A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

51.
realistic novels. 43 But what Vle cannot escape is our necessity, 'whether
we choose well or badly, to readjust our inner balance after each new
choice. George Eliot describes this authorially in an image vd.th a suggestion
of political insurgency and pragmatism.
There is a terrible coercion in our deeds which may first turn the
honest man into a deceiver, and then reconcile him to the change;
for this reason-- that the second wrong presents itself to him in
the guise of the only practicable right. The action which before
commission has been seen with that blended common-sense and fresh
untarnished feeling which is the healthy eye of the soul, is
looked at afterwards with the lens of apologetic ingenuity, through
which all things that men call beautiful and ugly are seen to be
made up of textures very much alike. Europe adjusts itself to a
~ accompli, and so does an individual character •••• 44
This provides an explanation for and a summing up of the necessity
.Arthur now sees himself under to deceiVe Adam as to his true relations
with Hetty. Each step which has brought him to this act of deception has
been clearly outlined; each new manoeuvre, each separate stage of rationalisation
has been placed before us so that we are in no doubt that .Arthur
is responsible for his own situation, that his action is rooted in his
own carel~ss
self-regarding view of the world, in his discounting of
consequences, or in his easy dismissal of them ... vith a belief that he cem
compensate for any unhappiness he has "unvTittinglyll caused by gifts of
money or preferment. He even has his ovm private rrovidence. "Arthur
told himself, he did not deserve that things should turn out badly-- he
had never meant beforehand to do anything his conscience disapproved--
he had been led on by circumstances. There was a sort of implicit confidence
in him that he was really such a good fellow at bottom, Providence
would not treat him harshly." 45
Vie have, in effect, watched .Arthur "making his ovm character .. " He
has set in motion a train of events which then inexorably impells him
and the people whose lives he has affected. There is no turning back; at
any point the choice is between further deceptions, further sha~ resol-