Challenge And Compromise

George Eliot has occupied an important and extraordinary position in the English literary history. On the one hand, for her valiant rebellion in complete defiance of the tradition, she was exiled by the upper-class society and discarded by her family; on the other hand, however, George Eliot has attained brilliant achievements in literary creation, thus becoming one of the greatest English novelists. Paying great attention to the Woman Question, George Eliot has successfully created a series of female characters in her major novels. This thesis attempts to interpret George Eliot's Middlemarch in relation to her special female experience from feminist perspective. It will analyze George Eliot's challenge and compromise to the male-dominated society and discuss her quest for harmonious social relations.This thesis consists of four parts. Chapter One begins with the critical survey of George Eliot and her works. Then the feminist criticism, women's social status in Victorian England and George Eliot's life and her idea of women will be introduced in relation to Middlemarch, which constitutes the basis of the following in-depth analysis. Chapter Two mainly analyzes the revelation of and attack on the unfair treatment to women as well as the challenge of main female characters in Middlemarch to the male-dominated society in the aspects of education, occupation and marriage. Chapter Three mainly discusses the mournful compromise of female characters in Middlemarch after hardships; analyzes the reasons for the compromise from the perspective of social factors, women's own weaknesses and the conventional concept of morality; and finally illustrates the ideal womanhood in the view of George Eliot. Chapter Four briefly summarizes the above chapters and points out George Eliot's good intention to change people's consciousness of inequality between men and women through the influence of morality, and to create a harmonious society of equality.