G・エリオット『ミドルマーチ』とゲーテ『ヴィルヘルム・マイスター』

―「思想と行動との優れた結合」を求めて―

抄録

　George Eliot, a nineteenth-century novelist, translated two German philosophical works into English with a sincere intention of leaving their excellent thoughts to educate English nations ethically and socially. From this point of view she wrote “Middlemarch” in an English style, which is filled with Goethe’s idea of self-education called ‘Bildung’. It originally arose from his ‘Metamorphose’ theory of plants that individual organs make up a plant by closely interacting with each other. In ‘Wilhelm Aleisters Lehrjahre’ Goethe extended this theory and applied it to human-beings, indicating the close relation between a society and individuals having such various personalities. Another ideal of Goethe described in the novel is harmonious development of manifold human natures by way of closely combining view with deed.

　 George Eliot dealt with those ideals in ‘Middlemarch’ by referring to St. Theresa, Dorothea, Lydgate and Ladislaw, who all desire to shape their thought and deed in noble agreement in the human society. As a result, the above ideal, harmonious development of manifold human natures, is realised by the marriage of Dorothea, an intellectual ethical woman, and Will Ladislaw, endowed with nature of sensibility and art. As the name ‘Will’ suggests, his character is taken from ‘Wilhelm Meister’ a reflector of Goethe.