A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

66.
formed him and which he b
helping to orm.
G. H. Lewes was particularly inter0sted in the - iological an';. social
effects of the environment on the deve.',.opment of tho individual. He
rJrites as early as The Ph;/5iology of Common, Lif.~
(1 ;.:59-60) that '\'18 must
constantly bear in mind that Life is possible only.nder the necessary
conditions of an organism, on the one hand, and an,xternal medil~ on the
other. It hi the mutual relations of o:cganism and me. dium which dc~termine
the manifestations Vie name Life •••• 11
39 This SLOWS the biological
aspect of his thought. Later, in his 1 (368 reviews 0.' "Mr Darwin' ,~; Hypothesis
II for the Fortnightly Review he bewails the 'act that 11th,s relation
of Organism and Medium, the most fundamental 8f biologica:;' data ...
was very late in gaining recognition a,,> a princi .le: -::;f supreme i~:,portance.
1I 40 He offers what he calls a "Cf)rrect defiL-.~onll of Medi;"m:
lithe external conditions of existence.' 1.~1 This wor "conditions"
occurs repeatedly in the novels of George Eliot. s.: for example in
the following comment about Lydgate wh::"ch cont('.i~s
s well the w,ird
IIthreadlike," yet another instance of','leb" imager,;, George Elio.; tells
us that "for the first ti.1C Lydgate Wf:.1 feelinf! th( :1ampering th,-eacilike
pressure of small social :)onditions, and their
42
fl'(;~; ra.ting compl·'!xity. II
The two main idee.s t}·:l.t have emerg8d froL.1 this .·rief rece.pitlation
of some of "che key notior:;s contained:'
ninc';;c0nth :8ntury socio'.ogical
and biological research 2.re: 1) the iIT, ;:)r