George Eliot (1819-1880).ppt

1、George Eliot （1819-1880）,Teaching objectives: knowing George Eliots life, works and some writing features,Teaching contents:,1. Introduction: her life 2. Major works 3. Analysis of Adam Bede 3.1 Main characters 3.2 The plot 3.3 The theme 4. Characteristics of Eliots novels,1. Introduction: her life,

2、George Eliot is the pseudonym of Mary Anne Evans. She was born on a farm in the family of a land agent and her childhood and youth was spent in the rural environment among country people. From the age of five until she was sixteen she was educated at bourding schools. Her great interests were music

3、and religion. When she was eighteen, Mary Anne took charge of her fathers house, at the same time keeping up a rigorous course of study, reading Greek and Latin, as well as German and Italian. During 18441846 she translated from German Leben Jesu ( Life of Jesus). In 1849 after her fathers death she

4、 visited the Continent and lived for some months in Geneva. On her return to England she became assistant editor of the Westminster Review edited by John Chapman.,Eliots birthplace at South Farm, Arbury, Warwickshire, England,In 1851 she met George Henry Lewes, a well-known critic and journalist, an

5、d formed an extra-marital union with him. George Eliot began her literary career with the completion in 1856 of her first story, The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton. In 1859 appeared her first novel, Adam Bede, which met with general acclaim and was followed by two other novels, The Mill on

6、 the Floss(1860) and Silas Marner(1861). Lewes death in 1878 put an end to their long and happy relationship; in her grief Miss Evans leaned heavily on John Cross, who was more than twenty years her junior. The friendship deepened, and in may, 1880, they were married. Seven months later she caught a

7、 chill at a concert and died after four days of illness.,Eliots grave in Highgate Cemetery,2. Major works,George Eliots fiction fall naturally into two groups. Scenes of Clerical Life, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner, published between 1858 and 1861, form and first group. Romola（18

8、63）begins her second and mature period. From the historical account of the fifteenth-century Florence in Romola to the discussion of politics in both Holix the Radical and Daniel Deronda and to her study of English provincial life in Middlemarch, we see a widening sphere of concern and a deepening p

9、rofundity in her studies.,3.Analysis of Adam Bede,3.1 Main characters Adam Bede: a young village carpenter who is upright and industrious, always ready to help others Arthur Donnithorne: a light-minded and selfish squire and captain Hetty Sorrel: a beautiful and conceited girl Dinah Morris: a deeply

10、 religious methodist preacher,3.2 The Plot,Adam Bede falls in love with Hetty Sorrel, the beautiful niece of the farmer Martin Poyser. She is vain and falls into the trap of Arthur Donnithorne who flirts with her and makes her dream of becoming a squires wife. He seduces Hetty but soon deserts her.

11、Then Hetty turns once again to Adam and consents to marry him, but before the wedding she finds to her great horror that she is pregnant with child. She flees from home to go and look for Arthur, but failing to find him, she finds the new-born baby dead and is soon arrested and convicted of child-mu

12、rder.,While in prison, Hetty is visited and preached to by Dinah Morris, who succeeds in making her repent. In the last moments before her execution, Hetty is pardoned but is transported. On the other hand Adam finds himself in love with Dinah Morris and at the end of the book, they are happily marr

13、ied.,3.3 The Theme,Adam Bede published in 1859, deals with English rural life toward the end of the 18th century, and satirizes the hypocrisy and social inequality in the feudal-bourgeois society in England. It is also a novel of moral conflicts, showing the contest of personal desires, passion, tem

14、perament, human weaknesses and claims of moral duty. In the novel, the two pairs, Arthur and Hetty on the one hand, and Adam and Dinah on the other, are described in contrast to each other. The former pair are shown to be always thinking of their own interests without any consideration of others, wh

15、ile the latter couple are endowed with high moral principles which guide their conduct for the good of others and of themselves.,4. Characteristics of Eliots novels,1) Her novels, for the most part, describe rural life, deal with moral problems and contain psychological studies of human nature. 2) S

16、he has rich humour and keen observation, and her characters are real men and women of her time. She writes faithfully about the rural artisans, farmers, the country clergy, and other native people, and she fully realizes that the working people like Adam Bede and Silas Marner are much better men tha

17、n the landed aristocracy. 3) Her novels are very philosophical. The philosophy she preached is idealistic. She believes that all contradictions of social life can be solved by converting mankind to the religion of humanity.,Silas Marner,Main Characters: Silas Marner: a weaver Dunstan Cass: a squires

18、 second son Eppie: Silas Marners adopted daughter Godfrey Cass: Dunstans elder brother,Plot Summary:,Silas Marner is accused of stealing the congregations funds and is proclaimed guilty, and the woman he was to marry casts him off. With his life shattered and his heart broken, he leaves Lantern Yard

19、. Marner settles near the village of Raveloe in the early 19th century, where he lives as a recluse who exists only for work and his precious hoard of money until that money is stolen by Dunstan Cass, a dissolute younger son of Squire Cass, the towns leading landowner. The loss of his gold drives Si

20、las into a deep gloom, although a number of the villagers endeavour to help him. Soon, however, an orphaned child comes to Raveloe. She was not known by the people there, but she is really the child of Godfrey Cass, the eldest son of the local squire. Her mother, Molly, is secretly married to Godfre

21、y, but is also of low birth and addicted to opium. On a winters night, Molly tries to make her way into town with the child to prove that she is Godfreys wife and ruin him. On the way she takes opium, becomes disoriented and sits down to rest amid the snow, child in arm. Her child wanders from her m

22、others still body into Silas house. Upon discovering the child, Silas follows her tracks in the snow and discovers Molly - a woman unfamiliar to him - dead. Silas decides to keep the child and names her Eppie, after his deceased mother and sister, Hephzibah. Eppie changes his life completely. Symbol

23、ically, Silas loses his material gold to theft only to have it replaced by the golden-haired Eppie. Godfrey Cass is now free to marry his new love, Nancy, concealing his first marriage from her. Eppie grows up to be the pride of the town and to have a very strong bond with Silas, who through her has found inclusion in the town. Later in the book, Dunstan Cass is found at the bottom of