Introduction

Jewish myth, mysticism and George Eliot's fiction

pp. 1-24

in: Saleel Nurbhai, K. M. Newton, George Eliot, judaism and the novels, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002

Abstract

The golem — from the Hebrew for "unformed mass' — is central to Jewish mythology. Its original, literal use refers to Adam, the unformed mass of clay before being shaped by God. Equally, it means the empty vessel, created and formed by God, but without the inspiriting breath which imparts life and understanding. Consequently, the golem, particularly through Jewish mystical rituals of creation,^l has assumed a metaphorical significance that is connected with human origin, the loss of innocence, growth of human awareness, and the fall from Paradise. Considering the nature of these themes, it is understandable that this aspect of Jewish mysticism has been incorporated into Romantic literature, though one can also see its influence on certain pre-Romantic writers.² In the mid-nineteenth century the golem took on further significance as a consequence of various cultural developments, such as the revolutionary implications for human origins of Darwin's theory of evolution and the depiction of the proletariat as an unformed mass in the political writings of Marx and Engels. This study aims to show how the myth of the golem and Jewish mysticism were exploited artistically by George Eliot, most obviously in her final novel, Daniel Deronda, but also in her previous works of fiction.