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History of English Literature

Notes Religious Conflicts

It was an era also of religious conflicts and tensions. There are two forms of religious traditions. One
is the practical, kindly, undogmatic tradition of Anglicanism or the official Church of England. They
believe in doing a good turn, a kindly, humane act and do not bother much about the theoretical
questions of right and wrong. Such men were interested in conduct than in faith; they had a respected
position in the structure of society, which enabled them, to some extent, to mitigate the rigours of
class difference. Even when comparatively poor, they were accepted by the gentry as one of
themselves, but they knew where the shoe pinches for their uneducated parishioners. Sometimes,
they were men of deep intellectual interests; and were the sort of men who to-day would be
university or sixth-form teachers.
The other religious tradition, much more vehement and fanatical, is loosely called Evangelical. They
were dissenters from the Church of England. By the year 1830, the Evangelical movement was
nothing new, but such is the conservatism of the Middle-marchers, that they regard it as something
new and are suspicious of it. Evangelicals or Methodists laid stress on the strict adherence to religious
dogma. They made a rigid distinction between those who had received divine Grace and those who
had not. They believed in the doctrine of the original sin, and that all men were consequently
depraved, till they received divine Grace and were controlled and guided by His will. The Evangelicals
thought that they were the chosen of God, and so would never admit that there was any evil in
them. Thus they were self-righteous, firmly convinced of the rightness of their conduct, and critical
of others who did not belong to their sect.
In the novel, the two sects are in conflict, and the old is suspicious of the new. The old is giving way
to the new in every direction. The old in religious, social and economic sphere is decaying and
disintegrating, and the new is gradually taking its place.
Non-conformist sects receive little attention and no respect. Methodism, which then had a strong
hold on many parts of the Midlands, is referred to indirectly as a religion encouraging one to be
dull and strait-laced. Dissenters’ godly folk’s a word used with certain amount of disapproval and
even contempt, for non-conformist congregations included dealers in stolen goods and other
unscrupulous people. They were proud of their profession of religion, critical of those who did not
accept their view of life.

Persistence of the Agricultural Way of Life
The age played an important part in formulating the critical and philosophical views of George
Eliot. During her childhood she saw the dawn of a new era, the era of the Industrial Revolution.
Year after year people were leaving the serene, clean countryside for the slums of the city.
Writers like Dickens were focusing attention on the unhealthy conditions prevalent in the cities
due to over-population. Industrial Revolution was slowly encroaching upon the countryside
and shattering the agricultural fabric. But despite the rise of factories in Coventry and other
industrial centres, there were still some parts of countryside untouched by the Industrial
Revolution and it is these beautiful, remote places, such as Hayslope and Raveloe that George
Eliot describes in her novels.

The New Economy

At this time the new economic theory of Utilitarianism was attracting much attention. The foremost
Utilitarian philosopher at that time was Jeremy Bentham. The Utilitarians could get passed a
number of bills, such as that for the abolition of imprisonment for not paying debts, and that for
the reform of the legal system. But Jeremy Bentham also believed that government should not
place any restrictions on commerce and industry. He accepted the theory of Laissez-faire. Many of
the corrupt businessmen and manufacturers used this theory for exploiting the workers.

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