George Eliot's Impact on Women

George Eliot's Impact on Women

Written words can be a light into a dark world. In a Medieval society women had no identity of their own. They were hidden in the shadows of society and struggled to be acknowledged. A woman had no opinion or thought that was worthy of any attention. A women writer had no chance getting of respect in a world ruled by men. In this world that Mary Anne Evans found herself growing up in as a child. Having a normal childhood with a society where a women are always subservient men, she changed her name to a male pen name to get published, and overall would give advice to women.

George Eliot’s real name is Mary Anne Evans, born on November 22, 1819, in Warwickshire (Rooney 249). Mary Evans lived in a comfortable home growing up ("George Eliot" 666). According to Rooney, “Her grandfather was a carpenter, and her father was apprenticed trade, but before her birth her father was an estate manger” (249). She went to an Anglican moderation church and she also went to a boarding school where she received an intense religious background (Rooney 249). In her late teens her mother died, she left school to take care of her father and his household (Rooney 249). Shortly after in 1842 she abandoned going to church, this making her and her father to get into a separation (Rooney 249). She rebelled against the church because women must attend church to get married (Frome 3-4). During this time she was living in London as an editor for Westminster Review, an open-minded journal, and she was unrecognized (Rooney 249). “In 1852 she meet George Henry Lewis, editor of a radical weekly, The Leader” (Rooney 249-250). Mary Evans and George Lewis where having a love affair that lasted until George Lewis died (Rooney 250...

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...w doors for women that struggled during this era. Even though she was a hypocrite many women would come to her house for advice.

Works Cited

Dean, Ruth and Melissa Thomas. Women of the Middle Ages. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2003. Print.

Frome, Susan. "From the Philosopher." From the Philosopher. Philosophical Society of England, 2006. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.

"George Eliot" Encyclopedia of World Biography Volume 4. Detroit:Thomson, 2003. 665-668. Print.

"George Eliot / Marian Evans (1819-1880)." British Humanist Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.

Hughes, Sarah Shaver and Brady Hughes. Women in World History Volume 2 from 1500 to the Present. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1997. Print.

Rooney, Ellen. "Gerge, Eliot." the Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature Volume 2. Ed. David Schott Kastan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2006. 249-257. Print.