Without Any Check of Proud Reserve: Sympathy and Its Limits in George Eliot’s Novels

Without Any Check of Proud Reserve describes the literary and philosophical influences on George Eliot’s conception of sympathy, and explores the functions of sympathy in Eliot’s essays and the limits of sympathy in Eliot’s major novels. Marked discrepancies exist between the way Eliot theorizes about sympathy as an integral part of her aesthetic vision and the way she practices the manipulation of her reader’s sympathies vis-a-vis certain characters. The specific rhetorical strategies by which we are made to feel sympathy for Maggie Tulliver but not Henleigh Grandcourt are among the subjects of Dr. Argyros’ interest.