A question for the Eliot readers: do you think Eliot has a grudge about blondes? This is something my Eliot seminar abroad discussed. Look for her comments about Gwendolen Harleth, Rosamund Vincy, Lucy Deane (as opposed to Maggie's dark hair), and their shared hair color.
At first, the question sounds like a not-Eliot question -- how could Eliot have a thing against blondes? That sounds soooo superficial. And yet ...
ReplyDeleteEliot had complicated attitudes towards physical beauty - particularly conventional physical beauty. She herself wasn't considered beuatiful (or even attractive ... or even average ... or even -- you get the idea). In Mill on the Floss (hello Julia!), Maggie becomes a beauty, but hers is a dark beauty. So too Dorothea's beauty isn't blonde. So here be my question -- was Eliot's Victorian England like ours in its idealization of The Blonde? How would one find this out???? I'm really asking!