Date of Award

5-14-2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

First Advisor

Heidt, Sarah J.

Abstract

Eliot explicitly figures provincial society as a living body throughout Middlemarch. The metaphor of the body politic, once physiologically figured in this way, becomes crucial as the master trope of the novel, through which we may locate and decipher Eliot's overarching model for social behavior: exchange. Chapter I explores the difficulties of taking action within Eliot's animated body politic, and therefore tangles with one of its primary reformers, Dr. Tertius Lydgate, whose failures are elucidated anew through this physiological trope. Chapter II examines the Reverend Edward Casaubon, through whom Eliot delineates the ways in which social irresponsibility destabilizes the healthful functioning of the social organism, as well as Casaubon's own identity and wellbeing.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references: pages 88-89

Rights Statement

All rights reserved. This copy is provided to the Kenyon Community solely for individual academic use. For any other use, please contact the copyright holder for permission.

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