Nineteenth-Century British Novel

Study Questions

• Do you agree with Matus that Eliot ultimately reinforces the dichotomy of between cultural production and sexual reproduction? How do you (and MM) reconcile this with Eliot’s suggestion in her letters, one of which suggests that maternal impulse is natural to all women, and another which suggests that social productiveness (through intellect) is also possible for women?
• In letter excerpt #3, Eliot suggests that women are prevented from self-fulfillment by the society around them. This corresponds with Matus’s argument that MM anticipates the theories of Freud and Breuer (who argue that social factors cause repression which causes hysteria). On the other hand, Kucich argues that while Eliot may outwardly present the problem as one of external forces, ultimately, she exploits the internal fragmentation and conflict supposedly caused by repressive external forces. That is, the internal conflict caused by frustration with society is works to create an internally dynamic individual and is thus essential to the formation of subjectivity (i.e., subjectivity as formed through the Hegelian dialectic between self and not self). Which side of the argument would you endorse – that Eliot is criticizing a repressive society (that doesn’t allow women’s fulfillment) or that Eliot is supporting the emergence of the Modern self – one that is made more interesting and deeper by internal conflict? Put simply, is the view of internal conflict a positive or negative element in this novel?
• How does Eliot define intelligence? Consider, please, both the quotes from the essays and the novel.
• Does Middlemarch endorse an egoistic philosophy? Please refer to the Kucich article.
• How convincing is Hirsch’s argument that characters are motivated by desire to avoid shame and thereby preserve social conformity?
• Take a look at the beginning of chapter 15 (page 141) —the quote from which Tambling begins his argument. What kind of narrative theory is the narrator putting forward here? What is she suggesting is her task as a narrator? And does she accomplish this task?
• How would you characterize Eliot’s realism? Is it really a transparent glass through which reality can be reflected? Or, does it organize and select and delimit, passing judgment and formulating a theory of human nature and theory of morality through the frame of narration?
• Tambling argues that the narrator is like a doctor, constantly diagnosing the characters as if they were patients and thereby portraying them as “neurotic” in some way. The narrator looks on characters with an “anatomical eye.” To what extent is this true?