Felix Holt: Independent Spokesman or Eliot's Mouthpiece?

Abstract

Of George Eliot's novels, Felix Holt the Radical is the most difficult for those critics wanting to dislodge Eliot from the conservative camp that so quickly appropriated her work, since Felix himself is usually read as a mouthpiece revealing Eliot's political sympathies. I suggest, however, that Felix Holt is a genuinely dialogic novel in which Eliot is exploring and testing, rather than simply endorsing, Felix's opinions. Rather than serving as a proof text for discussing Eliot's political conservatism, Felix Holt can contribute to the reevaluation of Eliot. 1 The novel raises very serious questions about Felix's ideology of submission that critics have overlooked in their narrow focus on Felix as hero and authorial mouthpiece. Some of Eliot's subversiveness in the novel has been uncovered in the recent focus on Mrs. Transome, but the questioning nature of the novel is much more widespread than this section. 2 The main (Felix) plot itself, I argue, is not monologic. Felix Holt allows Eliot to explore the conflicting demands of the individual and the state; Felix's argument for conformity and submission to the state is contested by the lack of beneficial change for the individuals who most need it. 3

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