George Eliot, Typology, and the Moral Psychology of Historicism

Abstract:Where several recent critics have shown how George Eliot's conception of sympathy is informed by her historicism, this article analyzes her investment in the moral psychology of historicism itself, the structures of motivation and consolation needed to accommodate the rigors of seeing oneself as historically situated. To draw out her thinking on the moral psychology of historicism, I examine her characters' frequent recourse to typology, their tendency to interpret themselves and each other as repetitions of earlier historical figures. I argue that typology becomes a crucial supplement to sympathy in her ethical thinking and ultimately transforms it in Daniel Deronda.