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Abstract

This dissertation investigates George Eliot’s use of water as a vehicle for interconnection within the novels The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Adam Bede (1859). It will analyse the ways in which Eliot uses water to interlink themes of environment, judgement and moral philosophy with the lives and fates of her characters. Critics have examined a wide range of themes within the work of Eliot. The contribution to Eliot scholarship that this dissertation makes is to move beyond these critical perspectives through an examination of Eliot’s use of water to interconnect her religious and philosophical commitments with the aesthetics of her work.

Chapter one explores how Eliot deliberately uses water to define environments and to comment on social and environmental issues, social imaginary and constitutive value of place. Eliot uses her imaginary spaces to shape community and thus illustrates how these environments impact on her characters. Chapter two analyses how Eliot uses water as a force for justice and crisis for her protagonists which leads to either their reward through readjustment or to punishment for bad behaviour and immorality. It will also discuss how Eliot challenges the Victorian trope of women and drowning. Finally, chapter three identifies how Eliot provides a new perspective on ethics in her writing for the Victorian reader. This is achieved by using water as a vehicle to explore and promote religious concepts, philosophy and ethics based on the works of Spinoza and Feuerbach. By using water to interconnect place and people with justice and engaging with moral philosophy Eliot creates interconnections in her aesthetics that highlight the Victorian re-evaluation of religious belief. Water then becomes a metaphor that shapes individuals, challenges stereotypes and provides a natural element that promotes Eliot’s faith in Humanism.

Course: English Literature - BA (Hons) - C0995

Date Deposited: 2021-03-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13674.html