1. Lecture 6 Dr Milena Škobo
GEORGE ELIOT
Lecture 6
Dr Milena Škobo

2. MARY ANN EVANS (1819-1880) born in 1819 in Warwickshire
moved to Coventry
made friends with a group of Coventry intellectuals
An Enquiry into the Origins of Christianity
gave up her Evangelicism
In 1846 translated  Life of Jesus

3. GEORGE ELIOT the Westminster Review - a contributor and an editor
George Henry Lewes
complex relationship with her brother Isaac

4. ELIOT’S WORKS Scenes of Clerical Life (1856) Adam Bede (1859)
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
Silas Marner (1861)
Romola (1863)
Middlemarch (1872)
Daniel Deronda (1876).

5. The Mill on the Floss her most autobiographical novel ends tragically
close childhood relationship with her father and older brother Isaac
a spiritual conversion to Evangelicism

6. TREATMENT OF REALISM psychological realism
materialism of the British midlands

7. MILL ON THE FLOSS
the Tullivers
the Doddsons

8. BOOK FIRST the painfulness of life without a past
Maggie's childhood emotions
Stephen - an example of the dangers of neglecting the past
Dr.Kenn – a moral yardstick in the novel

9. "At present everything seems tending toward the relaxation of ties—toward the substitution of wayward choice for the adherence to obligation which has its roots in the past."

10. MORALITY variations of egoism sympathy vs. egoism
Mr.Deane to Tom: "That's the right spirit, and I never refuse to help anybody if they've a mind to do themselves justice."

11. TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE MAGGIE’S TOM’S "uncanny“
Practical, tangible and natural

12. EDUCATION
-Mr. Deane tells Tom: "The world isn't made of pen, ink, and paper, and if you're to get on in the world, young man, you must know what the world's made of.“

13. SOCIETY characters’ internal competing impulses
the social and economic workings of a community

14. GEOGRAPHY OF TOWNS AND LAND HOLDINGS
St. Ogg's
Basset
Garum Firs
Dorlcote Mill

15. ECONOMIC TRENDS entrepreneurial capitalism
innovations (the steam engine)
the Dodsons or the Miss Guests outline different strata in the society

16. TWO CLANS THE DODSONS THE TULLIVERS socially respectable
concerned with codes of behavior
and materialistic
Tom
less socially respectable
have a depth of emotion and affection
Maggie

17. MUSIC indicates Maggie’s sensibilities
moments of profound, unconscious discovery or understanding
vulnerability

18. ANIMAL IMAGERY ponies, dogs, ducks
"We [adults] no longer approximate in our behaviour to the mere impulsiveness of the lower animals, but conduct ourselves in every respect like members of a highly civilized society. Maggie and Tom were still very much like young animals."

19. DARKNESS/LIGHTNESS OF WOMEN
the uniqueness of Maggie's appearance
distinctions between the Dodsons and the Tullivers

20. THE FLOSS
Floss = Maggie

21. OTHER SYMBOLS St. Ogg - the legendary patron saint of the town
Maggie’s eyes

22. TOM AND MAGGIE’S RELATIONSHIP
Tom’s negative influence upon Maggie
denial of love and approval
Duty vs. Love