Daniel Deronda's foreskin

[kev67]

I did wonder about this while I was reading it. All the time Daniel spent wondering about his parentage, he never seems to have wondered why he was circumcised. Then on two occasions when he was asked whether he was Jewish, he insisted not. I wonder if it just never occurred to George Eliot that Daniel would be circumcised.

[Danik 2016]

Apparently circumcision in 19 C UK wasn´t restricted to Jewish boys. To my surprise I found this article.
http://www.historyofcircumcision.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=7&id=72&Itemid=51

[Jackson Richardson]

There's an essay by John Sutherland in one of his collections of literary puzzles with exactly that point.

I believe in the C20 circumcision was quite common for American Gentile boys, under the belief it was healthier.

I can remember being puzzled in the changing rooms at school to see circumcised boys.

[prendrelemick]

I was circumcised though not jewish. I asked my mum why, she said it was recommended by the doctor at the time. He was a notorious drunk so I am just grateful his hand was steady on that day.

[Pompey Bum]

Yeah, you know, whatever God wants.

[Jackson Richardson]

Apparently, Sutherland's argument is that Deronda was never circumcised as his mother was alienated from Jewishness and would not allow it.

Possibly given Victorian coyness over sexual issues on the other hand, the boy Daniel never realized there was something unusual about his willy.

[kev67]

I skimmed chapter 51 in which Daniel Deronda meets his mother (the Alcharisi). At one point she says:

My father had tyrannized over me--he
cared more about a grandson to come than he did about me: I counted as
nothing. You were to be such a Jew as he; you were to be what he wanted.
But you were my son, and it was my turn to say what you should be. I said
you should not know you were a Jew.


and

I rid myself of the Jewish tatters and
gibberish that make people nudge each other at sight of us, as if we were
tattooed under our clothes, though our faces are as whole as theirs. I
delivered you from the pelting contempt that pursues Jewish separateness.


A bit before that she says:

I had had enough teaching to bring out the born singer and actress within
me: my father did not know everything that was done; but he knew that I
was taught music and singing--he knew my inclination. That was nothing to
him: he meant that I should obey his will. And he was resolved that I
should marry my cousin Ephraim, the only one left of my father's family
that he knew. I wanted not to marry. I thought of all plans to resist it,
but at last I found that I could rule my cousin, and I consented. My
father died three weeks after we were married, and then I had my way!"


You could read this as meaning she prevented Daniel Deronda from being circumcised, but however weak her husband may have been, I still think it is unlikely that he would have allowed it. Circumcision is fundamental to Judaism. Daniel Deronda's father died when Daniel was a toddler, but Jewish boys are circumcised when they are eight days old.

[kev67]

I read the John Sutherland essay. He referred to a line in which Daniel's mother says Ephraim went against his conscience. I suppose that means she succeeded in stopping Daniel from being circumcised.It still seems very odd. Even non-observant Jews have their sons circumcised. Otherwise they're not Jews. If Daniel's mother had married a non Jew, or had given birth to Daniel out of wedlock, then it would make more sense to me that Daniel was not circumcised. If I remember my religious education classes from school correctly, only the mother had to be Jewish for the child to be, as it was assumed the mother would prepare the food. I don't suppose the Alcharisi is much of a cook.