ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Daniel Deronda as an allegory of the struggle between the commodifying sympathy of the reader and the authorial sympathetic imagination which reaffirms the indissoluble and inalienable bond between author and work. Deronda's sympathy is deemed to be a problem because he does not take sides; understanding all points of view makes him unable to act. Like the commodity, which, in entering the marketplace in order to be exchanged, is severed from its producer, Deronda is an orphan: he is taken away from his parents; his father is dead, while his mother exchanges him for her freedom. The relation between Mordecai and Deronda and the metaphor of the transmigration of souls imply both an authorial model based on paternity and a strong preoccupation with authorial property. Mordecai's imagination, his relation to Deronda and the metaphor of the transmigration of souls can be read as allegories of the indelible mark of the author on his works.
