A Study Of The Dichotomy Of George Eliot'smoral View In Adam Bede

After an insightful observation on the ordinary life,George Eliot,an important Victorian female writer,composed her first long-length novel,Adam Bede from her female perspective.Adopting the omniscient point of view and combining the social ethical precepts with religious preaching,George Eliot represents the female's moral disorientation and the conflict between ideal and reality.In addition,it also reveals a kind of “male insight”,which was rare among female writers in the Victorian era.In the recent few decades,researches on George Eliot had been launched both abroad and at home.Thus,her status among the literary critics also rose up.Based on Adam Bede,this thesis will focus on the analysis of the dichotomy of George Eliot's moral view under the guidance of Virginia Woolf's androgynous ideology and August Comte's Altruism.The analysis includes three aspects: Eliot's view of love and marriage,religion,and social mission of women.Furthermore,the thesis also attempts to analyze the possible reasons that lead to the dichotomy of Eliot's moral view.The thesis includes the following five parts: the first chapter briefly introduces the life experience of George Eliot and the novel,Adam Bede,so that the readers can understand the causes of the dichotomy of Eliot's moral values.The second chapter mainly discusses the achievements of George Eliot's researches both at home and abroad,so that the readers could have an overall understanding of Eliot.The third chapter mainly discusses Virginia Woolf's androgynous ideology and August Comte's Altruism to make a preparation for later in-depth research.The fourth chapter mainly reveals the unfair treatment to female characters in Adam Bede as well as their protest and struggle against the male-dominated society,including marriage,religion and female's social missions.Moreover,it also involves Eliot's own unconventional life experience as well as her resistance to and compromise with the patriarchal society.The last part is a conclusion which points out the fact thatGeorge Eliot's dichotomous moral view is substantially the outcome of the influence of the long-rooted patriarchy system and the Victorian age she lived in.In-depth analysis and study of the dichotomy of George Eliot's moral values are conducive to a more comprehensive understanding of George Eliot herself and her works,which is also beneficial to the research of other Victorian female writers' change of mind since the dichotomy of Eliot's moral view is the product of Victorian age and it reflects the helplessness and embarrassment of the women writers on the edge of feminism.