A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

introduces the fear of ethical relati v: sm. George Eliot's solution to this
difficulty was to state that while mor[lity was something other than a
rigid following of rules and precepts, yet rules ami precepts were
necessary until man had reached a sufficiently advanced state of ;noral
education. The rules must at all times, however, be tempered with insight
into individual situations and fellowship for individual suffer-
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ing. Egoism is the barrier to moral insight. Egoists are blinkered by
f'
their tendency to translate all situations into vehicles for their own
needs. It is only the rare person in a George Eliot novel who oan transcend
such egoism, learn to "see" rightly and is thu~
permitted to set
aside the rules and precepts in the interests of a wider goal. I~ertain
finely tuned characters, Dinah Morris, iJorothea Bro(;:~e,
Romola, and
Deronda, achieve a state of moral growth where their moral perceptions
become certainties. This aspect of George Eliot t s t{~JUght,
one way of disposing of the "bogey of relativism,1I 0
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which is
means that, to a
Gn.-,-i;
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certain extent, she can be called a moral intui tiom:;;t §
This connects
her to the "intellectual" moral school of the eightennth century. 'l"he
absolutist element in her ethical think:i..ng creates a hierarchical moral
scale. Characters at the uDper end of this scale haY" this oapacLy to
intuit moral truths. An anetlysis of the individual m,-,ral growth 0:'
one
character, Romola" gives some indicatic;,. of how George Eliot translates
these ideas into the worltl of her novels.
A very significant aspect of George Eliot t s abso~i..Utism
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is her use of
the concept of duty. Duty is a recurring theme andf,;nctions structurally
in several novels, especiaJ.ly Romola and ~EJiel D.erQ:(;~.
An analy:-;-;is of
this concept thus sheds light on these novels and al~o
illuminates indiv-(
idual characters from other novels, such as Maggie Tulliver and Will
Ladislaw.
In her concern for the moral grol'rth of' her characters, George Eliot