bit of an hysterical GoldDigger and may or may not be a sympathetic murderer. ]]

* CharacterTitle

* DrivenToSuicide: Mirah Lapidoth; averted, however, when Daniel manages to rescue her.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has Vulcans who laugh more than Grandcourt.
* FirstLove: Gwendolen to Rex Gascoigne.

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Mr. Grandcourt]]
* KissingCousins: Daniel's real parents.

* LukeIAmYourFather: In Daniel's case, mother and father.
* LongLostRelative: Mirah and [[spoiler: Mordecai.]]
* MeaningfulName: the Biblically-inspired Daniel and Mordecai.

** And, of course, Grandcourt's sidekick, Lush.
** How did I forget Grandcourt himself?

* MysteriousParent: Alcharisi.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted as a plot point.

* ParentalMarriageVeto: [[spoiler: Catherine Arrowpoint's parents]] try this when she announces that she is going to marry Klesmer. They don't get very far.

* SesquipedalianSmith: Thomas Cranmer Lush, the last character who ought to be named after an archbishop.
* ShrinkingViolet: Mirah (who particularly loathes her stage career).
* StageMom: Or, in this case, Stage Dad--Mirah's father.
* SympatheticMurderer: [[spoiler: Gwendolen.]] Whether or not [[spoiler: she]] actually ''murders'' [[spoiler: Grandcourt]], as opposed to accidentally letting [[spoiler: him drown in a moment of shock]], is left deliberately ambiguous.
* TheAtoner: Alcharisi.

* TheGambler: Gwendolen, in the novel's famous opening.

* TheTease: Gwendolen, especially with Rex Gascoigne. She also tries this on Grandcourt, with unfortunate results.

* WriteWhoYouKnow: Eliot partly modeled Mordecai after her friend, Immanuel Deutsch.

* TokenMinorityCouple: [[spoiler: A [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example, since while the Jewish Daniel hooks up Mirah, there are many other important Jewish characters in the novel.]]

** A case of BettyAndVeronicaSwitch : Gwendolene is a well-liked Christian with blond hair and she seems very grounded, and Mirah is a jewish outcast with a melancholy disposition, [[spoiler: but Mirah is simply traumatized and very sweet, while Gwendolene, despite her good size, is a bit of an hysterical GoldDigger and may and may not be a sympathetic murderer. ]]

* UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar: Unlike Eliot's other novels, ''Daniel Deronda'' is set just a decade before its publication. The characters and the narrator occasionally reference what's going on in the United States, both as a moral touchstone and as a reminder that Gwendolen's worldview is extremely narrow.

* AmericanCivilWar: Unlike Eliot's other novels, ''Daniel Deronda'' is set just a decade before its publication. The characters and the narrator occasionally reference what's going on in the United States, both as a moral touchstone and as a reminder that Gwendolen's worldview is extremely narrow.

* AllJewsAreAshkenazi: Subverted by Daniel, who is Sephardic.
** Mirah Lapidoth's ancestry is less clear: Daniel thinks that she looks "Spanish," but her father, at least, is Ashkenazi.

** Daniel's last name Deronda hints at his Jewish heritage. (''Deronda'' means "of Ronda", a city in Andalusia, Spain, where his Jewish ancestors were presumably expelled.)

''DanielDeronda'' (1876), Creator/GeorgeEliot's final novel, explores highly unusual territory for Victorian fiction: the title character, raised as a Christian, discovers and embraces his Jewish heritage. The novel has two main plots. In one, Daniel Deronda transforms from a serious but rootless young man, convinced that he is the illegitimate son of his guardian, Sir Hugo Mallinger, into a man of purpose, committed to the welfare of the Jewish people. He is inspired along the way by Mirah Lapidoth, an innocent Jewish singer whom he rescues from an attempted suicide, and by Mordecai, a Jewish mystic. In the other plot, the lovely but chilly (and self-involved) Gwendolen Harleth rescues her family from ruin by marrying the sadistic Mr. Grandcourt--even though she knows perfectly well that Grandcourt has fathered two children with his mistress, Lydia Glasher. As the novel progresses and Gwendolen sinks further and further into despair, she desperately turns to Daniel for moral support.