George Eliot And Morality Of 'Humanity Religion'

George Eliot was one of the famous women writers of the Victoria era, when the traditional idea conflicted with the new technology and the new thought. Influenced by Feuerbach's philosophy, Darwinian's Theory of Evolution...etc., George Eliot began from the traditional meaning of a religious follower, to her refusal to attend church. In fact, George Eliot just gave up the conventional religion, for in her works, the religious feeling knot always exsited, but with the new meaning. This paper, starting with Eliot's relation with religion, discusses how Eliot puts forward the negative side of the conventional religion and affirms its moral function in the age of the social transformation and the changes of the concept of the value so as to further present her own ideal religious morality, humane religion morality.The paper falls into three chapters besides the introduction and conclusion.The first chapter, mainly from two aspects, demonstrates the source and the formation of the process of George Eloit's humane religion morality, concluding its moral characteristics. The thesis first probes into her self-contradictary attitude towards religion, and discusses the process and the reason from her belief in religion to her alienation from the church in her youth. Secondly, it discusses how Eliot forms her own humane religion on the basis of Feuerbach's philosophy of humanism religion and it further demonstrates that her religion is not the divine religion with the conventional meaning, but that of eliminating the superstition, apotheosis, emphasizing the Christian Trinity of equality, universal love, duty, and the conformation to ethics, which embodies Eloit's ideal religious morality.In the second chapter, this thesis, by analizing characters in her two works, discusses Eliot's criticism and negation of old religion so as to further quest the new religion. First, it points out that the old religion is immoral due to its delusiveness and beguilement through the analysis of the story of the change of his character resulting from the persecution by church in The Silas Marner so as to present the moral ideal of the humane religion morality. Then, by revealing the contradiction of his words and actions of the religion representative, Savonarola in Romola, this paper demonstrates that Eliot intended to expose the darkness of the religion and its harm from the church itself.In the third chapter, this paper discusses how Eliot clarifies her own ideal religion...