ON THE MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOME OF THE HEROINES OF SHAKESPERE AND GEORGE ELIOT. PROFESSOR Dowden, in writing on the mind and art of Shakespere, has said 'Shakespere's men have a history, moral growth or moral decay: his women act or are acted upon, but seldom grow and are transforined. We get from Shakespere no histories of a woman's soul like the history of Romola or of Maggie Tulliver or of Dorothea Brooke. Shakespere creates his women by a single strong or exquisite inspiration, he studies his men.' This is true in the majority of instances. In Shakespere the woman is the realization of an ideal. She is a thought, embodied by the writer for the purposes of the play; she is an idea in maturity, her character is presented to begin with at its best and fullest.' But in the novel which is essentially the production of a reflective age, it is not enough to have a woman 'at her best and fullest,' we must learn how she reached it. We must see the long hard process by which she gains her true life. Most of Shakespere's women have already attained, are already made perfect, George Eliot shows the slow discipline and teaching of a life-time. Most of Shakespere's women stand in the full sunshine, George Eliot's come from darkness into light, with the sadness and sorrow of the shadows about them, but with the glow on their faces and 'that sad patient loving strength which holds the clue of life.' But as yet Professor Dowden has hardly proved his assertion that 'we get from Shakespere no histories of a woman's soul.' We think that we can show that moral growth is distinctly to be traced in some of his heroines, and it may be interesting to enquire how far we could find parallels amongst them for George Eliot's careful studies of developing female nature. Whose is the sweet girlish face in the dark gondola that comes floating towards us from amongst the rich palaces of Venice? A face little troubled by sorrow as yet, full of sympathy and love, full of brightness and enjoyment of life; that "Whiter skin of hers than snow And smooth as monumental alabaster. Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion It is old Brabantio's daughter and Othello's love, the gentle Desdemona. Few of Shakespere's women are so loveable, and we are nearly as much puzzled as Brabantio |