A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

apparent when we look at the characters at the far end of the moral axis,
the egoists. They tend to fall short on all the moral counts, disclaiming
all duty, lacking in sympathy, believing in chance and the efficacies
of gambling, and totally misconstruing each other's motives. The "speck
of self" 99 George Eliot mentions in Middlemarch effectively blots out
the rest of the world and they respond only in accordance with their own
claims. Rosamond Viney's neutrally expressed question to Lydgate after
he has attempted to win her co-operation in their money troubles, is
symptomatic of such egoists. "'What can !. do, !'erlius?'" 100 she asks.
Her self-protecting mask is shattered only once by the angry disdain of
Will Ladislaw, and this makes it easier for her to respond to Dorothea t s
goodness. But otherwise she remains the same: exquisite, shallow and
egoistic. Other egoists are redeemed in George Eliot's eyes b,y remorse.
Arthur Donnithorne does his penance outside the covers of the book,
~ Bede, but Gwendolen Harleth who has much in common with Rosamond
suffers before our eyes and, like Esther Lyon, is only redee~ed by the
impact of a larger character on her narrow selfishness.
The signalling devices nudge the reader in the right direction, refine
his moral awareness, and prevent him from giving his sympathy or
attention to the wrong character. In an earlier novel, The !ill. ~ ~
Floss, George Eliot emphasises Tom Tulliver's rigidity at the expense of
his morally laudable qualities: his acceptance oft duty and his strong
relationship with his past. Accordingly, few readers grant him the sympathy
they give t 0- Maggie. Both Tom and Maggie , however, were meant to
illustrate the problem one generation has with another. The messages
with regard to Tom were not clearly enough expressed. George Eliot regretted
the withdrawal of the reader's sympathy from Tom; she would
have been outraged that any reader could feel sympathy with Grandcourt,
whose behaviour towards Gwendolen has been seen as entirely appropriate