Juxtaposition And Repetition: An Analysis Of Narrative Lines In Middlemarch

From the theoretical perspective of narrative lines,this thesis endeavors to systematically analyze the narrative lines of George Eliot’s masterpiece Middlemarch,aiming to explore how the novel uses the juxtaposition and repetition of two originally separate stories to establish the overall narrative lines,how the repetition of similar stories establishes the narrative lines of serialized events,and how the repetition of public events links Middlemarchers’ activities and integrates the narrative lines,and to discover the aesthetic ideas underlying the arrangement of narrative lines and the innovative narrative experimentation.The thesis focuses on the narrative strategies of juxtaposition and repetition of personal activities and public events to construct the overlapping and intersecting narrative lines in Middlemarch.The study illustrates that two major narrative lines are elaborately juxtaposed and laid out around the two main characters Dorothea and Lydgate,creatively combined with other minor narrative lines.Through careful organization,numerous narrative lines about individuals and groups,including the lines of marriage,feminist issue,wills,parties and public events,overlap and interweave,generating an organic whole.This study has discovered that George Eliot exemplifies and sometimes theorizes how to use narrative lines in Middlemarch before the introduction of J.Hillis Miller’s theory of narrative lines.These narrative lines in Middlemarch fully demonstrate the pioneering and visionary nature of the narrative form,making the invisible line in the stories interconnected and integrated.Through using multiple narrative lines,the novel breaks away from the traditional linear narrative,and constructs a net-like structure without a centre yet with Dorothea as a focus,to achieve structural coherence and unity in the serialized form.The successful design of boundless narrative lines in the novel gives a thickness to the story and enriches the narrative line theory.