A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

2.
thought to result from the frequency or vividness with which ideas or
impressio1J,s were presented to the mind. George Eliot makes use of this
association psychology when she incorporates the theory of psychological
determinism into her novels. This theory governs her conception of the
"my in which a character exhibits moral ascendancy or moral decline. Similarly,
her emphasis on the "medium't in which a character lives is akin to
the mid-nineteenth century biological and sociological stress on environment
and the interdependence of an organism with its medium. Lastly, the
emergent evolutionary psychology which held that ancestral tendencies,
once established in the nervous system, "'.'lere transmittable from one generation
to the next becomes a factor in two of her later works, ~ Spanish
Gypsy and Dan:tel Deronda.
George Eliot's concern for the moral development of her readers and
the enlargement of their sympathies is well documented in her letters.
Nineteenth century agnostics, deprived of the moral sanctions of Christianity,
had to seek elsewhE"'.r~
for H foundation for their ethical beliefs.
Interpretations of ~ Origin .2! Species tended to be progressivist and
teleological, especi~lly when the conclusions derived from Darvdn's biological
hypothesis were applied to the field of anthropology. George Eliot
is less of a facile optimist than some of her oontemporaries, but she still
preserves a belief in the possibilities of individual moral grmrth. The
novels are concerned with moral development and moral decline and the
various ways in which these are achieved. Characters in the novels can be
placed along a moral axis according as they display or reject such moral
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.
The intellectual breadth that is thus manifest in George Eliot's
novels leads Basil Willey to declare that "probably no English writer of