Study Of Feminism In Middlemarch English Literature Essay

Study Of Feminism In Middlemarch English Literature EssayGeorge Eliot was a signifi buttt distaff writer in the 19th century her support was close related to her whole shebang her life experience attributed themes to her lterary works, and the relation between her works and her life experience had been canvass by many researchers for a vast time. George Eliots chef-doeuvre Middlemarch, since its publication, earned many readers and critics in English clubhouse. Dorothea, in Middlemarch, was a feminist this heroine had been studied through the notions the combination of George Eliots noble- psycheedness and Vitorian realism, George Eliots view of marriage, feminist linguistic-psycho abbreviation. The success or failure of Dorotheas feminism is paid close attention completely the time.In this paper, the writer uses case study analysis to study Dorothea in a multidi bring upal view, and move ins a further development of her feminist revolution. This paper will analyze the bac kground of straitlaced period, Dorotheas character, view of marriage, thusly ground on the analysis, the author puts forward that George Eliot had a new recognition ab place feminism. Dorothea, the heroine in Middlemarch, to just about extent, penetrated George Eliots thought, and in any case got new meaning of female in marriage, in life and plain in baseball club.Key words feminism Victorian Period George Eliot realism idealism character1. IntroductionGeorge Eliot, penname of Mary Ann Evans, was one of the superlative writers in the 19th century. She was regarded as the one of those who wrote the best novels for adults. In her writing career, controversy and outrage accompanied her. George Eliots critical reputation came from the very start when she began to exsert works by using the pseudonym of George Eliot to cover her identity of the unmarried wife of George Henry Lewes. When she worked in Westerminster Review, she knew George Henry Lewes, who she thought understood her and could lead her to a wise life, then in 1854, she began to live with George Henry Lewes, an extrodinary man of letters who wrote philosophy, science, fiction, and drama. Their marriage was not accepted in English society and considered to be immoral. down the stairs the encouragement of George Henry Lewes, in 1857, Mary Ann Evans wrote her first fiction The Sad Fortunes of Reverend Amos Barton and published in Blackwoods Magazine. It could be said without exaggeration that, it was George Henry Lewes who created an eximious female fictional writer George Eliot of the 19th century. In her 60s, George Eliot married John Walter Cross for a legal marriage.Because of her immoral relationship with George Henry Lewes, she faced virtual ostracism. though many critics followed her, her intellect was never hidden her later works earned her recognition as well as the hunch over of the reading public. She was recognize as the greatest writer in Victorian age(the authors translation,, 1 9876). Virginia Woolf commented that, she was a woman of pride and model(the authors translation, Virginia, qtd. in , 20061) her novels stood in the list of a handful of English novels written for adults (the authors translation, Virginia, qtd. in , 20061).The solely life of George Eliot was rebellious, and was regarded as unsensible. She beatd between realism and idealism she wanted to wanton away full use of herself though she was a female, however gender was discriminated in the beginning the 20th century. As a feminist and idealist, George Eliot had a profound significance in feminism among the Victorian novelists. Her works were combined with her real life experience. Middlemarch, since its publication, had been recognized as George Eliots finest achievement, written when she was at the height of her power.Middlemarch had been recognized as George Eliots work of her combination of idealism and realism, as well as the portray of her real life. In her life, George Eliot marrie d John Walter Cross for a preserves surname she finally bowed to conservative society and got the for springinessness of her family. In Middlemarch, George Eliot, created a heroine, Dorothea, for maidenlike emancipation. Not to mention the success or the failure of Dorothea s emancipation revolution, she was the product of George Eliot under the general effect of her real life experience, her idealism and realism to the English society in the 19th century.In Middlemarch, George Eliot aimed to creat a great recent lady, who had profound knowledge and a virtuous heart for human beings. For a long time, she lived in her idealistic society that a knowledgeable young lady could help to make a get around life for society. While at the end of the fiction, George Eliot make her heroine back to reality the heroine was recognized as the soul of George Eliot herself she was as well as considered to be the representative of George Eliots womanish revolution. As a model of feminist, Doroth ea was not like traditional women, not paying frequently attention to her dress she pursued to help the prevailing society, not only alimentation for self-admiration. With the shock of reality and personal idealism, in this novel, she had two marriages in the way of pursuing her high range of spirit and positional satisfaction. In this novel, she had objection on her ideal way. She make great efforts to connect Mr. Casaubon, who was much older than her, which was a sacrifice. Mr. Casaubon was not that broad of great soul as she thought to be. Finally, Dorothea had a usual end. After the death of Mr. Casaubon, her heart beated strongly for finding a man and married him, who really understood her views and took women as independent and equal individual they were equal in marital relations, and took part in social activity both of them found their value in marriage.George Eliots masterpiece MiddlemarchA. C. Dicey described it as a book which may be said, some without exaggeration , to convey do for many persons the chief happiness and matter to of the last year (George Eliot, 19923). This book brought her many critics and approve in Middlemarch, George Eliots heroine for femimine emancipation was an incarnation of George Eliot she struggled for feminine emancipation under her idealism and the realism in society background.This paper is to study the life experience of George Eliot, her idealism and realism in the English sociey, in order to figure out how these factors affected her feminism in the real English society, as well as how they attributed to her heroine in Middlemarch. Thus the paper aims to make a further study of Dorotheas feminism in Middlemarch, focusing on George Eliots life experience, her idealism, and realism of Victorian period. Under the study of such factors, the writer can draw a conclusion that the feminine emancipation of Dorothea could not be a failure, but it was her new attitude toward life as well as marriage- wives were and sh ould be the great man beside her successful husband.2. Literature ReviewBy the time George Eliot died on December 22, 1880, she was recognized as the greatest of comtemporary English novelists. Her whole writing life left many literary works and comments to later generations to study and research. George Eliot was a writer of appreciation and depreciation. George Eliots works reflected the politics, philosophy, science, religion, and genders. Her literary works had been studied by scholars from home and abroad since 19th century.In 1884, George Willis Cooke in George Eliot A Critical Study of Her Life, Writing and Philosophy mentioned that George Eliot was a product of her time some knowledge of her early home and the influences admist which her mind was formed, helped largely to an appreciation of her books and the views of life which she presented in them (George Willis Cooke, 1884). George Eliot was a realistic writer, in her works, she reflected the 19th science attainments, ph ilosophy, and genders. In Middlemarch, George Eliot created an agloat young doctor named Lydgate, a feminist named Dorothea, an old pedant named Casaubon, and a romantic named painter Will Ladislaw. Through these roles in her works, George Eliot showed her brilliance. George Levine once commented that George Eliot had been discovered that since the Second founding War it was her brilliance and intellectual depth of her fiction gave her appreciative reputation. George Levine also mentioned that George Eliot was a realist she was self-reflexive in that her life experience attributed a lot of themes to her works.Besides that, as a feminist, George Eliot also showed herself struggling against men-dominated society. Kate Flint in George Eliot commneted that in George Eliots writing, alertness and acute consciousness of the injustice to which they gave rise, necessarily chafed against the doctrine of submitting to a intelligence of broader social duty(George Levine, 2001). George Eliots feminism was not noly seen in her life but also in her works, making clear in fields of grooming and marriages. In her masterpiece Middlemarch, one third of the pages penetrated her feminism. The heroine, Dorothea, desireed for knowledge, thus had two marriges in her life. However, in the 19th century, women was decoration of men the ideal women were the decoration in her house. Womens great importance lie in reproductiveness. Biomedical discourse defined females in terms of her reproductive function as the following descriptiona biological entity, a wind up body Womans spirit and her social role were said to be controlled by her womb and her ovaries, and were the inevitable and indivisible consequences of her reproductive and the female organization an other (Joanne Shattock, 200179)At abroad, there have studies about feminism, George Eliots introdction, critical study of George Eliot, and the relation of George Eliot and the Empire. At home, many scholars have studied George Eliot from her views of marriage, feminism, philosophy, ethic, and the harmonizing and synthesizing of realism and idealism.In 2006, Wang Pei issued a thesis to address George Eliots view of marriage in Journal of Chongqing University of Science and Technology. She mentioned that though George Eliot had a rebellious love and marriage, she was still that kind of conservative women in 19th century. She longed for love as well as legal marriage she also held that women could get desired happiness only when they felt satisfied with the mediocre marriage life. Her view of marriage was reflected in Dorothea, who dreamed to be a great female and contributed to society, finally back to a common housewife.Then on George Eliots feminism, in 2004, unrighteousness Professor Dong Shumin studied in Zhejiang Social Science that George Eliot expressed her feminism in Middlemarch that females and males were unequal to the public all the time, if women wanted to show themselves, they essential rea lize the limitation of women from the society. Women could have their distictive importance, which was to affect males, making males become some kind of man. Just as George Eliots heroine, Dorothea, she married Will Ladislaw and made him be s successful man Dorothea herself became a common wife for love and desired happiness as well as femine fullfilment in family.Though George Eliot was a feminist, sluice she had idealistic and fair society for females to make full use of themselves, she had to bow to reality. In George Eliot Harmonizing and Synthesizing Idealism and Realism, Doctor Zhang Jinfeng pointed out that George Eliot was an inborn idealist, combining her realistic esthetics with her idealistic life and society for females, even for human beings. Even so, she could not avoid reality and finally converted to reality. In Middlemarch, she would like to creat ideal polictics, educational activity and marriages, in which female was free. Dorothea was a role under her idealism. Dorotheas first marriage, with Casaubon, was all her idealism, she could not chage the men-dominated thought of Causobon. Finally, she would like to have a husband who really cared females, then married Will Ladislaw, and became a wife and scram. The end of Middlemarch was the surrender of idealism to realism.Based on the above analiysis, there is the information that George Eliot was a idealist as well as a realist her works set on the real society but also embraced the profound effect of her idealism. While, social limitation made George Eliot hard to build an ideal world. All her thoughts affected in her works. Thus here is the gap that George Eliots life experience, her feminist, her idealism and realism contributed to her works, especially her heroine Dorothea in Middlemarch. In this paper the writer aims at the above mentioned factors and make a further study of Dorotheas feminism, through analyzing the difference between George Eliots ideal feminism and the feminism in Vict orian period, Dorotheas character, as well as her two marriages, to illustrate that Dorothea got a new cognition of womens status and feminine emancipation in marriage, even in society.3. Feminism in Victorian Period and George Eliots FeminismAs a female writer in the 19th century in the English society, George Eliot lived in a men-dominated society she was not satisfied with the rising condition. As a feminist against the serious society for females, George Eliot struggled between ideality and reality.3.1 Real Feminism in Victorian PeriodIn the 19th century, females status was discriminated and inferior to males. The English socity was a men-dominated society men were superior to women, no matter in politics, economy, society, family and marriage. Though cigaret of Victoria was at reign, womens status was not equal to mens. Women were limited to work in politics, science, education, social activities, and literary and so on. A wifehood or womanhood should be the best profession of a female. An ideal lady should be what Virginia Woolf called-the Angel of the House(Virginia Woolf, qtd. in , 20041)At that time, people took for granted that a woman should not be educated for self-development, but for self-renunciation. They were sent to study in girls schools, to learn how to be an ideal wife. They learned music and entertainment they were trained to be peaceable, obedient to males, and not having personal thoughts. To the public, a lady with few opinions about their husband, society and politics was virtuous. In such a society, women were born to suffer and to be in a disadvantageous status in family, education, occupation and marriage, first as a daughter and then a wife. In family, daughters were dependent on her founder or brother. After marriage, they were dependent on their husband. If left without any heritance and remaining single, daughters would lead a miserable life.In marriage, girls could not have their own choice. They were the property of their f ather to use for land and estate always, they were used by men to consolidate social status. In the 16th century, when Elizabeth was at reign, a father chose a husband for his daughter, if the daughter did not agree to get married, she would be locked in a room and heavily punished. In the 19th century, women could choose their own darling, but the beloved should be accepted by their family, to the highest degree importantly by their father, if it turned out to be not, their family might disengage their relationship or would not give help when they were in trouble. Because of the limitation in occupation, education, family and marriage, women were not encouraged, even allowed to work outside the house, thus womens self satisfation was based on the success of being a wife. They seeked for fanaticism to be an ideal wife, mother, and do well in housework. The following words can best describe womens feelings of being inferiorAs long as I can remember, I have been discouraged, when I have endeavoured to cast the sum of my intellectual value, by finding that I did not possess, in the degree of some other men, an intuitive perception of intellectual beauty(Godwin, qtd. in Joanne Shattock, 200114).The 19th century could be said to be a turn of feminine status thanks to Industrial Revolution, women could go out of homes to work in factories, but their salary was much less than mens. Moreover, their jobs were insignificant, for instance, a tutor, a nurse and so on after Industrial Revolution, they had one more choice-a worker. In Victorian Era, literature in English was at the height of devolopment. Many female writers emerged, for example, child Bronte, Jane Austen, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, May Sinclair, George Eliot, and so on. However in the 19th English society, female writers were not given high recognition of their writing talent they chose to publish their works by using pseudonym. A woman and her book are identical-or so Edgar Allen Poe reflected when r eading an early collection of poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Joanne Shattodk, 20018). Female consciousness had been awaken, and most of their works were about seeking for feminine status in society females were more independent in their opinions, thus they began to write in order to let on their sufferings and defend for their occupations.3.2 George Eliots Ideal FeminismVictorian Age was the trend of realistic literary. As a successful realistic novel writer, Gorge Eliot was born in a family of land agent, and spent her childhood in the rural environment within the country of Warwickshire in the mid lands. Her childhood and her living environment provided her with cud of material for her earlier works. Due to the reality, George Eliots later works had a big change. In George Eliots later novels, characters and situations seem more and more to be projections of ideals in her mind (Zhang Jinfeng, 200561).George Eliot created her art out of a cluster of rebellions, particularly against reigning social, moral, and aesthetic conventions (George Levine,20012). George Eliots living exprience made her an idealist she wanted to change her social status, even all feminine social status, therefore limited to the reality, she wrote down what she had in mind. A woman and her book are identical (Joanne Shattodk, 20018). Her strange personality, education, and moral belief made her an idealist.To begin with, she was a religious freethinker. She was sent to boarding schools together with her elder sister. In one boarding school, George Eliot met a female teacher, Maria Levis, who was a piously Evangelical. With the instruction, George Eliot became a piously Evangelical too. But her friendship with religious freethinkers in Coventry in the early 1840s reinforced her own growing doubts and led to a break with orthodox religion (George Eliot, 19921). From the very beginning of 1842, she claimed that she would not go to church, not to pray, not believe in God any more.Be sides, George Eliot strongly held that it should be of the very importance for females to receive systematic education as well as have their own occupation. She herself went to boarding schools from 5 years old to 17 years old. She learned language, science, and piano. She was a lady who never gave up pursuing her value. The following cited event could role her support for feminine educationShe sympathized with the movement for womens education and donated 50 pounds towards the establishment of Girton, a Cambridge college for women. Her support for womens educational reforms led her to attend a series of letures at Bedford College for Ladies during these years and moved her to contribute to Emily Davess campaingn for the establishment of Girton College and to other feminist efforts to open the professions to women in the 1850s and1860s. (ibid, qtd. in 200719)Not only approving of women education, George Eliot also earned a living herself. When she was 29 years old, George Eliots fa ther died in Victotian English society, an unmarried, intellectual lady without any inheritance from father, would lead to a miserable life. But George Eliot decided to stay in London and earned the living herself. Later, she began to be an editor for Westminster Review.In marriage, George Eliot broke the traditional convention of marriage. She fell deeply in love with a married, acknowledgeable man, named George Henry Lewes at that time, George Eliot had been a publicly well-known female though she was ostracized by English society , her works was criticized, and her family was angry with that, she was determined to live with George Henry Lewes as an unmarried wife. In George Eliots mind, women could have their own choice of marriage, even though the whole world would not accept her, she still sticked to her love. Her view about marriage was somehow penetrated in Dorothea in Middlemarch. Dorothea, when 18 years old, was determined to marry a pedant who was almost twenty years older than her, which was not understood by citizens of Middlemarch.Ralph Waldo Emerson commented that George Eliot was a young lady with a not quiet and serious soul (Emerson, qtd. in , 20067). George Eliot was inborn ideal life made an idealistic George Eliot. The following cited carve up demonstrated George Eliots whole life and her idealism wellAs an overly intense and bookish child in a pratical household, as a igneous evangelical adolescent Christian doctrine, as an independent woman editor and journalist in a social bohemians, and finally as the unmarried domesticated partner of George Henry Lewes, George Eliot was always strecthing the norms of acceptable female carriage, and bringing social rejection upon herself. (George Levine, 200121)4. The Character of DorotheaDorothea, under the background of Victorian English, was a female representative to struggle for female emancipation. Her beauty was not like the traditonal females, and she thirsted for profound knowldege as well as made full use of herself. All these made her a unique female in Middlemarch.4.1 Rebellious Charm of DorotheaIn the 19th century, the girls of middle class attached importance to their appearance and dress. lace, flouce, and bowknot were prevailing. The rich young ladies wore a la mode(predicate) dress and jewelries. They were sent to learn music and painting, which could improve their charm. A conventional charming lady, as to the men and even to the public, should lays herself out of a little more to please us. There should be a filigree about a woman-something of the coquette. A man likes challenge. The more of a dead set she makes at you the better (George Eliot, 199279).Focusing on simple dress was a means of entire cultivation. Dorothea held the belief that a remarkably clever woman should not pay much attention to appearance, even so, she still had her charming beauty. Her hand and wrist were so finely formed that she could wear sleeves not less bare of style than those i n which the Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian painters and her profile as well as her stature and bearing seemed to gain provincial fashion gave her plain garments (Gorge Eliot, 19921). She didnt like jewelries either, when Celia (Dorotheas sister) reminded her of look at mamas jewels and divided them, she was busy drawing her building, obviously forgetting them. After opening the box, she liked none of them, except gems and a bracelet to match it. Dorothea liked the gems because of her inspiration of the Revelation of St. John, It is strange how deeply colours seem to penetrate one, like scent. I suppose that is the reason why gems are used as uncanny emblems in the Revelation of St. John. (George Eliot, 19929). Though she took them, she thought wearing them was some kind of sinking.Dorothea not only didnt pay attention to her dress, but also appreciated that kind of plain appearance, which was contrary to the beauty criteon of the public. In chapter nine in Middlemarch, when Ca saubon showed around his house to the Brooks, when seeing enactments, Celia said that the aunt wearing necklaces was more beautiful than Cassaubons mother however, Dorothea pursued that kind of immortal figure, as when she entered the room, she could image that Casaubons mother- the ghost of a tight-laced lady revisiting the scence of her embroidery (George Eliot, 199266).To the public, females were born to please males ladies should dress beautfully, had sweet voice and could paint, and that kind of ladies were charming. On contrary, Dorothea regarded them as silly gentlewomen. She insisted on her sense of beauty at the party before her marriage, she came into the drawing room in her silver-grey dress-the simple lines of her dark-brown hair parted over her brow and coiled massively behind (George Eliot,199278). On such a significant occasion, she did still not rig out her figure gorgeous, simple as Santa Barbara as who she was pursuing. In Middlemarch, Rosamond Vincy was recogniz ed as a representative of charm and she was a famous beauty in country , she has excellent taste in costume, with that nymph-like figure and pure blondness which gives the largest range to choice in the flow and colour of drapery(George Eliot, 199286). A fair lady should have charming image as well as could play an instrument, sing songs and draw when facing people, she should keep amiable smiles. Dorothea didnt like playing any instruments, her behavior was like a saintess, which to others was quite unusual and rebellious. Even so, she was a recognized distinctively beautiful lady her plain garments added more dignity to her statue and bearing. In argument to her sister Celia, people might say that Dorothea was remarkbly clever, but Celia was more sensible.4.2 Dorotheas Thirst for KnowledgeDorothea and her sister Celia were orphans their parents died when they were very young. The sisters were sent to boarding schools, an English family and a Swiss family to receive education in order to get them ready in the market of marriage. But Dorothea didnt like ladies duities she liked studying religion, science, and those knowledge which could do good to society. She admired those who was knowledgable and could devote himself to society. The living environment and social status attributed to Dorotheas mode of thinking during her life. She seeked for eternal theory compared with her sister, she had less common-sense in that her mind is theoretical, and yearned by its nature after some lofty conception of the world (George Eliot, 19924) and since I can do no good because a woman, reach constantly at something that is coterminous it (Gorge Eliot, 19923).To Dorothea, contribution to human was the most significant thing in life she believed that a spiritual life involved eternal consequences. she was keen on religion she was a fans of knowledge, for pursuing the so-called knowledge and spiritual life in her mind, she wore plain garments and gave up her hobby of horseri ding which she thought to be most attractive, and was not in accordance with the other young ladies.Dorothea knew many passages of Pascals Pensees and of Jeremy Taylor by heart and to her the destinies of mankind, seen by the light of a spiritual life involving eternal consequences, with a keen interest in guimp and artificial protrusions of drapery. Her mind is theoretic, and yearned by frankly include the parish of Tipton and her own rule of conduct there (Gorge Eliot, 18714)The Victorian society was unequal for the education of girls and boys. Dorothea was thirst for knowledge, which was against the men-dominated society, and was prejudiced and unconventional to the neighbourhood. Evev so, she still grasped the precious chance to learn more knowledge-to marry a pedant, Mr. Casaubon. She admired Casaubons abundant knowledge to such an extent as to think Casaubon is a distinctive man she said to Celia he is one of the most distinguished-looking men I ever saw. He is remarkably like the portrait of Locke. He has the same deep eye-sockets (George Eliot,187115).Dorothea didnt want to be an idle lady of Victorian age she longed for a guide who would light her spiritual and intellectual life. Casaubons increase provided her the hope, and she thought that she could have spiritual communion with him, moreover Casaubon was a man who could illuminate her principle with his widest knowledge. Thus she married Casaubon for pursuing knowldege.5. Two Ideal Marriages of DorotheaAs a young lady pursuing equal social status as men, Dorothea was not only different in character from the conventional women, she also had a distinct view about marriages. On the way of idealistic female emancipation, she had two marriages, first she married an old pedant for knowledge, and then a young man for true love.5.1 Marriage for KnowledgeGeorge Eliot was an idealist she lived in her own world without regard to the real outer world. She struggled for female occupation and marriage, which wa s treacherous to convention and also became the soul of her masterpiece Middlemarch. In Middlemarch, George Eliot put her idealism inon the creation of the heroine Dorothea. Dorothea was not only a knowledge fan but also a social contributor fan. She dreamed to be a saint to rescue the world. Her garments and behavior were distinct with the conventional young ladies.In the 19th century, females were not free to devote themselves to occupation, what they could do was to find their value in marriage no matter how remarkable the lady was. Dorothea was enthusiastic about making the society better through her knowledge and effort, but reality made her will meet much setback she could not do anything. Dorothea, in the eyes of males, even her uncle, was childish and innocent. At the dinner party in Tipton, when Dorothea expressed her idea about land, Mr. Brook said that, young ladies dont understand political economy (George Eliot, 199212). Furthermore, when Dorothea delivered her appeti te to help her uncle sort his papers, Mr. Brook said that, No, no. I cannot let young ladies meddle my documents. Young ladies are two fighty (George Eliot, 187115). Dorothea wanted to do things to make herself useful, but even in her uncles house, she met a lot of obstacles. She hoped someone could come to her life and led her to a spiritual and worthy life. Casaubons emergence was the drip in drought. Mr. Casaubons present gave her hope to live for others, to devote to society, and she thought that she was going to have room for the energies which stirred uneasily under the dimness and pressure of her own ignorance and the piffling peremptoriness of the world habits (Gorge Eliot, 199238). Dorothea was happy that she could find her value in the marriage with Casaubon in that, she could make devote to Casaubons aim-Key to All Mythologies.Receiving Casaubons letter for marriage, Dorothea was too happay to think over whether Casaubon was a suitable husband for her she only considerd ed that she was suitable for Casaubon and she could make herself useful. While in this letter, Casaubon conveyed clearly that his marriage was for changing the solitary life he needed a wife who could supply aid in graver labours and cast a charm over vacant hours (George Eliot,199237). Casaubon needed a wife as a decoration to his life his wife should be beautiful, young and blooming, as well as easy to control and attentative to his wishes. To Dorothea, her ideal marriage was some kind of life beyond self, to which she could devote herself, and her marriage concept took its color entirely from the enthusiasm to help her husband to finish his significant work, which could also make herself glorious. As to be noble and devoted, she dreamed to be almost perfect as a saint.In the marriage relationship, the husband wanted a tame and obedient wife the wife wanted a knowledgeble and broad-minded husband. It was obvious that Cassaubon and Dorothea were not as much as they thought they wer e suitable to be spouse. In such a marriage, even though they were careful, comflict and susp