A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

170.
that base line and the height of the triangle are determined by complex
responses to the circumstances of life. A fragmented, atomistic "bundle"
cannot constitute a central core of ego, a "persistent self" which is
accountable and responsible for decisions and choices. The all-important
possibility rof moral growth is dependent on our having a oentral core of
personality.
Hans Meyerhoff, discussing the literary implications of such a
view of the self, states that
Man is shown not only as a repository of perceptions and memories,
but also and predominantly as a centre of active, 5elfregulative
functions. And it is these functions that ser~o
convey to the person himself and to the reader that a certain
bundle of different experiences exhibits the quality of structure
and unity which enables us to say that they belong to the
same person. Similarly, the awareness of continuity as an essent:1al
ingredient of selfhood is invariably part of the literary
portrait. In this connection, the intimate, reciprocal relationship
between time and the self becomes most manifest; for the
awareness of continuity vdthin the self is correlative with the
aspect of continuity or duration in time. 12
Meyerhoff introduces the concepts of past and memory to show the important
part they play in our awareness of our own identity. Emphasis .. on
the importance of the past becomes a significant theme in George Eliot's
novels and reveals very clearly the close resemblance of her ideas to
Word&worth I s. In her "Brother and Sister Sonnets II ,
she appears to utilisematerialfromherOlID
past excluded from the strongly autobiographical
~ ~.2!!. ~ Floss. She spee1rs
explicitly about the integrative
nature of past experiences which! (as in Wordsworth,) derive predomin-
. !
§ntly from natural landscapes.
The vade-arched bridge, the scented elder-flowers,
The wondrous watery rings that died too soon,
The echoes of the quarry, the still hours
With white robe sweeping-on the shadeless noon,
Vlere but It\Y growing self, are part of me,
My present past, my root of piety. 13
A similar sentiment is described in The Millon the Floss after
~---;;;..;;;.=;;..
Tom's and l~ggie's
contented and successful fishing expedition. Specific