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Features of her novels
George Eliot is a critical realist, so she stressed on the
truth of the works and typical characters. Eliot stated in Adam Bede
that “she writes with the purpose of portraying the truth of typical
characters and real happenings reflected in her mind. She exposed life and
social reality. Though imitating of true life, sometimes, is distorted and
vague, she tried her best to seek precise and exactness of life to readers
in her works. The novel of George Eliot began a new page in the development
of English critical realism after that of realism after that of Dickens and
Thackeray. Her characters in her novel based on real, common men and women.
She recreated scenes and characters in real life that she had observed. The
characters in Eliot’s novels are, in Dickens’ words, “so extraordinarily
subtle and true… the whole country life that the story is set in, is so
real, so droll and genuine, and yet so selected and polished by art.”
Actually, her early novels are reflected the real scenery and people of the
Midland and her own real life in detail. Eliot gave a very true reflection
of the society in her works and gave sympathetic description of the small,
common people of the lower class, of poor people in rural life, very real
and fine with a sense of humor.
Eliot was interested in the interior life of human beings,
moral problems and mental conflicts and anticipated the narrative methods of
modern literature. Her works did not attack the social system and reality,
for Eliot shifted the social problems to the religious and moral problems in
her novels. George Eliot, influenced by her husband George Henry Lewes, a
critic of English fiction with the belief that the function of novels lie in
arousing reader’s sympathy, tries to foster moral sentiment, holds the view
that novels of giving a true picture of human beings’ life are for fostering
moral sentiments and for improving morality of human beings, who, in her
opinion, were born in selfishness. This is called the moral function of
novels. Eliot believed the moral principles of man were closely associated
with the “religion of heart” and cherished the dream that humanity and love
could solve the problems of the bourgeoisie’s society, because she was
influenced by the bourgeois positivist philosophy, which seek to reconcile
science with religion and to prove the social harmony in the bourgeoisie
society. Therefore, the critical realists usually tried to explain the
social conflicts in terms of morality and ethics. This feature found its
expressions in most of her novels. In her work Adam Bede, moral
conflicts, individual desires, passion, human weaknesses and the importance
of moral principles were revealed. Eliot criticized the social inequality as
well as praised the pair of lover: Adam and Dianch who, with high moral
principles, always do good to others and seldom think of their own
interests. In her works The Mill on the Floss, Maggie, the main
character is tinged with the writer’s moral belief. She refuses Philip’s
proposal and humiliates herself in asking the forgiveness of her brother.
Eliot, as a critical realist, also adopted a fine psychological analysis of
characters, that is, she described the inner struggle of the characters and
revealed the motives, impulses, and hereditary and influence etc., which is
seen as the factors to direct actions of characters in her novels. D.H.
Lawrence once wrote: "It was really George Eliot who started it all. It was
she started putting action inside." She skillfully revealed the characters’
psychology the reader. The general character in her novels was called
“psychological realism” which influenced many writers in 20th century such
as Thomas Hardy, Henry James, and D.H. Lawrence and so on and paved the way
for the later work of the American novelist Henry James.
In the 19th century, woman writers began to appear in British
literature stage. Women writers described women’s life in their own way and
in particular perspectives to observe social reality and to expose
inequality of women’s position and emotional crisis, moral sentiments and
women’s awareness of rebellion. George Eliot, as a woman writer, wrote
novels about women’s problem and life in the Victoria Age following Jane
Austen and Brontes
The writer also adopts writing skills of contrast, symmetry,
parallelism and repetition. For example, in the work of Adam Bede, a
novel about two pairs of lovers: Arthur and Hetty who lack of moral
principles are selfish while Adam and Dinah have moral law to govern their
action. The contrasts between the two couples are vividly presented in the
development of the plots. Likewise, in the Mill on the Floss, the
main character, Maggie, has noble ideal which is in contrast with the
silliness and pettiness of the people around her. Maggie’s brother, Tom, is
very narrow-minded.
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