《丹尼爾．德隆達》中商品與交易的符號意義

摘要

Readers of George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda (1887) have long noted the mercenary nature of Gwendolen’s marriage with Grandcourt. Pressed by the loss of her family fortune and her chilling prospect of becoming a governess, Gwendolen reluctantly accepts Grandocurt’s suit. She has broken her promise go Lydia Glasher, Grandcourt’s former flame with whom he has three children. Gwendolen is stricken by a guilty conscience and seeks to do penance in the course of the novel. This is the central event of the Gwendolen part of Daniel Deronda. Gwendolen has sold herself as a valuable commodity in exchange for comfort for herself and her family. Most commentators put the blame on the Victorian patriarchal society. Instead of taking this feminist stand, we will look at Gwendolen’s choice from an economic point of view. For Gwendolen’s time is the time when the capitalist society is beginning to form itself, and when Marx begbins to call our attention to the roles commodity and exchange play in the emerging capitalist society. Gwendolen has not only transformed herself into a valuable commodity to be “auctioned” at the marriage market, but she has also turned herself into something worthy of what Baudrillard calls “sing-value,” a significant object capable of arousing the attention of such an aristocratic “bidder” as Grandcourt. The language of commerce has been employed for many of the key passages in the novel. Many plot elements—such as gambling and Gwendolen’s search for a vocation, and several conspicuous object (images)—such as horses and diamonds, serve almost as stage properties enhancing the central idea that Gwendolen is a significant commodity.