A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

thinking and acting 'I 25 so that he has become one of lithose who ere led
on through the years by gre.dual demands of a selfishness which has
spread its fibres far and ''Iide through the intricate vanities and sordid
cares of an everydE,y existence. 1I
26 The presence of the word "selfishness!!
in this description underlines very forcibly the fact that while George
Eliot was concerned with how we learn, her major preoccupation lay ..,'Iith
how we learn moral responses, with hmv we can exploit these laws of
lIinvariability of sequence ll 27 in order to safeguard ourselves against
moral chaos. Accordingly, in the novels, we have various characters who
manifest different degrees of moral awareness and there is frequently a
correlation between rigid habit formation in the characters and an inf'lexible,
unsympathetic response to other human beings. Some of the characters
are shovm us in the process of acquiring these habitual responses,
others we encounter at a stage in their lives where these responses have
already become "set." And these habitual responses influence judgement,
creating prejudice and false assumptions, as much as they influence
overt behaviour.
Tom Tulli vel' in ~ Mf!:l:. .2£ ~ Floss provides a useful illustration
of this; his action in condemning bfuggie outright on her chastened return
from Mudport is shown as totally in keeping with his habitual severity,
lIa severity, \I as George Eliot tells us, " strongly marked by (}hes~
positive
and negative qualities ••• strength of will, conscious rectitude of
purpose, narr01~ess
of imagination and intellect, great power of selfcontrol,
and a disposition to exert control over others.1/ 28 To such
people, she explains, "prejudices come as the natural food of tendencies
which cnn get no sustenance out of that complex, fragmentary, doubtprovoking
knowledge which we ca.ll truth .. II 29 Tom is c~rtain that he is
right and he has never seen any necessity to question that certainty.
He believes what he sees and has no inkling that he is biased in his