George Eliot As A PH

Zunera Ashraf,
Roll no 26
Assignment: George Eliot Psychologist analysis
Submitted to: madam Tahira sultan
Intro
George Eliot, a 19th century English writer and journalist, one of the leading
authors of the Victorian era, is known for her connection of intellectual elements
and emotional quality, Mary Ann Evans, using a pen name George Eliot, is of a
great importance for her novels, in which she expresses her personal views of the
period she lived in by different means than the other authors. She managed to
gain a significant importance as a writer because her novels were different from
the stereotypical light hearted romances of her day. Her writing style reveals her
interest in the religious moral code, in depth analysis of a character, intellectual
potential, and sociological interest. Eliot united the presence of the author with
psychological analyses of her characters, frequently placing herself in the position
of a main heroine.
George Eliot was regarded as a modern novelist in spite of her being
Victorian. She presents psychological realism in her novels for the first time as
presented by BROWMNING in poetry. With the transcription of the visible and
real, she traces the ups and downs of the mental processes and the emotional
states of complex character.
“The Mill on the Floss” is a psychological study of the
state of an intellectual and sensitive girl in the English middle-class society, bound
by convention. Maggie’s character is primarily the study of child psychology.
Eliot’s psychological approach finds its best and main expression in
characterization.
So her prime concern is to lay bare the soul of her characters ( the victims of
conflicts and struggles. These conflicts and struggles are of two kinds ( inner and
outer). In “ The Mill On the Floss” inner conflict is more prominent than the outer
one, however, inner conflict is essentially the result of outer conflict.
George Eliot’s psychological penetration is the best exemplified in the analysis of
the child’s minds.
In “The Mill in the Floss”, she deals with child psychology and
reveals it through action and words. She plans the working of child’s mind, his
nature, imagination and impulsiveness. Child prefers to live in his own world and,
for him, the forbidden things are the very apples for plucking. Maggie is a fine
agent of child psychology. She is jealous, impulsive and has desire for Tom’s
affection. Sensitivity, imagination and impulsiveness are linked together to make
her suffer in a deep agony as a child, leading her into troubles and sufferings.
Later, Maggie grows into a fine and matured woman.
The mill on the floss has rightly been called an artistic study into the child
psychology wher Maggie Tullivers not only dominates the central thematic stream
of the story, but also constitutes a psycho spiritual autobiography of the novelist
himself. In other words, Maggie stands as a rallying point comprising both the
terminal and exit for all other events and characters in novel.
When we meet for the first time in the novel, she is a simple and plain looking
ugly ducking with unclean dress with a sensitive mind and emotionally surcharged
temperament, especially in her relationship with her father, Mr tulliver and her
brother, Tom. The psychological study of the novel is made in terms of Tom-
Maggie-Philip-lucy-Stephen syndrome under the backdrop of St.Ogg’s society of
English rural midland, Maggie is a sensitive, idealist whose defiance and
unconventional attitude to life is Aeschelian in intensity. When Tom refuses to
play with her or he does not take her to the outing, Maggies as a sensitive child
goes to her attic and starts beating her doll.
George Eliot has successfully explored and powerfully captured the inner psyche,
thought and feeling of a child born in uncogenial and repressive environment of
the victorian Englisg country side. The psycho analysis of the thoughts and feeling
of Tom in the novel is selective as per the requirement of the illustration a central
stream.
Eliot presents a deep view of the problems of life relating the clash of hearts and
emotions. Like Maggie, she shows that a child has more and more intellectual
gifts. In the final analysis, Maggie’s character no longer remains the study of child
psychology alone rather Eliot transforms it into a great study in characters, incited
by complex impulses.
In a word, Eliot’s approach, intellectual and psychological, distinguishes her from

other Victorians novelist and brings her on the brink of modern novelist.
Her portraits are characters and nature of men and their inner conflict. As her
novels proceed, her characters grow to new dimensions. Maggie, who was
impulsive, became matured and more balanced. Every character has tinge
goodness and no one is thoroughly contemptible.

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Zunera Ashraf,

In a word, Eliot’s approach, intellectual and psychological, distinguishes her from

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