On Victorian Women And Women Questions In George Eliot’s Middlemarch

Middlemarch is a representative work of George Eliot’s mature novels, connecting the previous Romantic tradition with modern novel in the history of English literature and has aroused interpretations and analyses from different angles. With the subtitle of provincial study, Victorian women and women questions reflected in Eliot’s Middlemarch cannot be neglected. Although some scholars have already studied Middlemarch from the feminist perspective, a concentrated study on Victorian women and women questions as well as George Eliot’s distinct feminist views as reflected in the novel is still needed. This thesis concentrates on Victorian women represented by Dorothea and their women questions as research objects via the employment of Elaine Showalter’s gynocritic theory. Firstly, according to the theories of the three phases of female writing proposed by Showalter, the thesis focuses on the first phase-the feminine phase represented by Eliot. By studying on feminine characters, male characters and writing features in this phase, the text intends to dig out the writing tradition of feminine writers. Secondly, by the help of Eliot’s biography and letters, the thesis defines women questions in Middlemarch as problems feminine characters encounter in the patriarchal-dominant family, the patriarchal-controlling community and the isosexual group. The study on these questions, moreover, is carried out by combining two important ideas proposed by Eliot-sympathy and self-development. Concentrating on the representative Victorian woman-Dorothea as our research target, the study intends to examine the functions and limitations of the aforesaid two ideas via the analysis of Dorothea’s change and growth in her two marriages, in Middlemarch community as well as in the isosexual group of Victorian women. After a deep study of the novel, the thesis comes to the conclusion that Eliot is not a radical revolutionist on women questions. Her feminine idea of sympathy represents Victorian women’s positive attitudes to tackling women questions, which does not refer to martyrdom but enables feminine characters to make self-sacrifice so as to improve their self-awareness. When it comes to women’s self-development, she, affected by the contemporary Victorian ideas, is confined to the awakening of feminine consciousness. Although Victorian women like Dorothea have their feminine voices heard in the novel, their self-development is still suppressed by the patriarchal authority, which reflects Eliot’s pessimistic outlook on an overall self-development of Victorian women.