A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

225.
strained. I have also indicated that choosing to surrender one's will,
whether it is done for moral or spiritual reasons, mlso inevitably
implies a loss of freedom. It now remains for me to substantiate this
claim that the technique by whioh Q.eorge Eliot has chosen to present
Maggie to us, based on the theory of psychological determinism, leaves
her less free to choose than other morally evolved heroines, Esther
Lyon, or Romola, or Dorothea, and in fact as restrioted in her freedom
as Arthur Donnithorne or Tito Melema.
According to W. J. Harvey, "the two most important fa.ctors determining
the freedom of a.~
oharacter are ••• the range of ohoioes open to the
oharaoter and the kind of ohooser he is, as shown by the history of
choices displayed by him or imputed to him in the past." 46 One of the
interesting points about Maggie as a ohooser is the division in her behaviour
effected by her adoption of ~ Imitation of Christ as a guide.
Before this time she is wilful, impetuous and assertive; she cuts her
hair, spills grav,y over the hated cast-off dress of aunt Glegg, pushes
Lucy into the mud, and runs away to join the gypsies. While these actions
do not manifest ~ real deliberate choice (they are all rather
spontaneous attempts to solve impossible problems) they are undeniably
the aotions of a passionate and impulsive girl. Her decisions after reading
Thomas 'a Kempis are of a different nature; th;ey are no more choices
than these previous acts of oofianoe but they are shorn of any wilfulness
or impetuosity. They constitute non-aotions in their passivity and
submissiveness, a following a line of least resistanoe. Her o~ action,
her decision to teaoh rather than live with Tom or aunt Glegg, is reported
retrospeotively so that we do not see any struggle she may have
had to assert her will. When she ttohooses" to see Philip, it is only be --
~
taqSe she snatches at his sophist~ that if he should oome along that way
/""
",~"..<
and meet her by aocident then that would not be her fault. She does not