A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

223.
erlebte Rede.
Here suddenly was an opening in the rooky wall whioh shut in the
... narrow valley of humiliation, where all her prospect was the remote
unfathomed sky; and some of the memory-haunting earthly de_ J
lights were no longer out of her reaoh. She might have books,
converse, affeotion-- she might hear tidings of the world from
whioh her mind had not yet lost its sense of exile; and it would
be a kindness to Philip too, who was pitiable--clearl:y not happy
~ she always live in this resigned imprisonment? 33
This indioates that George Eliot herself regarded Maggie's self~~
renunciation as somewhat perverse, and oertainly we have already been
warned that Maggie adopts this praotice with "some exaggeration and
wilfulness, some pride and impetuosity. II 34- The phrase "resigned im-
prisonment It recalls as well her statement to the reader that Mawe "has
not perceived--how could she until she had lived longer?--the inmost
truth of the old monk's outpourings, that renunciation remains sorrow,
though a sorrow borne willingly. It 35
. George Eliot's eonoern for her heroine becomes even more marked after
Maggie has reoeived Stephen's letter.
When Maggie first read this letter she felt as if her real temptation
had only just begun. At the entrance of the chill dark
oavern, we turn with unworn oourage from the !!!:!. light; ~how,
when we have trodden far in the damp darkness, and have begun
to be faint and weary--how, if there is a sudden opening above 3
6
us, and we are invited back again to the ~-nourishing day?
(ll\Y italics)
The juxtaposition of warmth and chill damp, of light, life-nourishing
day and dark suggests unmistakably that George Eliot, despite her conscious
intentions with regard to Maggie, is nonetheless somewhat unnerved
by the impasse into which she has led her heroine. This anxiety
runs counter to the surface development of Maggie's charaoter. There
have been several attempts to account for why George Eliot should have
chosen to end the novel in the way she does; Maggie's spiritual worth,
the ~ ~ machina of the flood, and Tom's final recognition of his
sister's true character have all called forth different critical re-
•••