A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

"this alone which can give value to experience and render education in
the true sense possible." 4
In terms of hums-'-n response, this "invariability of sequence" relates
to the formation of habits, and to the difficulties we have, 1)oth in acquiring
them and ridding ourselves of them, if they prove undesirable or
coI.l.llt-e-F~Qg.l1c:!;i'\Te.
'When we come to examine the novels we see that George
Eliot's references to habit fall into two categories depending on whether
the habit belongs to one of the minor characters or whether it relates to
a protagonist. Sometimes it is just a passing phrase as in the following
reference to Jack Lingon in Felix Holt as a "man of sixty ••• with a mind
and with habits dried hard by the years." 5 At other times, it is a technique
for presenting character growth or decline by means of her belief in
the theory of psychological determinism. Both kinds, however, show a definite
connection vnth the learning theories of the school of association
psychology. I will briefly outline the background and development of this
school before discussing hoVl George Eliot incorporated its prinCiples into
her novels.
The law of the association of ideas was originally formulated by
Locke as an epistemological corollary to his sensationalism. Rejecting
the theory of innate ideas, Locke claims that the mind is a passive receptor
of sense impressions; "the senses," he says, "at first let in
particular ~ and furnish the yet empty cabinet." 6 This is the same
basic assumption that causes George Eliot to vrrite in The Millon the
Floss about "that familiar hearth, 'where the pattern of the rug and the
grate and the fire-irons were 'first ideas' that it was no more possible
to criticise than the solidity and extension of matter." 7 In Locke's
schema, what is important is that the mind, the tabula ~, is passive,
storing inputs from the sensory world but not itself structuring exper­
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ience or inventing ideas. He says that "it is not in the power of the