A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

letters. Because she believes in the possibilities of individual
moral growth, the novels are concerned with moral development and
decline. Characters can be placed along a moral axis according as
they display or reject such qualities as sympathy, or allegiance to
the past, or acceptance of duty. Unmistakably throughout all George
Eliot's moral conflicts and solutions is a hierarchy of absolute
values.
To bridge the gap between description and evaluation, however,
it is necessary to examine more specifically the aesthetic
implications of George Eliot's framework of belief. Her concept of
self, the tragic implications of a framework of universal causality
and irreversible laws, constitute important limitations on the
manipulation of plot and theme, and on the development of characters
abd the choD!ces they confront.