Character and Ethical Development in Three Novels of George Eliot - Middlemarch, Romola, Daniel Deronda

This work contributes original, sometimes surprising readings of these three novels. The detailed textual examination of encounters between Eliot’s characters refresh one’s sense of the complexity and centrality of these moments. The study’s greatest contribution is in its union of the fields of philosophy and ethics with that of literature, using the theories of Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Buber. It also includes a reevaluation of Eliot’s use of Feuerbach, and fresh look at Eliot’s views on morality, duty, sympathy, and imagination.