Comteist philanthropy in George Eliot's Silas Marner: An evaluation

George Eliot in Silas Marner portrays the protagonist as a heroic character who is brave, generous and intelligent. Through this novel, Eliot expresses her desire to create sympathy for the wounded humanity. This is a reflection of the altruistic view of the world proposed by Auguste Comte. This study examines Comte’s view of philanthropy in Silas Marner. In doing so, this article goes through Auguste Comte’s altruism philosophy to analyse Silas Marner. This study evaluates the contest of the nineteenth-century European society and the author’s intention to depict an ideal physiological state of mind. The characters and plot have been monitored from a very close view to examine each and every move in order to get a clear picture of the society. The findings highlight that 19th century Europe was poverty-stricken, engulfed by socio-economic crises and at the same time however, it was the time of new thought and technologies. In this regard George Eliot in this novel, desires to show a path for humanity to get rid of the sufferings.