Technical features

Abstract

George Eliot is often referred to as the first modern novelist, for she describes her characters both inwardly and outwardly, as well as commenting omnisciently on their decisions and dilemmas. Her modernity consists in the examination and exposure of the individual consciousness, in integrating her major characters – and most of her minor – psychologically, and in showing consistency, change, development and conditioning through their social, moral and sometimes spiritual environments.