Mary Evans Research Paper

George Eliot is a novelist and poet of the Victorian Age, who strategically analyzed the behaviors of society towards women. This cultivated author originally named Mary Ann Evans went by the pen name George Eliot because of the way women authors were analyzed and treated during the eighteen hundreds. Mary Evans did not want her works to be mistaken for romantic novels or held to the biased standards of a female author. Over her years of living she wrote many psychological novels revealing the attitudes and treatments of society. Mary Evans of all of the people in the Victorian Age knew the treatment of the Victorian Society against women all too well. Ms. Evans experienced much of the ill treatment first hand, especially dealing with alleged

Dorothea and Celia are very well educated, “...they had both been educated since they were twelve years old.” Dorothea has a love for knowledge, she “likes to read old theology books” (Middlemarch page 3). Victorian society didn’t want women with knowledge or understanding, “women were expected to have weak opinions” (Middlemarch page 3) and Evans created Dorothea to express that treatment of women categorized as not as capable as men. According to the article, “Education for Men and Women in the Victorian Era,” women “Even if they received an education, their options were either getting married, becoming a governess, or becoming a prostitute. Some women, however, worked at boarding schools or opened up a dame school. Women that didn 't receive an education had even less options, whereas men that didn 't receive an education had more options than women that did.” This society didn’t accept Dorotheas crave for knowledge. Dorothea uses the character Mr. Brooke to represent the Victorian society when he said “I cannot let young ladies meddle with my documents. Young ladies are foolish” (Middlemarch page 11). The Victorian society categorized females as small minded. Mary Ann Evans expresses this through Mr. Brooke when he says, “Your sex are not thinkers, you knowㅡvarium et mutabile semperㅡthat kind of thing” (Middlemarch page 35). He also says, “Your sex is capricious you know” (Middlemarch page 36). Because of this neglecting of knowledge, women looked for marriage and to have a wealthy husband to get by in