ABSTRACT
In the opening chapter of Middlemarch, Dorothea remarks to her sister: ‘Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another’ (p. 12). This physical image operates on a metaphorical level, expressing the variations of colour and texture between different ‘souls’, but also on a more literal level. It points to an issue which, for a writer as keenly aware as is Eliot of developments in contemporary psychology, must be closely pertinent to any question raised about the mind: that of the intimate, complex relationship between the self and physical being. For Eliot, the ‘complexion’ of the ‘soul’ and the wider physical self are inseparable, and she seeks constantly to explore and define the relationship between the two in her fiction. It seems most useful, therefore, to begin our exploration of her representations of mind by focusing on this area.
