George Eliot: History And Style Essay, Research Paper
One of the most astounding facts about George Eliot is that ?he? is actually a woman, whose real name is Marian Evans. She was born during the era of Victorian literature, and she grew up with a wide variety of people, including her family, who have all played an influential role in her life. Besides people and her family, her love life was also a very influential factor in her style of writing and the content of her works. This can be seen in works like Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch, and Scenes of Clerical Life. These works reflect her Victorian style and influence on society.
George Eliot, a writing pen name, was born on November 22, 1818 under the name Marian Evans. She was born the youngest child of three with her father, Robert Evans, and her mother, known as Mrs. Evans (Haight ix). She lived and was born in the town of Warwickshire, which was the place where all of her early novels got the setting and quaint charm of Warwickshire (Longford 61). While growing up, Eliot lived with her older brother, sister, and her father. Being the youngest child she always felt like the third wheel in the family, but she was very close to her family. As a child ?She was, in fact, like most children, sometimes unhappy and sometimes happy, but both with more intensity than most children.? ?She was a woman on the grand scale in the making? (Scribner?s 1).
While growing up and up until her death, George Eliot was influenced by many different people (Longford 62). Her brother, Isaac, was a big influence to Eliot. He was her big brother and she looked up to him as a father figure and a brother, he helped her to grow up and feel the need to want to go to school (Scribner?s 1). When Eliot went to school at the age of nineteen, she became aquatinted with a woman named Maria Lewis. Maria Lewis was a great friend to Eliot and a great influence on her as well (Haight 20). Lewis was very religious, and ?goodness was always to be her predominant interest in life?(Scribner?s 2). These were the ideas that Eliot was first introduced to in her writing (Scribner?s 2). Religion presented a certain resentment in her life. Religion being the biggest influence her father and Lewis had on her works, which she would later write about the negative affects of religion, the complete opposite of what her father and Lewis had taught her (Scribner?s 1). When Eliot?s mother died when she was sixteen, Lewis acted as a mother figure to Eliot, and thus Lewis?s views in life were reflected into her Victorian style and works. While attending school in Coventry, Eliot met a married couple, the Brays, ?who were to be lo