ABSTRACT
Tertius Lydgate in Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda are, like George Eliot herself and several of her female characters, chosen for a special destiny. As very young men, Lydgate and Deronda have many similarities. Both are raised by men who are not their birth fathers, and books are a vital part of the process of discovering their true identities just as they were for Mary Ann Evans and for Maggie Tulliver. However, there is a striking difference between Lydgate and Deronda in adulthood. Lydgate does not fulfill his great potential but experiences moral atrophy when he allows himself to be mastered by Rosamond Vincy and her self-centered egoism. On the other hand, Deronda exemplifies the growth toward a mature sense of solidarity and of continuity more completely and more fully than any of George Eliot’s other characters.
