Providential Deaths In George Eliot’s Novels

Although death is not the most important theme in Eliot’s novels,providential deaths in her novels have never lost appeal for scholars and critics.In an attempt to highlight these deaths in her novels,this thesis examines different types of providential deaths in her six novels and their artistic significance.In George Eliot’s fictional world,death sometimes appears as if called for,making it possible for her protagonists to keep their secrets;her favored characters are freed from the unhappy marriages by the deaths of troublesome characters;death sometimes serves as her unique way of reconciling contradictory beliefs or duties.The first chapter examines different types of providential death in her six novels and its functions and features.Chapter two explores the philosophic root of her employing death to resolve problems in novels.The subject is developed by explaining her own comments on these deaths and exploring her philosophy of death.Finally her own solution to mortality-her own death-is discussed.Eliot observes that death is more logical than people think.It appears and resolves the problems when the situation is strained;and it can arouse sympathy and love in humanity.She also states that faith in death gives her courage to live.Chapter three examines the artistic significance of the providential death in the novels and for her art from the perspectives of characterization,narrative and her aesthetic teaching of humanity.Death always follows almost each time when protagonists struggle to make the moral decision in the dilemma,practical results of death becoming the reward,which completes the triumph of free will in reconciling the situation for her characters.Eliot rewards these characters when they display the power of freedom within,against human instinctive feelings and desires.Readers go through the whole experience together with the protagonists,empathizing with their struggles,stresses and their relief in making the right choices.The consciousness of their own free will is aroused in exposure to the psychological changes and growth of the protagonists during thewhole experience.In the contest between instinctive desires and moral duty,death often “triggers” the transformation in the character of her protagonists and inspires readers with sympathy as well.Eliot’s art of realism is to represent faithfully how the author perceives the facts and his or her feelings,to describe the inadequate life and struggles of ordinary people.It is intertwined with her moral and aesthetic values.Finally this thesis demonstrates how these deaths are not inconsistent with her realism but capture the very essence of which and her affirmation of the independence and superiority of reason and morality in humanity,against the inevitable determinism.In conclusion,it is illustrated that these deaths indicate not just her particular philosophy of death,but also her faith in the power of reason and morality.George Eliot educates people’s emotions in her aesthetic and realistic way.She offers insights into the possibility of the reconciliation of inclinations and obligations.