The Analytical Approach and Realism in George Eliot

喬治˙愛略特（George Eliot）對英國小說發展之主要貢獻有三。首先，她依相對道德觀（moral relativism）鋪陳小說的情節與角色的刻劃，避開以絕對的道德觀論斷人物的行為舉止，總是將人物的行為與人生決擇置於個殊的情境加以審視，以判斷是否符合正義和道德規範。其次，愛略特可謂是開創英國小說心理分析技巧。她擅長角色的動機分析與心理刻劃，在她之前的小說，人物的動機經常隱而不顯，至多半遮半掩，小說的重點放在故事情節的發展，愛略特則選擇細膩地描述角色的內心世界與行為決策背後的動機，塑造出更符合真實人性的人物，賦予小說角色多面向的個性。正因為作者以有別於當代作家的手法探索書中人物的意識情結，使習於傳統小說平舖直敘技巧的當時讀者視愛略特為畏途。她的心理分析手法影響後來詹姆斯（Henry James）的寫作風格，二十世紀喬伊斯（James Joyce）和伍爾芙（Virginia Woolf）的意識流也深受愛略特的啟發，其影響力既深且廣，不愧是英國小說技巧演進的重要推手。愛略特另一重要貢獻是將寫實主義廣泛應用於小說創作中，標榜「真實的特質」在於「真切地反映平凡的事物」（《亞當˙彼德》Adam Bede，第十七章）。在她之前，詩人華茲華斯（William Wordsworth）就常以鄉野卑微人物或乞丐入詩，以凸顯人性悲情、高尚或堅毅的性格，但詩人並不以捕捉個人世界的繁樣面貌為職志，小說家則專注於記錄平凡小人物的生活點滴，將寫實主義發展成小說創作的主流。

George Eliot's great contributions to the development of the English novel are threefold. First, she drew on her exposure to works and concepts, designing her plots and characters according to less rigidly defined moral imperatives. In her novels, human conduct and behavior are not weighed in the balance of absolutes in which a figure's decisions and actions can often be guessed pages before they occur. Another of her contributions could be described as introducing a more analytical approach to portraying a character. Motivations, previously concealed or at best obliquely included, are laid bare, and the actions of individuals are given their full provenance. By so doing, Eliot gives her characters an added maturity and a far more understandable humanity. This technique lends to the world she creates an unrelenting internality. It was this propensity for delving into the consciousness of a character that set her apart from her contemporaries and that posed a challenge to her contemporary readership, accustomed as it was to a more straightforward plot. As to her influence in this regard, we can perhaps ascribe to her the direction Henry James took in pursuing the technique of psychoanalyzing his characters. If we continue the line of authorship from James we can see a further refinement in James Joyce and Virginia Woolf who perfected the stream of consciousness. Eliot serves, then, as the 19th century lodestone to 20th century stylistics, having set down in her works a blueprint for transforming the propulsion of plot into the impetus of character. Eliot also applies the principle of realism to her novel writing, observing that 'the quality of truthfulness' is 'the faithful representing of commonplace things' (Adam Bede, ch.17).Wordsworth before her had often taken the humble, the beggarly, the elderly, and the rustic as the subjects of his poetry, yet it was always done with a pronounced scene of either the tragedy, the nobility, or the solidity of these people. The poet had not paid so much attention to realism as props in a personalized world. Eliot, on the contrary, concentrates on everyday people as the subjects in her novels.