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Page 2
One cannot discuss _Nina Balatka_ without addressing the question, was
Trollope himself anti-semitic? A careful reading of his works does not
provide a clear answer. Jews appear in some of his books and are referred
to in others, often as disreputable characters or money-lenders. They are
seldom mentioned by his Christian characters with respect, probably
realistically reflecting the sentiments of the classes he wrote about.
Some of his greatest villains in his later novels--Melmotte in _The Way
We Live Now_ (1875) and Lopez in _The Prime Minister_ (1876)--are rumored
to be Jewish, but Trollope never unequivocally identifies them as Jewish.
Perhaps his Christian characters expect them to be Jewish because they
are foreigners and villains.
However, if one ignores the dialogue of his characters, even the
descriptive and editorial comments by Trollope himself at first seem
anti-semitic. He consistently uses "Jew" as a pejorative adjective
instead of "Jewish." His descriptions of the appearance of Jewish
characters are usually unflattering and stereotypical. Even Anton
Trendellsohn, the hero of _Nina Balatka_, is described as follows:
To those who know the outward types of his race there could be no
doubt that Anton Trendellsohn was a very Jew among Jews. He was
certainly a handsome man, not now very young, having reached some
year certainly in advance of thirty, and his face was full of
intellect. He was slightly made, below the middle height, but was
well made in every limb, with small feet and hands, and small
ears, and a well-turned neck. He was very dark--dark as a man can
be, and yet show no sign of colour in his blood. No white man
could be more dark and swarthy than Anton Trendellsohn. His eyes,
however, which were quite black, were very bright. His jet-black
hair, as it clustered round his ears, had in it something of a
curl. Had it been allowed to grow, it would almost have hung in
ringlets; but it was worn very short, as though its owner were
jealous even of the curl. Anton Trendellsohn was decidedly a
handsome man; but his eyes were somewhat too close together in his
face, and the bridge of his aquiline nose was not sharply cut, as
is mostly the case with such a nose on a Christian face. The olive
oval face was without doubt the face of a Jew, and the mouth was
greedy, and the teeth were perfect and bright, and the movement of
the man's body was the movement of a Jew.
This is not the typical description of the romantic hero of a Victorian
novel. Even so, Trollope's description of Anton is less derogatory than
his description of Ezekiel Brehgert, a character in a later novel, _The
Way We Live Now_:
He was a fat, greasy man, good-looking in a certain degree, about
fifty, with hair dyed black, and beard and moustache dyed a dark
purple colour. The charm of his face consisted in a pair of very
bright black eyes, which were, however, set too near together in
his face for the general delight of Christians. He was stout fat
all over rather than corpulent and had that look of command in his
face which has become common to master-butchers, probably by long
intercourse with sheep and oxen.
The case for Trollope being anti-semitic is harder to support, however,
when one considers the behavior of his Jewish characters. Brehgert,
whose physical description above is stereotypic, is one of the few
characters in _The Way We Live Now_ whose actions are completely
honorable. Trollope wrote 16 novels before _Nina Balatka_; only two of
those contain Jewish characters. The first, who plays a minor role in
_Orley Farm_ (1862), is Soloman Aram, an attorney--a Victorian Rumpole
--known for defending the accused at the Old Bailey. His skill is needed
to defend Lady Mason against a charge of perjury, much to the distaste
of her Christian advisors. He acts with dignity and shows great
consideration for the personal comfort of Lady Mason during her trial.
The second Jewish character in Trollope's novels was Mr. Hart, a London
tailor who runs for a seat in Parliament in _Rachel Ray_ (1863). This
served no purpose in the plot; the situation probably was included
because legislation to allow Jews to serve in Parliament had been
passed only five years before, and the issue was still one of public
discussion. Mr. Hart's appearance is brief; he speaks only one or
two lines, and the reader is not told enough about him to judge his
character. Trollope describes him thus:
. . . and then the Jewish hero, the tailor himself, came among
them, and astonished their minds by the ease and volubility of his
speeches. He did not pronounce his words with any of those soft
slushy Judaic utterances by which they had been taught to believe
he would disgrace himself. His nose was not hookey, with any
especial hook, nor was it thicker at the bridge than was becoming.
He was a dapper little man, with bright eyes, quick motion, ready
tongue, and a very new hat. It seemed that he knew well how to
canvass. He had a smile and a good word for all--enemies as well
as friends.
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