Resumo de Daniel Deronda

Daniel Deronda is two intertwined tales united by the title
character. Deronda was raised by a wealthy man, Sir Hugo Mallinger, but
his relationship to the man is ambiguous--he is widely believed to be
his illegitimate son though Sir Hugo never says so. He becomes
attracted to the beautiful, arrogant and willful Gwendolen Harleth,
whose family experiences a reversal of fortune shortly after the novel
begins. In order to save herself from becoming an impoverished
governess, Gwendolen marries the wealthy but depraved, cruel Henleigh
Grandcourt, despite having promised his mistress (Lydia Glasher) she
would not do so.
Deronda, in the meantime, rescues a poor but beautiful Jewish
singer, Mirah, from committing suicide in the Thames. Mirah had arrived
in London penniless after running away from her father who, she feared,
was planning an arranged marriage for her. Deronda puts Mirah in the
care of the mother of a friend and then assists in her search for her
mother and brother, from whom she was taken by her father as a child.
While Deronda helps with this search he is introduced to London''s
Jewish community. Eliot introduces the reader to Jewish ways in a
positive fashion, while Mirah and Daniel become closer. The virtuous
Mirah''s behavior is contrasted with the selfish Gwendolen''s, as Mirah
rejects an advantageous marriage to a (Christian) friend of Daniel''s,
and seeks out work as a singer to pay for her keep.
Gwendolen, meanwhile, has become emotionally crushed by her cruel,
manipulative husband, as well as feeling horror for causing Lydia
Glasher''s children by Grandcourt to be disinherited. When Henleigh
Grandcourt is drowned during a trip abroad, Gwendolen is consumed with
guilt for wanting him dead and hesitating to help him--in contrast to
Deronda''s saving of Mirah from a similar fate. Gwendolen hopes for a
future with Deronda, but he instead urges her onto a path of
righteousness in which she will help others in order to alleviate her
own suffering.
Then, Sir Hugo tells Deronda that he is actually the legitimate son
of a famous opera singer Sir Hugo was in love with. Deronda goes to
meet his mother in Italy, where she is on her deathbed. She explains
that she was the daughter of a rabbi, and forced to marry another
religious Jew, despite her hatred for the rigid piety of her
traditional Jewish roots; Daniel was a product of that union. At the
death of that husband, she entreated the fawning Sir Hugo to raise her
son as a proper Englishman, never to know his origins. Upon learning of
his true origins, Deronda tells Mirah of his love for her, and the two
decide to go to Palestine to start a new life in the Holy Land.

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