A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

passages of authorial comrnentary which show how George Eliot fOl.L.'1d
metaphorical inspiration in evolutione,.J.·Y theories. I.Jr Tulliver's inflexibility
of mind and purpose after he has heard that he has lost
his law suit, for instance, shows that like other creatures, he needs
to "predominate in his ovm imagination .. II We read that "there are certain
animals to which tenacity of position
a law of life--they can never
flourish again, after a single wrench: and there are certain human
beings to whom predominance is a law of life--they can only Busts.in
humilia.tion so long as they refuse to believe in it, and, in their own
61
conception, predominate still. tI
George Eliot's evolutionary imagery is not confined to animal references
or comparisons between aniw31 ~'1d human behaviour. ~ Orisin ~
Species also refers to plant growth ana behaviour. George Eliot makes
the following damaging botanical reference to Mr TuJliver on the occasion
of his inscribing his vengeful curse against Wakem in the fly-leaf of the
family Bible. She instructs us not to feel surprise that Mr Tulliver, a
regular ohurch-goer, could nonetheless record his vindictiveness in
this way. "Certain seeds which are required to find ''3.
nidus for themselves
under unfavourable circumstance:::, II she remind.s us, l'have been
supplied by nature with an apparatus ot hooks, so that they will get
hold on very unreceptive surfaces. The spiritual seed which had been
scattered over Mr Tulliver r...ad apparehtly been destitute of any correspondingprovision,
and had slipped off to the winds again, from a total
absence of hooks. tI ,.62
In this chapter, I have endeavourec, to set George Eliot t s awareness
of the complexities of 80cial interact~;_ ~'n,
of the fact that "men 18 lives
are as thoroughly blended with each ot.( r as the air they breathe," 63
alongside the ecological and sociologiv;.l theories of the early a.nd