Key Terms
STUDY GUIDE
CHAPTER 10
George Eliot
Pseudonym of Mary Anne Evans (1819-1880).
Full title
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life Setting: Middlemarch, a provincial English town Time period of action: Late 1820
Three primary strands
1. Tertius Lydgate + Rosamond Vincy 2.
NOTE ON CINEMA
The narrator's "moving toward" technique predates cinema. If film uses similar techniques, film is being novelistic — no
Key phrase from Felix Holt
"a presentiment of moral depths"
Dickens
Focuses on large social problems (poverty, child abuse, law).
Eliot
Focuses on individual characters and the ethical challenges they face. Both are interested in larger issues, but the len
Victorian context
Traditional religious belief felt like it was eroding. Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" captures this anxiety — "The Sea o
Setup
Dorothea believes she has been hurt by Rosamond. Rosamond is in considerable distress.
Two reasons
Novels were dismissed as low-status, and female authors were not taken seriously. Both problems solved by a male name.