A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

78.
by new findine:s in cornparati ve neurolOKj. 'fhus, as I have quoted before, "
"the meaning of repetition of associaticns is broadev.ed, and the law of
frequency or habit acquires a phylogenetic as well as an ontogenetic
interpretation. II 15 The empiricists may seem to have won the debate but
Spencer's "partially-innate preparedness" 16 and Da,r-ian's !~useinheritance"
17 lay both of them open to the charge or reintroducing
the notion of innate ideas in the form of a disposition, or set, a
readiness to learn. Gall had ea.c'lier described the same tendency as something
"biologically given. II 18
We see evidence that George Eliot subscribed to this view of' tlpartially-innate
preparedness It in various remarks about her characters t
deficiencies. Hetty, for example, in Adam Bede, is de3cribed as having
a "trivial soul. II 19 Tom Tulliver in Th,~
~ .2!!. the E~ has a "congenital
deficiency" which makes it enormously hard for him to apprehend
"signs and abstraction." 20 Mr Tulliver has a "dimly-lighted soul. 11 21
In the argument between Tito and Romola over the sale of Bardi t s library,
this is how George Eliot presents Tito to us. lilt was impossible for him,
shut up in the narro,mess that hedges in all merely c].ever, unimpassioned
22
men, not to overestimate· the persuasiveness of his o',:n arguments .. II
This contrasts with an earlier descripticm of Romola' that· tlit , belongs to
every large nature, when it is not under the immediate power of some
strong unquestioning emotion, to suspect itself, and doubt the truth of
its own impressions, conscious of possibilities beyond its aim horizon. II 23
There is a strong suggestion of inequality. in these remarks; not everyone
starts at the same point or with the same advantages. Yet a general remark
from 1uda.;:t.emarch implies equality. "Vie are all of us born in moral
stupidity, taking the world as an udder tc:> feed our supreme selves •••• " 24
This is an unfortunate image, even with the authoritative weight of
Quarles' s'~ £f. Emb1e~ behind it. We lose the notion of equo,lity again
---