George Eliot\u27s Afterlife: Dinitia Smith\u27s The Honeymoon and Diana Souhami\u27s Gwendolen

In Middlemarch, chapter 20, as Dorothea Casubon sits musing in Rome, George Eliot presents one of the most traumatic honeymoons in fiction . With decorum, but unmistakably, Dorothea\u27s sexual confusion is conveyed: however, she will live through widowhood to fulfilment as Dorothea Ladislaw. In contrast, George Eliot denies such fulfilment to Gwendolen Grandcourt in her next novel, Daniel Deronda. Where Dorothea\u27s acceptance of Casaubon\u27s proposal arises from idealistic ignorance, Gwendolen\u27s decision to marry Grandcourt is morally flawed because of her awareness of his liaison with Lydia Glasher. There is no question about the physical consummation of the Grandcourt marriage, unlike that of the Casaubons: Grandcourt\u27s sadistic brutality in and out of bed is apparent. Gwendolen experiences even deeper guilt than Dorothea in her release into widowhood, although her consciousness of the murderous thoughts she has harboured is tempered by contritio