GEORGE ELIOT’S ART OF CHARACTERIZATION

George Eliot, one of the greatest writers of the Victorian era and
the pioneer of modern novel, is really applauded for her command over
art of characterization. She has in fact conceived and delineated such
memorable figures like magic and Hetty that the readers had nothing
but praise for her. Her characters have been dealt in all perspectives;
physical, spiritual and above all psychological and in all these analysis
she has never dealt her down. However, most of her characters are
drawn in comparison to the forces that are surrounding them, a clear
indication that they are mostly found in conflicts. This is the reason that
most of her major characters are always quite complex but very
interesting to analyse. In short, her art of characterization is quite
superb and her famous heroes and especially heroines are an apt proof
of ti.
As it is said that George Eliot, like Robert Browning was more
interested in “soul’s dissection” hence this inclination made her peep
deep inside human nature and portray psychological and complex
characters. Her major characters are mostly found in a conflict, often
with their environment or some outward force. If they have defects,
they are the defects of their virtues. We are not at all surprised to see
characters like Arthur who are so anxious about other’s good opinion
about them; seduce a young girl like Hetty. The only reason is that the
inward force that is compelling him to do all this is the desire for
immediate pleasure, resulting in the downfall of Hetty and her ultimate
tragedy.
A tragedy who is always yearning for some minute details will
always find a lot of such material in the books of Eliot, which are
carrying a bundle of complex characters involved in different struggle.
Her minute eye penetrates through every aspect of their struggle to
elucidate the position of the forces concern and reveal the trend of
their actions. We are always roaming in the world of temptation and
resistance and how characters confront and handle both of them in
different circumstances. The brave and the morally strong ones show
resistance to these temptations of life, while the weaker once fall a
victim to them. Arthur’s gradual yielding to his passions for Hetty is the
best example of weaker self, whereas Dinah’s resistance even till the
end unless she is convinced of moral truth is the other way round. Like
a true scientist who has devoted his life to research, Eliot also devoted
her art in using her “Intellectual Microscope”, laying bare both the
brain and heart, examining the nerve vibration and also tries to feel the
pulse as well as heart beat. This intellectual microscope helped her in
developing dynamic psychological characters. She was in fact the first
Victorian novelist to depict characters from the inside and to portray
realistically the spectacle of deterioration in people who are not
intrinsically evil. Her most complex characters ring true because the
changes and apparent contradictions in them are always firmly related
as they are in life to some central principle. In short, she fully
understands why dreams and ambitions are ruined, why idealists desert
their ideas and why the bright promise of youth so often fades into
insignificance.
Her presentation of characters is so true to nature that an
intelligent reader while reading ‘Adam Bede” fully comprehends why
different characters act like that in different situations, a clear
indication that one gets involved in the characters while reading about
them. She can distinguished precisely how different an act looks before
it is done, shrouded in the softening darkness of the secret hearts and
how afterwards exposed in tis naked ugliness to the hard daylight of
other people’s judgment. Arthur, Hetty, Adam and other such
characters are al judged very minutely in this respect. Moreover, there
is no single character in the novel which is not well drawn and if the
portrait is but a sketch, still it is a true one. Mr. Irvine, the passion,
Dirrah Morris, the young Methodist, Mr. & Mrs. Poyser; all these
characters are very carefully and interestingly portrayed in the novel.
As said before George Eliot is a psychological novelist who gives a
profound sense of the inner life which determines outward actions. Her
emphasis on the inner life comes most frequently when it has moral
implication, usually in its reflection of the self-deception of the
character. She is truly a psychologist of moral life that carries a complex
process which may evoke our admiration or criticism, pity or terror
nearly all her main characters either grow or get further enhanced in
the ‘moral stupidity’ of egoism. Some characters the most destructive
are shown as permanently prisoned within this moral stupidity, while
other are shown to have escaped it entirely.
In the end we can say that all the characters in “Adam Bede” are
so true and natural that we love to read and hear about them in detail.
They are engaged in so many intricacies of life that we enjoy them to
the maximum. When they talk, we are ready to hear, when they don’t
we want to observe their gesture and when they act a minute reader
becomes vigilant about the motive behind action. But when they do
nothing the Author’s reflections so vivid that we naturally comprehend
every bit of it.
 In short, her vivid portraits embodied with psychological depths
and outward charm as well, make her art of characterization really
commendable and a treat to watch and observe.