Consumerism In George Eliot's Middlemarch

With the development of industrialization and commercialization, 19' century England had become a "consumer society". Highly sensitive to the social changes of the times, George Eliot described the Victorian middle class as influenced by embryonic forms of consumerism. Based on her most influential novel Middlemarch, this thesis attempts to demonstrate how George Eliot described the embryonic forms of consumerism as it emerged in the 19th century middle class and her response to them in the form of Religion of Humanity.The whole thesis centers around the alienation of some of the main characters as affected by embryonic forms of consumerism and Eliot's response to it. Chapter I deals with the introduction of Baudrillard's theory of Consumerism and the embryonic forms of consumerism as emerging in the auction scene in Middlemarch. Chapter II hinges on the analysis of three main characters: Rosamond, Lydgate, and Bulstrode as influenced by such consumerism. Chapter III focuses on the theme of Religion of Humanity embodied by Dorothea and the Garth family as George Eliot's response to the estranging universe. Though conscious of the fact that the commodity fetish in the consumer society makes it impossible for Dorothea to realize her heroic aspiration, George Eliot was confident of the "growing goodness" among human beings against the alienating consumer society. Eliot accentuates the possibility of meaningful lives in the consumer society by contributing to the happiness of others by relieving their suffering.