# Epigraph explained — Daniel Deronda

> Chapter companion for Daniel Deronda by George Eliot.

## What happens

The epigraph warns of the internal dangers of the soul, where desires trample over the dead and vengeance lurks invisibly, bringing pestilence upon joy.

## Themes in this chapter

### Fate and Choice

The epigraph emphasizes the internal moral struggle and the inevitable consequences of one's own desires and actions.

## Key lines

> Let thy chief terror be of thine own soul: There, ’mid the throng of hurrying desires That trample on the dead to seize their spoil, Lurks vengeance, footless, irresistible As exhalations laden with slow death, And o’er the fairest troop of captured joys Breathes pallid pestilence.

Fear most the dangers within your own soul, where rushing desires crush what is past to gain their prize, and where vengeance, silent and unstoppable like deadly vapors, spreads decay over the sweetest pleasures.

_The epigraph sets a tone of internal moral conflict and the hidden costs of unchecked ambition._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/daniel_deronda_se/chapters/epigraph
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/daniel_deronda_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/daniel_deronda_se/chapters