Human Care In Adam Bede: A Study From The Perspective Of Care Ethics

George Eliot (1816-1880) is a famous woman writer of the Victorian period. She has aprofound understanding in the fields of philosophy, morality and religion. And she is good atdiscerning characters’ inner world, so her novels are mainly concerned with characters’ ethicthoughts and morality. Eliot’s special life experience and her works have attracted muchattention from both readers and critics. Her remarkable philosophical thoughts, deep moralconsciousness and humanistic religion are well reflected in her early novels which are set inthe rural places at the beginning of the19th century. This thesis, taking her first major novelAdam Bede (1859) as the object of study, mainly analyzes the reflection of human care fromthe perspective of Care Ethics in order to enhance our understanding of human care not onlyin literary works but also in the real society.Care Ethics is centered on care, and focuses on women’s struggle for their own rightsand aims to build the harmonious relationship between human beings. This theory not onlybelongs to women but also is the same with men. They define themselves as “carer” and solvehuman problems from this perspective, which is useful to build up the harmonious family andsociety.This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One offers an introduction of George Eliotand the plot of Adam Bede, which is followed by the literature review of George Eliot andAdam Bede at home and abroad. Chapter Two introduces the development of Care Ethics andpoints out its significance. Chapter Three analyzes family care in Adam Bede from twoaspects: family relationships and marriage. Care Ethics emphasizes equivalence during therelationship between the wife and husband. About love and marriage, these examplesincluding Adam and Dinah, Arthur and Hetty are used to explore human care from differentperspectives. Chapter Four analyzes religious care in Adam Bede from Human-OrientedReligion and care for individuals. Eliot breaks the traditional religion and advocatesHuman-Oriented Religion. Chapter Five focuses on the social care in Adam Bede. Care Ethicshopes to listen to women’s voice in the society and advocates the social responsibility fortheir work and others. Chapter Six is the conclusion of this thesis. Through this study, we canbetter understand Eliot’s human care and also the theory of Care Ethics.