Question

What does George Eliot say about the ideals in the Romola?​

Answer 1

Answer:

<1>George Eliot’s Romola (1862-63) has invited various interpretations which examine what is often perceived as a discrepancy between the delicately described historical environment and the novel’s “atemporal” protagonist. Eliot was at pains to depict the setting of the novel as accurately as possible, paying attention to the smallest details in speech and clothing. She succeeded in creating a novel which, most critics agree, successfully captures the cultural climate of its period – fifteenth-century Florentine life abounds with talk on the visual arts; the rebirth of classical scholarship is a prominent issue; the religious and political conflicts of this time are paid full attention.(1) Yet the protagonist, Romola, seems to be ill-suited to her historical period and not to fit into this environment: “She stands outside her milieu, rather than emerging from it” (Maitzen 104). The novel’s main flaw is that its protagonist transgresses the limitations defined by chronology and genre. Romola is more than a young woman living in Renaissance Florence since she transcends the specific conditions of her historical context. On her anachronistic character numerous critics agree: Romola has been identified as a learned woman or female intellectual (David 177-196; Simpson), a feminist heroine (Paxton, “Feminism and Positivism”), a Madonna figure (VanEsfeld 164-195), a forerunner of Victorian social reformers (Booth 110-34), as an apocalyptic figure (Carpenter) and most prominently, as will be shown below, as a Positivist figure.