Moral Experiment In Life

The Mill on the Floss is one of the early works of the famous English writer George Eliot. The novel mainly describes the heroine Maggie's inner struggle between her own desire and the outer forces. She finally gives up her individual pursuit in order to be loyal to her family, her friends and her past memory. Many critics doubt and criticize the tragic ending of Maggie and her falling in love with the coxcomb Stephen, but they ignore Eliot's exploration of morality in this novel. This dissertation is going to analyze Maggie's life choices from the perspective of morality. It points out that this novel is actually one of "experiments in life" made by the author George Eliot. Maggie's choice-making is actually a conquest over her own egoism and others' egoism in response to the call of moral principle.Apart from the Introduction and the Conclusion, this paper is divided into three chapters. The first chapter mainly introduces George Eliot's mental growth. Familial and social conditions greatly disturbed her religious belief. She finally abandoned Christianity which she originally believed in passionately. In contact with some great thinkers and their works, Eliot became philosophically mature. Inspired by Fereubach's religion of humanity, she thought only the morality based on love, sympathy and sacrifice can help people make correct judgments.The second chapter is the most important part of this dissertation, which points out that this autobiographical novel is a moral experiment in life made by George Eliot and its heroine Maggie Tulliver is the vehicle of Eliot's view of morality. The comparison between Eliot and Maggie shows that the similar life experience between the author and the heroine is the starting point of the experiment. The analysis of Maggie's dual personality (submissive and rebellious) indicates the difficulty of Maggie's life choices, but the consideration of others over herself finally leads her to conquer her egoism and achieve moral triumph. It symbolizes the accomplishment of Eliot's moral experiment.The third chapter is the supplement and elevation of Eliot's moral experiment. Inspired by Maggie's altruistic act of self-renunciation, the three men who are most important in her life also overcome their egoism and experience a new self.