"Cuz this here is real!!" -- George Eliot (I swear she said it...ok, maybe I'm paraphrasing)

Among the selections from the “Backgrounds” section of George Eliot’s Middlemarch, there are letters from the author to others, as well as chapter excerpts. I didn’t necessarily choose to examine on of each but two selections particularly stood out.

SNL "Scared Straight" This here is real! Know what I'm sayin!?

George Eliot’s excerpt, From Amos Barton: Chapter V, is just that: a simple excerpt. I found it very useful to have access to something like this as it better helps us recognize Eliot’s style. Based on the information I discovered when researching this author for my presentation, I learned that one of unique things Eliot did in her writing was step into the narrative and disrupt it with her own insights and casting judgment upon characters, situations, and society. In this excerpt from her short story, Eliot does just that. All that she really does here in this selection is say Rev. Amos Barton is an ordinary guy and if you can’t deal with that then read one of the other books the newspaper is promoting because…”THIS HERE! THIS HERE IS REAL!!” (pardon my SNL-quoting-turrets).

This excerpt, while it represents Eliot’s affinity for interjecting “on behalf of a man who was so very far from remarkable,” also presents itself as an example of the realism Eliot is known for. Amos Barton is a realist character; “unmistakably commonplace.” She argues that men in real life are not so extraordinary but simply human. “Yet these commonplace people…have their unspoken sorrows, and their sacred joys; … is there not a pathos in their very insignificance…?” Eliot suggests that through realism, we shall experience the  human soul.

The other selection that intrigued me was George Eliot’s Letter to Sara Sophia Hennell (Foleshill, 9 October 1843). I find it interesting that we are made to read more of Eliot’s writings. Wouldn’t it be beneficial to see letters to the famous author so as we might get a glimpse into what her writing inspires within others? Instead, it’s like we get to hear more about Eliot’s opinions and outlook on life and society as if we aren’t already reading about it through Middlemarch. Not that I’m really complaining…it’s an interesting perspective to read about. Especially after having researched George Eliot’s history, I found this letter interesting as it reflected realizations she had growing up. What I found most notable was Eliot’s regard with individual beliefs and the pressure of society. She grew up a pious young lady until she met freethinkers, philosophers, theologists, etc…people who opened her eyes and caused doubts within herself. These doubts led to her revealing to her father that she no longer supported the Christian religion. This created a great rift in their relationship. From this sort of experience, I wonder, if she came to this conclusion: “The results of nonconformity in a family are just an epitome of what happens on a larger scale in the world.” I believe it is these sort of philosophies—is that what I should call them?—which drive Eliot to be a great realist writer; to present these ideas to the public through a tolerable but realist narrative. While she does write pious characters such as Dorothea, Eliot’s is determined to be the realist she will be known for. She asks: “…how are we to do anything toward the advancement of mankind? Are we to go on cherishing superstitions out of fear that seems inconsistent with any faith in a Supreme Being?” She answers that instead we me must be good and do good, moral deeds.