Establishing a powerful woman\u27s empathy in George Eliot\u27s The mill on the floss, Romola, and Middlemarch

This paper will compare Eliot\u27s treatment of empathy in three of her novels from different stages in her career: The mill on the floss (1860), Romola (1862-62), and Middlemarch (1871-2). I will focus specifically on the progression of empathy as it affects Eliot\u27s three female protagonists, Maggie Tulliver, Romola de\u27 Bardi, and Dorothea Brooke, who all strive to exert agency within a society constrained by an oppressive gender dynamic that limits women\u27s power. I will also connect the characters\u27 empathy in each novel to Eliot\u27s narrative empathy, or the way she attempts to evoke readers\u27 empathy for her characters