Maggie, A New Woman Image-relfection Of George Eliot’s Attitude Towards Women

George Eliot (1819-1880), one of the most prominent and outstandingrepresentatives of English literature in the Victorian period, catches our attention morethan one hundred years. Her second semi-autobiographical novel The Mill on the Flossis highly praised by many critics and writers. Since the publication in1860, this bookhas drawn the attention of scholars both at home and abroad. By analyzing this novel’sheroine, Maggie, this thesis tries to explore Eliot’s attitude towards women. Throughher depiction of Maggie and her plan of Maggie’s death, Eliot presents us a “newwoman image” that is brave and rebellious but conscientious and reliable at the sametime.Besides the introduction and conclusion, there are three chapters in this thesis. Thefirst chapter includes two parts. The first part introduces Maggie’s desires. Unlike othertraditional girls, Maggie has strong desires for knowledge, recognition and love. Shewishes to get the same right as the men. The second part discusses about Maggie’srebellions. She dares to fight against the male-dominated society to establish heridentity and pursue her happiness. In the second chapter, Maggie’s self-renunciation isdiscussed. Maggie chooses to comply with her familiar duty and the moralconsciousness when confronts dilemma. The last chapter analyzes the ending of thisnovel. Through the depiction of Maggie’s death and Maggie’s positive influences on others, Eliot exhibits a noble woman image to readers and shows her attitude towardswomen at the same time.On the basis of these analyses, we can have a clearer understanding of Eliot’sattitude towards women. On one hand, she holds that women should get the samerights as men and women should be braver to pursue their own rights; on the otherhand, she thinks that women should undertake their duty to love others and sacrificethemselves for others.