The Theme Of Transedence In George Eliot's Novels

George Eliot is the British authoress of the Victorian Age, who experiences the historical transition of 19th century in Britain. Based on the analysis of her novels, this dissertation attempts to explore Eliot's heritage and innovation of Victorian traditions in terms of feminine consciousness and religious thoughts, and how she forms her unique theme of transcendence in her works.The era Eliot lives in witnesses an unprecedented change. The political and economical changes bring forth to the new ethical moralities, values and beliefs, but they take place in the traditional cultural context and therefore unavoidably relate to the tradition. Eliot, a pioneer of the age, views the traditional culture in a modern perspective, not only reflecting the decaying parts of the tradition, but also absorbing the nutrition of its essence. Eliot explores a series of opposite contentions namely man and woman, logos and religion, god and ego, etc.In terms of gender, George Eliot has a bold attitude. Eliot breaks though the traditional conception of women in the Victorian Age, and tries to represent women's value and significance in an open and stereoscopic social background. Meanwhile Eliot's innovation lies in her transcendence of the antinomy of two sexes. With her insightful concern of humanity, Eliot depicts harmony between man and woman as complementary part of each other. The other breakthrough Eliot makes is in religious belief. She breaks down the boundary of this life and the after life in a traditional religious sense. She denies both the repression of humanity from God and the hegemony of male theological discourse. As she believes, real spiritual faith exists in the human practice and their mutual affection. In a word, both in her concern of gender and religion, Eliot attempts to transcend the antinomy between traditional culture and modern civilization. She has acute consciousness of the cultural significance in the transition and interaction between tradition andmodernity. Eliot reflects the interrelation between tradition and modernity, and attains to a cultural heritage and transcendence, so that she could recognize the continuation and transition of civilization and maintain its unity and integrality.