ABSTRACT
Felix Holt and Middlemarch are two novels by George Eliot in which British politics play a significant role not only in providing the background for the narrative but in the part political issues play in defining the characters and teaching the moral principles which she incorporated into all she wrote. Both novels include contrasting pairs of male politicians and provide insight into the moral principles which inform their choices and those of the women in their lives. In both novels, George Eliot uses political opinions and religious beliefs in similar ways as measures of morality. In Felix Holt, which is subtitled “the Radical,” even though Felix and Harold Transome are from entirely different social spheres, both are deeply involved in Radical political activities as are Mr. Brooke and Will Ladislaw in Middlemarch. In both novels, the political activities provide the background for the decisions which Esther and Dorothea make to marry Felix Holt and Will Ladislaw and to support them in their reform efforts.
