Women's Shaping Influence On Men In George Eliot's Middlemarch

Ever since Mary Ann Evans began her career as a writer under the male pseudonym "George Eliot", there has been an incessant argument about the writer George Eliot, her viewpoint and the themes of her works. The focus of the arguments can be summarized in two ways. The first is that, in the process of her writing, she tries to escape the bonds of gender bias so that she is able to praise the virtues and criticize the weaknesses of both genders. The second is about the theme of her works. George Eliot herself was able to defy social traditions and achieve her own epic life, but she did not internalize her own experiences in her works. She relentlessly grants her heroines esp. Dorothea a total mediocrity of conventional marriage to Will Ladislaw, which is seen as a betrayal to the women's movement. Under the male pseudonym "George Eliot", she avenges the patriarchal society by depicting the male characters in her novel as moral weaklings. Women in her work walk as a superior being. Though they have to submit to the patriarchal values, they triumph inwardly and psychologically. They try to live and succeed within the limited environment. They use the only career available to them-womanhood-to influence the men around them for better or worse.In George Eliot's works the shaping of men's characters by women is a favourite topic, which is demonstrated in her masterpiece Middlemarch. In this novel it is the women who make their men what they are: decent, worthy, happy citizens like Will Ladislaw and Fred Vincy or embittered failures like Dr. Lydgate, who failed to make his great scientific discovery about the nature of life. The present thesis analyzes the influence women exerted on the men around them. Under the male pseudonym "George Eliot", women as a superior being is also one of the subversive tools the author uses against the patriarchal society. By this means the present thesis purports to clear up some of the misunderstandings between George Eliot and her feminist readers.The thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter makes an analysis of thewomen's social status before the 20th century and women's revolt against their fate. Whether they revolted actively or passively, their existence could not be overlooked in the male-dominated society.The second chapter consists of four parts. The first part is about the heroine Dorothea, who, with her young ardent soul, is scared by the helplessness of the feminine role, and mistakenly believes that she could participate in the professional and even political fields, with the help of a husband who is above her in judgment. With the social limits on her and her lack of a formal education, her masculine ideal only blinds her to her own needs and achieves nothing. However, she uses her feminine love and sympathy to bring about changes to the men around her and they benefit a lot from her womanhood.The second part is about Mary Garth, a plain honest girl with knowledge and foresight. With her maternal love and untroubled and decisive integrity under difficulties, she has changed her childhood companion and lover Fred Vincy from a dandy to a famous down-to-earth farmer. The third part is about Mrs. Bulstrode. A commonplace woman, though imperfectly taught, with her dutiful and merciful loyalty, saves her husband Mr. Bulstrode from his dread and also their marriage from shipwreck. The fourth part is about Rosamond Lydgate. Apart from the positive effects women bring to men, women could bring destruction to the men around them. Rosamond Vincy is an example. She is a beautiful model student of the girls school who is determined to climb up the social ladder with her feminine graces. With her spiderlike love, she turns her husband Mr. Lydgate from an ambitious medical man to a mediocre one.The third and last chapter is the conclusion. To conclude from the above interpretation, Middlemarch is seen as a home epic about women. There is no discussion of the suffrage or any other overtly feminist subject in Middlemarch, but the book is "undeniably a challeng...