A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

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Eliot translates particular ideas into the texture of a novel, revealing
the particular moral dilemmas faced by individual characters. Her moral ,·i
ii'
bias was to reject rigid rules and precepts and to focus on fellowship
and sympathy. We see further evidence of this in her often expressed
responsibility tow~ds her readers, and her deliberate aim of enlarging
their moral sensibilities .and increasing their capacity for sympathy.
George Eliotts moral position, looked at in general terms, relates
to the nineteenth century attempt, in the absence of the traditional
belief in Christianity, to find a sanction f'or morality in the principles
of evolution. The progressivist interpretations of The Origin
~ Species lent credence to a belief that mankind was morally advancing.
even if that advance was very gradual. \'lriters such as Bain, Spencer,
Lewes, and Darwin shared a common moral disourse. Their concern for
moral betterment made them emphasise continually the importance of
sympathy as the only sure basis for interpersonal relationships and
moral growth. The capacity to feel sympathy ensured moral progress and
was also an indication of the moral status of the individual. It provided
a safeguard against the "amoral individualism" 4 which was another
possible interpretation of the lesson contained in ~ Origin ~ Species
and the phrase "survival of the fittest. II But to state that George
Eliot believed in moral progress is not to suggest that she maintained
with Werbert Spencer that "progress (!a~ a beneficent necessity. II 5
She early recognised that survival of the fittest did not mean survival
of the best and accordingly accepted a very conservative estimate
of the possible rate of clli~nge.
The nineteenth century empha.sis on sympathy and the use of the term
"moral sense" show a continuous line of development from the moral
thought of the eighteenth century and such men as Shaftesbury,
Hutcheson and Hume. But an emphasis on morality as primarily a feeling