Contents introduction The role of critical realism in english literature of 19 century

An Extract from "Mary Barton"
But as Mr. Carson was on the point of leaving the house with no sign of relenting¹ about him, he was again stopped by John Barton, who had risen once more from his chair, and stood sup­porting himself on Jem, while he spoke.
'Sir, one word! My hairs are grey with suffering, and yours with years —"
"And have I had no suffering?" asked Mr. Carson, as if appeal­ing for sympathy, even to the murderer of his child.
And the murderer of his child answered to the appeal, and groaned in spirit over the anguish² he had caused.
"Have I had no inward suffering to blanch³ these hairs. Have not I toiled and struggled even to these years with hopes in my heart that all centred in my boy? I did not speak of them, but were they not there? I seemed hard and cold; and so I might be to others, but not to him! who shall ever imagine the love I bore to him? Even he never dreamed how my heart leapt up at the sound of his footstep, and how precious he was to his poor old father. — And he is gone — killed — out of the hearing of all loving words — out of my sight for ever. He was my sunshine, and now it is night! Oh, my God! comfort me, comfort me!" cried the old man, aloud.
The eyes of John Barton grew dim with tears. Rich and poor, masters and men, were then brothers in the deep suffering of the heart; for was not this the very anguish he had felt for little Tom in years so long gone by that they seemed like another life!
The mourner before him was no longer the employer; a being of another race, eternally placed in antagonistic attitude; going through the world glittering like gold, with a stony heart within, which knew no sorrow but through the accidents of Trade; no longer the enemy, the oppressor, but a very poor, and desolate old man. The sympathy for suffering, formerly so prevalent⁴ a feeling with him, again filled John Barton's heart, and almost impelled him to speak (as best he could) some earnest, tender words to the stern man, shaking in his agony.
Oh blasting thought! Oh miserable remembrance! He had for­feited⁶ all right to bind up his brother's wounds.
Stunned by the thought, he sank upon the seat, almost crushed with the knowledge of the consequences of his own action; for he. had no more imagined to himself the blighted home, and the miserable parents, than does the soldier, who discharges his musket, picture to himself the desolation of the wife, and the pitiful cries of the helpless little ones, who are in an instant to be made widowed and fatherless.
To intimidate¹ a class of men, known only to those below them as desirous to obtain the greatest quantity of work for the lowest wages, .. — this was the light in which John Barton had viewed his deed.
GEORGE ELIOT
(1819—1881)
George Eliot is the pen-name Mary Ann Evans, who began writing fiction when she was 'already middle-aged. Until then she had worked as a journalist. Mary's father was a land agent. She was born some twenty miles from Stratford-on-Avon, but spent her childhood on a farm in the Midlands. The girl studied at two private schools for young ladies. After her mother's death she left "school at the age of seventeen. Mary read a great deal and became interested in social and philosophical problems. Of all the women novelists of the XIX century G. Eliot was the most learned. After she had moved to London she trans­lated some philosophical works from German into English and acted as assistant editor of the Westminster Review.
Her early "Scenes of Clerical Life" (1858) had an immediate success. These short narratives were followed by a long novel "Adam Bede" (1859), and her reputation was made. Her other novels appeared in rapid succession: "The Mill on the Floss" (1860), "Silas Marner" (1861), "Romola" (1863), "Felix Holt, the Radical" (1866), "The Spanish Gipsy" (1868), "Middlemarch" (1872) and "Daniel De-ronda" [da'rond9] (1876), which she regarded as her greatest work.
George Eliot's work belongs to the later phase of the XIX century novel. She has sometimes been described as the first modern English novelist. True, with her search for a scientific approach, based on biological and sociological data, and the psy­chological study of her characters. G. Eliot initiated a new stage in the development of XIX century English realism. Her heroes are not types but real men and women who are made good or bad by their actions and by their character which itself is conditioned by environment. G. Eliot very skilfully reveals to the reader her heroes' psychology and moral conflicts. Their desires, passion, temperament and human weaknesses are always struggling with their moral duty. That is why in her novels G. Eliot deals mostly with the problems of religion and morality. She believes that all social contradictions could foe solvedby "religion of the heart" and "moral law".
"The МШ on the Floss" (I860).G. Eliot's most widely read book is "The Mill on the Floss". It is an original study of English provincial life and the story of a brother and a sister. The central character is Maggie Tulliver. As a child she .is emotional, intellectual and strong in character. Her brother Tom is a contrast to his sister, being noisy, blunt and shallow, yet Maggie adores him. The children are set on the background of the country town in their relations to their parents and a circle of aunts and uncles. The reader sees this middle-class family through Mag­gie's experience. It is a hardworking, economical, proud and narrowminded family. When Maggie grows up she craves for a larger world of the mind and emotions. Her ardent nature is never satis­fied with "a little of anything". "That is why better to do without earthly happiness altogether," she says to her friend Philip Wakem. George Eliot was always preoccupied with questions of duty and ethics. She also treats of these problems in "The Mill on the Floss". Maggie is ever ready for self-sacrifice. "She thinks she has found peace in subduing her own will. But the reader doubts in her desire for renunciation¹. So does Philip. He loves Maggie and therefore he sees that Maggie is only trying to stupify herself. "You are shutting yourself up in a narrow self-delusive² fanaticism, which is only a way of escaping pain by starving into dullness all the highest powers of your nature," he explains to her. Maggie is engaged to Philip but she falls in love with Stephen Guest, who, in his turn, is engaged to her cousin Lucy Deane. She is to make a moral choice between the two men. The author solves Maggie's dilemma by a quite arbitrary tragic ending. G. Eliot invents a flood of the Floss, Maggie tries to rescue her estranged brother from it, but both drown in the river.