The Thames River in London

It was in the evening in July when Daniel was rowing down the Thames singing a song about misery when he save Mirah Lapidoth from trying to drown herself. We learn that she is english-born and jewish and that she is looking for her parents. She asks Daniel, "Do you despise me for it" (eliot 172), that being the fact that she is part Jewish. After all in London during the 19th century, Jews tended to hide their religion because of how others judged and reacted towards them specifically Christians.  Daneil tells her that he does not when learning that she is alone, he takes her to"a lady who has daughters" (eliot 173) and there they listens as she tells him about how she came from Prague to find her family that had been kidnapped from as a child.We also learn that she is a singer and later that her family is dead. The reader gets a deeper look into how Daniel Feels about jews and how, "He was like the others who shared his protest, in never having cared to reach any more special conclustions about actual Jews than they retained the virtues and vices of a long-oppressed race" (eliot 183). But because of Mirah Lapidoth, his opinion started to change and shift. 

If we take a look from the point of view of the people from the 19th century we would find that The Thames was known as the "great stink."  The Thames had been used as a dumping ground for, "sewage as well as household and industrial waste (not to mention the bodies of the occasional murder victim and executed pirate" (Bibby), which duirng the hot summer would smell horrendously. To try to fix this mess people would go out into the middle of the night and clean out peoples things. "They were known as gold finders, since there was sometimes gold in them thar privies, whether dropped by accident or put there on purpose." (Bibby). People were literally going through and trying to survive on other peoples crap. They were not considered theieves. When it comes to suicides, it was commonly seen as a more "masculine behavior"  while the idea of a woman killing herslef was seen as a, "romantic stereotype of female suicide" (Deacon).

Cited Work:

Deacon, Deborah. Fallen Women: The Popular Image of Female Suicide in Victorian England, c. 1837-1901. www.uvic.ca/humanities/history/assets/docs/Honours%20Thesis%20-%20Debor….

Eliot, George. Daniel Deronda. Barnes & Noble Classics, 2005.

“The History of London.” London's History, www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/londons-jewish-community-in-the-19th-centu….