ABSTRACT
Throughout George Eliot’s novels and poetry, she uses jewelry in scenes which teach her moral truths and particularly to illustrate the fact that each person’s lot in life is defined by the principle of continuity – by his or her inheritance from the past and legacy for future generations. She uses jewelry in a sacramental sense in order to depict this intervention of her “divine” authority into the daily lives and inner consciousnesses of her characters. The way in which a character responds to jewelry is a clear indication of the level of his or her moral maturity and the degree to which he or she is connected to the past. Several characters who have been raised with no knowledge of their own heritage come to know their family backgrounds though scenes which use jewelry as the tangible link between them and their past histories.
