Determinism and Moral Reform in Felix Holt

Abstract

At the end of the ‘Introduction’ to Felix Holt, after briefing the reader on the sad fortunes of Transome Court, the self-referring ‘author’ moves on to lament the fact that ‘[many] an inherited sorrow … has been breathed into no human ear’ and observes that ‘[these] things are a parable’ (FH, ‘Introduction’:11). The word ‘parable’ puts the moral of the story into perspective. The history of Transome Court — its ‘woeful progeny’ — manifests the powers of ‘will and destiny’ (FH, ‘Introduction’:11). As a moral, this theme of retribution and determinism should have a bearing on the rest of Felix Holt, especially the other main plot, the electoral reform. Nemesis does not favour only those who are seen to be unfortunate. A representative critical point of view sees the story of reform as belonging to the Zeitgeist of the 1860s, characterized by ‘the antithesis between political radicalism and cultural conservation’ that recalls ‘Arnold and Carlyle’, with ‘the social groupings of Felix Holt … oddly akin to Arnold’s’.¹ To what extent do the workings of determinism condition this antithesis? This chapter attempts to answer the question by focusing on Eliot’s study of the mentality of two major social groups in Felix Holt, the Dissenting community and the working men, especially her presentation of how such mentality may dictate their reaction under specific historical conditions.

… the reason why societies change slowly is, because individual men and women cannot have their natures changed by doctrine and can only be wrought on by little and little.

(George Eliot, L, VII, 346)