A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

57.
The:: E:x:ternal
onditiens of
In chapter 11 of 1.1icldle:narch, George Eliot vrritGs that "anyone
wa.tching
the stealthy cenvergence of human lots, sees a slo'w
preparation of er"'fects from one life en another, vih:Lch tells like a
calculate(l irony on the indifference or the frozen ;~t(,re
with which we
look at our unintY'oduced
our. It 1 This authorial comment provides
a useful introduction to a discussion of a shift of
in
Eliot's thought. The previous chapter examined the cox'relation between
her psychological determinism, her stress on habit Zurmation and the
learp..ing theories of the association psychologists. This chapter v.d.ll
examine the correlation between George Eliot t s
convergence of hunw.n lots ll and the nineteenth centuxy
in "the stealthy
, biologioal,
and. ultimately, psychological interest iri,:.:c'droni'11ent. The
previous ohct:pter also
attention to the moralistic slant George
:EJliot gave to the questiun of habit forrnation .. She ,. that habits
Vlhich reinforced selfisr..ness "Nere
the to estab:ish habitual responses c Eel'VEl the inc s
of the community. Her increasing interest
ern 'tlith the interconnectedness
of human lives also take on a mor[',li8~;:::'G
bias. Char'1.cters
in the early novels can be indicted by their cre(;tc:~
to YJlO,': thoratelv,')s; characters in Inter novels,
this cOlmt, Gem also be cri ticiced. for not aue
for thoir fe:ilure
still guilty on
the
nature of the forces cop'sronting them. Such chal~l:l.ct;el>b
e,s Lydgnte, as
I have
shown, fail to make a realistic Essessment of their
circumstances, circumstances which now include not
own potential for good and evil, but a wh,ole :;:-a.1158
and
of' environment81
fe.ct ors a.s well.