George Eliot’s Feminism

A photograph of Marian Evans (George Eliot) by Sophus Williams, taken in

Berlin, probably in late 1854 or early 1855
George Eliot’s Feminism
“The Right to Rebellion”

June Skye Szirotny

© June Szirotny 2015
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Szirotny, June Skye, 1929–
George Eliot’s feminism : “the right to rebellion” / June Skye Szirotny.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Eliot, George, 1819–1880—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Eliot,
George, 1819–1880—Psychology. 3. Eliot, George, 1819–1880—Religion.
4. Feminism in literature. 5. Women in literature. 6. Marriage in
literature. 7. Sex role in literature. 8. Ambivalence in literature. I. Title.
PR4688.S95 2014
823'.8—dc23 2014021917

Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.

 In memory of
my father, Andrew O. Skye,
and
the millions of women
deprived of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
by society’s misogynist myths
This page intentionally left blank
 Contents

Acknowledgments viii
Abbreviations x

Introduction 1
1 “Janet’s Repentance” 40
2 Adam Bede 48
3 The Mill on the Floss 57
4 Silas Marner 81
5 Romola 89
6 The Spanish Gypsy 110
7 Felix Holt 121
8 Middlemarch 143
9 Daniel Deronda 172
Afterword 203

Notes 206

Works Cited 259

Index of Proper Names 277

vii
 Acknowledgments

I have lived so long that I vividly remember the sexism that prevailed
in the mid-twentieth century. Even as a small child I was aware that
my sex condemned me as inferior (though my father escaped his gen-
eration’s prejudice against women), and I will never forget that, when
I was an undergraduate, an intelligent professor warned me that, if
I pursued a Ph.D., men would not open doors for me or help me on
with my coat! What was so frustrating was that I could never learn why
women were demeaned. Only when I studied the nineteenth-century
Women’s Movement in England did I understand that prejudice
based on pseudoscience, long since repudiated, continues to support
society’s oppression of women. Jacques Barzun, who emphasizes the
importance of studying history, is right: “we are willy-nilly the past
embodied.”1
In working on my book, George Eliot’s Feminism, I have been fortunate
in having use of the wonderful library at the University of Illinois. But
for many hard-to-find works, I am indebted to the indefatigable labor
and kindness of Kathryn Danner, supervisor of the Interlibrary Loan
Department. Also, the University’s reference librarians, whose knowl-
edge and devotion to helping patrons is impressive, have made many
things easier for me. My editor, Ben Doyle, who has the rare virtue
of answering e-mails within twenty-four hours, was always on top of
things. But most of all, I am grateful to him for his constant support. I
am indebted to the George Eliot Fellowship for permission to reproduce
the photograph of George Eliot, and to John Burton, Chairman of the
Fellowship, for his considerable efforts to unearth the image.2 I shall
remember Joanne Wilkes, professor at the University of Auckland, for
her most helpful criticism of my book. The person most closely associ-
ated with my book in the last year has been Ruth Ann Vokac, who has
managed all the technical problems of word processing, proofread,
and rendered valuable advice on the sundry matters of book making.
Intelligent, meticulous, patient, and cheerful—I cannot imagine a more
ideal co-worker. There are inevitably errors that remain in the book,
but that there are not many more, I am indebted to my long-suffering
copyeditor, Frances Tye.

viii
 Acknowledgments ix

Folk dancing and a few friends—Gates Agnew, Sadia Bekal, Rita

Marvelli, Kirsten Melby Rosa, Catherine Runcie, and in early years,
Rowland Collins, Richard Scowcroft, and Brian Wilkie—have helped
to sustain me. Recently Mary Lyndon Shanley, professor at Vassar
College and author of one of the best books on the nineteenth-century
Women’s Movement in England, has rendered moral support by her
enthusiastic response to my book. But for the unconditional love that
kept me human in a solitary pursuit, I am indebted to my devoted dog,
who ever showed that, even in relations between species, sympathy,
rather than conquest, is the sine qua non of harmony.
 Abbreviations

George Eliot’s Works

AB Adam Bede
“Amos” “The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos
Barton”
“BL” “Belles Lettres”
“BJ” “Brother Jacob”
DD Daniel Deronda
“DD” Notebooks George Eliot’s “Daniel Deronda” Notebooks
Essays Essays and Leaves from a Note-Book
FH Felix Holt
GHLL Letters of George Henry Lewes
“GL” “Mr Gilfil’s Love-Story”
J Journals of George Eliot
“JR” “Janet’s Repentance”
“Jubal” “Legend of Jubal”
L The George Eliot Letters
Legend Legend of Jubal and Other Poems
Legend, Old and New Legend of Jubal and Other Poems, Old and New
“LV” “The Lifted Veil”
M Middlemarch
MF The Mill on the Floss
“M” Notebooks George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” Notebooks
Notebook George Eliot: A Writer’s Notebook
“Notes for FH” “Notes for Felix Holt & Other”
“Notes on SG” “Notes on the Spanish Gypsy and Tragedy in
General”
R Romola
SG The Spanish Gypsy

x
 Abbreviations xi

SM Silas Marner
Some Notebooks Some George Eliot Notebooks
TS Impressions of Theophrastus Such

Miscellaneous

Cross Cross, Life

Cross, New Ed. Cross, Life, New Ed.
GE George Eliot
Simcox Monument to the Memory of George Eliot
WR The Westminster Review

References to GE’s works, unless otherwise noted, are to first editions,

and appear in the text, except when lengthy. In citations, part num-
bers (Book, chapter, or scene, or some combination thereof), in roman
numerals, precede volume and page numbers. In “M” Notebooks and
“DD” Notebooks, textual page numbers are followed by manuscript page
or entry numbers and note numbers where appropriate, in parenthesis.
In Some Notebooks, references in vols. I and III are to volume, page, folio,
and note. In transcriptions of manuscripts, I use page or folio numbers
supplied by editors and Haight’s dating of GE’s letters, without brackets.
All ellipses are mine unless otherwise noted.