An Analytical Study Of Feminism in “Middlemarch”

Abstract

Feminist theories have emerged until late in1960s. In that time Gender issues and patriarchal ideology play a part in every aspect of human production, and masculinist ideology pervades those writings which have been traditionally considered great literature, and which until recently have been written mainly by men for men. Typically, the most highly regarded literary works focus on male protagonist Oedipus, Ulysses, Hamlet, Tom Jones, Faust, The Three Musketeers Leopold Bloom who embody masculine traits and ways of feeling and pursue masculine interests in masculine fields of action. To these males, the female characters, when they play a role, are marginal and subordinate to, or in opposition to, masculine desire and enterprises. In the eighteenth century female writer were facing many problems while publishing their works because of the male supreme power in the society and that„s why Marry Ann Evans began her career as a writer under the male pseudonym George Eliot, under the male pseudonym, she avenges the patriarchal society by depicting the male characters in her novel as moral weaklings. Women in her work as a superior being. Though they have to submit to the patriarchal values, they triumph inwardly and psychological. They try to live and succeed within the shaping of men„s character by women is a favorite topic, which is demonstrated in her masterpiece Middlemarch. Eliot wrote several works of fiction under her pen name and they are: The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Denial Deronda (1876), Adam Bede ( 1859 ). This research paper focuses on the treatment of female in the novels of George Eliot and also included that how female figures like Dorothea Brooke,Rosamond Vincy and others suffers a lot in the patriarchal society in the Victorian age.