A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

":hanging wit'"; the sElcrElt, a 'oh-hand f'rof;'. what
• ".:l_ 11 mh-, .
it had been j;:' her mal.c.en V-\."eam." 1, ,"{f'i ')n cantly con':"·
206 ..
trasts the objective and measured IJ:·~oce
time 'id.th the subjective
and individual notion of' time hela by the iml".gination.
I have said that some of our accephmce of Mr C~;saubon as an object
of compassion rather than of amused scorn derives
the fineness of
Dorothea t S fI..ature. But the authorial com.rnentanddramatic presentation
of Mr Casaubon are also important beClause they show lKrth his suffering
and his Itpassionate egoism. II 12 George Eliot tells us, for example, that
He had not had much foretaste of happiness in his previous life.
To know intense joy without a strong bodily frame, one must have
an enthusiastic soul. Mr Casaubon had never a strong bodily
frame, and his soul was sensitive without being enthusiastic ••••
His experience was of that pitiable kind which sp.rinks from pity,
and fears most of all that it should be knovr.n: it was that proud
narrow sensitiveness which has not mass enough to spare for transforma.tion
into sympathy, and quivers thread-like in small curre~ts
of self-preoccupation or at best or an egoistic scrupulosity. 1
It is a sad picture but we are not to let pathos interfere with our
moral judgement. George Eliot is cueing us as to ~{r
Css8.ubon's character.
The fact that his soul has not "mass enough to spare for transformation
into sympathy" reveals unmistakably Mr Ca.saubonfs moral worth.
To preserve aesthetic distance, a ublend of s;Y'1llP1'
and detached
o b serva t :ton . II i 4 :ta . necessary. I n th e case 0 f u_ ,.. • th b
j,;U: vaSa,7iJOn ere was 0 -
viously a risk that the detached observation would obsoure the sympathy.
George Eliot is perfectly aware of this and shifts our attention suddenly
and surprisingly: from Dorothea to Mr Casaubon as
to chastise 'Us
for refusing him an equal share of humanity.
One morning, some weeks af'ter her arrival at Lo'wick, Dorothea--
but
al~~y8 Dorothea? Was her pOintoi' view the only possible
one with regard to this marriage? I protest against all our interest,
all our effort at understanding being to the YPULCb
skins that look blooming in spite of trouble; for these too will
get faded, and will know the older and more eating grief's which
we are helping to neglect. In spite of the bl:'_nking e,Y6S and
Vlhite moles objectionable to Celia, and the want of muscular curve
which was morally painful to Sir James, Mr Casaubon had an