Interpretation Of George Eliot’s Meliorism In Middlemarch

George Eliot, one of the most prominent female writers in England, lived in the most turbulent age in the English history, an age with tremendous transformation and upheaval. Darwin’s theory of revolution, Comte’s positivism as well as Ludwig Feuerbach’s religion of humanity broke people’s mental shackle that God is almighty and the Creator. People began to take a new angle to look at themselves and history. Workers came to be aware of their own rights, asking for equal status as the upper class.Literature received nourishment from the social background and was inevitably its reflection. Writers began to contemplate about the changes and tried to come up with the solutions as to how to cope with them. All these political changes and scientific development exerted profound impact on George Eliot’s ideology through her contact with the radical thinkers and through the influence of George Henry Lewes, George Eliot’s lifelong companion. Actually, George Eliot even coined a word ’Meliorism’ to express her view on the development of society, which, to the disappointment of the writer, was ignored or merely mentioned in the miscellaneous criticism and monographs of George Eliot’s works. In Middlemarch, George Eliot’s masterpiece, she expounds her idea of social development-Meliorism. Middlemarch was published in the year1871with the setting of the years that preceded the1832Reform Bill.It is not merely "A Study of Provincial Life", which is the subtitle of this novel; it is also reflecting the then changing process that was taking place in England, with the changes almost covering every aspect of the society, ranging from social status, medicine, politics, charity, to the relationship between male and female.This thesis, based on exhaustive textual analysis and the research of the then social background, is devoted to demonstrating George Eliot’s melioristic views on social development, morality and marriage which are embodied in her masterpiece Middlemarch. The thesis reviews the social background of Victorian period and explores the process of formation of George Eliot’s Meliorism derived from the development of advanced science and philosophy. George Eliot does not welcome the so-called political reform and the massive riots by the workers; she is an advocate of the gradual social advancement which has its basis on the moral practice of each individual within a society. George Eliot is confident that social development is a definite process; but the process is not radical, by means of violence or massive riots, but should be a gradual one based on the good action of each individual who adheres to the essence of traditional values.The deep-rooted religious family background leaves an indelible imprint in her mind. The early influence of Christianity and the absorption from the then advanced scientific and philosophical thinking find comprise at her religion of humanity,which is best reflected in her advocate of morality.George Eliot’s two marriage shocked the Victorian society and at the same time brought a lot of pressure and difficulty to her life.This,in part.is the reason why she herself does not recommend this kind of marriage in her work. According to her melioristic view, marriage should be based on love and mutual understanding. In Middlemarch, the regress of Dorothea to the traditional role of a wife is George Eliot’s unfulfilled dream in her real life. Marriage generates a family. An orderly family is conducive to the order of the society.This thesis is designed to provide a new perspective to further the interpretation of Middlemarch. George Eliot’s emphasis of traditional culture also has realistic meaning to China’s harmonious development.