The Object of His Affection
The first example of the use of imagery in the novel is directed toward the subject of the story’s opening query: “Was she beautiful or not beautiful?” From this question the narrative quickly moves to establish—ambiguously—the identity of the “she” in question and then also immediately situates with imagery an essential aspect of characterization which may or may not be related to the question at hand. It is imagery not of the woman, but where the woman can be found:
“Daniel Deronda’s mind was occupied in gambling: not in the open air under a southern sky, tossing coppers on a ruined wall…but in one of those splendid resorts which the enlightenment of ages has prepared for the same species of pleasure at a heavy cost of gilt mouldings, dark-toned color and chubby nudities, all correspondingly heavy—not easily procurable to be breathed in elsewhere in the like proportion, at least by persons of little fashion.”
Epigraphs
Each chapter of the novel prefaces with an epigraph of one type or another; that is, a quotation usually borrowed from another work composed by a different writer. Some of these epigraphs take the conventional form of short passages of verse or a single quoted line of prose, but mixed among can also be the occasional passage of dialogue from a play or scientific text. It is, in fact, this broad diversity of sources from which the quotes are chosen that serves the purposes of imagery. The decision to intentionally reach out, grab the reader by the scruff of the neck and yank them right out of the carefully constructed fiction with this editorial intrusion that opens each new chapter is not one to lightly overlook. It is too much to call Eliot’s work here an example of postmodernism, but it verges very near the borderline, not merely inviting the reader, but challenging them to consider Deronda’s story as a fiction rather than striving for the illusion of pure realism.
Moses
Over the course of the novel, Deronda will discover the full truth about his illegitimacy which culminates in learning he is Jewish. Imagery is found throughout the story allowing for the gradual linking of Deronda to Moses that starts out as rejection and ultimately becomes a passionate embrace as the title character devotes his life to the same goal as the Biblical deliverer when he declares intentions of “restoring a political existence to my people, making them a nation again.”
The Nature of Virtue
The novel moves quickly to establish the title character as an absolute paragon of virtuous decency and he is never presented with a challenge to that nature. Instead, the story pursues a thematic questioning of whether virtue is in itself, by itself, enough to qualify one as “good.” And is the lack of a substantial amount of virtuousness really the bellwether for evil. Throughout the book, the issue of virtue arises from the content of the epigraphs to implicit suggestiveness that there is such a thing as being “too virtuous” which can ultimately result in negative consequences just as easily as possessing too little virtue.
