Desire and Frustration : Focusing on the Upper and Middle Class Women and Vocations in Middlemarch

Abstract

This paper examines Victorian upper and middle class women and their vocations as represented in George Eliot’s Middlemarch. In this novel, Eliot depicts the limitations in class, education, and vocation imposed on her main female characters. She also demonstrates how any desire for a vocation beyond that of acting as a domestic angel is frustrated. Though some critics argue that the author’s feminist views are not clearly expressed in this novel, Eliot faithfully depicts contemporary female issues and addresses them in conjunction with the aspirations for and frustrations over meaningful vocations. While many feminist critics tend to disregard the historical, cultural, and social restrictions imposed upon Victorian women, Eliot’s successful representation of frustration and negotiation regarding Victorian gender ideology, can be seen as a notable feminist achievement in Victorian literature.