A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

131.
is much like Plato's dialectical knowledge of the good. A higher-level
conception of the good cannot be proved superior to a lower-level conception;
it can only be 'called out' by teaching or by natural moral
conflict.1I Such conflict leads to processes of lldifferentiation and
integration." 24 The revIard of higher-level moral thinking takes the form
of a certainty and provides a guarantee, which like George Eliotts absolustism,
removes any risk of arbitrariness at higher levels. Morally
mature people in Kohlberg~s
hierarchy, no less than in George Eliot's,
will act for the good of the community, will choose socially integrE.tive
behaviour~
1~ggie Tulliver struggles against a resistant medium, preserves her
integrity, suffers and dies. Romola progresses to a state of moral autonomy
but her sale acts of resistance take the form of a scornful rebuke
to the Frate and a temporary flight from Florence, both of which actions
she later repudiates. Otherwise, as I have said, she takes no defiant
stand. The next of George Eliot's novels, Felix ~?lt"
shows a 'young man
vehemently opposed to the social and political processes of his day and
determined to set them aside. Again it is a case of a soul daring to act
on its own warrant. Now that we have become aw'are of' the absolutism implicit
in George Eliot's moral hierarchy, we will not be surprised that
any undisciplined rebelliousness in him is purged ,away. P~ter
he comes
out of' prison he works for social reform within suitably circumscribed
limits. Vfuile he is still at the untutored stage, he is gently remonstrated
with by JAr Lyon, the Dissenting minister, for showing arrogance
and impatience. "'You yourself are a lover of freedom, and a bold rebel
against usurping authority,'" Mr Lyon rebukes him. "'But the right to
rebellion is the right to seek a higher rule, and not to wander in
mere lawlessness. tit 25 This IIhigher ru.le" is Dorothea's "perfect
Right" 26 described in other words.