Joseph Jacobs, 10/21 Blog.

Joseph Jacobs talks about how Eliot's novel is more of an interest in morality rather then a psychological one. "Luckily for George Eliot her interests were ethical rather than psychological, and if she ever does violence to art, it is in the interest of morality rather than of science (581). Jacobs suggests that Eliot's work is "a criticism of life" (581). He implies that Eliot attempts to affect the reader in many different areas. Areas such as human affairs, the solidarity of society, and the constitution of society as incarnate history.

I agree with Jacobs in the idea that Eliot's interests were more ethical. I think it would be silly to think that she was not attempting to touch her readers in any kind of aspect. She put her whole heart into her work and looked to reform the time in which she wrote the novel. It is in the way that she writes herself in her characters that allows us to really feel connected even as modern readers. We may not understand the characters style of living, but I think we do feel a connection in the sense that we feel some empathy for them at times or even a hatred at others. With all this in mind, I wonder how the novel would have been taken if it was not written from such an ethical point of view. If Eliot had written it as more of a psychological novel how would this change the story? How would it change how we feel about the novel and see it?

Religion in Middlemarch

Matthew Rich goes into detail in his essay "Not a Church, but an Individual Who Is His or Her Own Church": Religion In George Eliot's Middlemarch about how we see religion in the novel. Rich suggests that Eliot isn't showing religion through organized causes such as church, but rather through individuals themselves. In other words, Rich shows how the individual characters do Gods work or practice their religion through their own work. Rich implies that characters such as Dorothea Brook looks at religion as a "re-connection with other human beings, in the form of an ardent desire to do something for her fellow creatures to mitigate their suffering"  (650). Or Caleb Garth who "re-connects with the land; his is a religion in which hard work and sweat take the place of form and ceremony, and the highest good is not salvation, but the satisfaction that comes with a job well-done and done well for others" (650). In the rest of Rich's review he brings up other characters and how they practice religion.

Matthew Rich brings up the word "re-connect" often in his review. He associates the word with the character he is mentioning in the sense that the character has again found their calling. In other words, Dorothea re-connects with human beings to look to soften their suffering. Caleb re-connects with his land and Harriet Bulstrode re-connects with her husband in his time of loneliness. It seems that Rich is suggesting that all these characters have once connected with their specific items. However, at the moment they re-connect they are doing it in a more religious way. A way that allows them to practice what they see as Gods work. These characters seemed to have an epiphany. I wondered if Eliot showed herself a little bit in these characters. Rich points out how "Middlemarch is a novel of reform. And Religious reform is as important a theme for George Eliot" (650). These characters are playing into Eliot's bigger themes of political and social reform by looking to help people who need it. Just as Eliot was trying to do with her novel. She was trying to show that things need to change. I think that through these characters re-connection with their work Eliot is showing a piece of herself. The part of her that is trying to make a difference in a world that was filled with harsh realities.

Side note: I just realized that I did this blog on the recent criticism, so my next one will be on the contemporary criticism. Sorry! I am just going to switch them around.

 Rich, Matthew. "Not a Church, but an Individual Who Is His or Her Own Chirch: Religion in
     George Eliot's Middlemarch." Middlemarch. By George Eliot and Bert G. Hornback. 2nd ed. New
     York: W.W. Norton, 2000. 649-56. Print.