Book 4: Chapter 1 Summary

which even calamity does not elevate." "Here," she writes, "one has conventional worldly notions and habits without instruction and without polish." She calls it proud respectability without being fashionable. "Worldliness without side-dishes," she calls it.

She considers their concept of the Unseen as more pagan than Christian. Hereditary custom seems to rule, and it creates a stifling environment. She calls the families "these emmet-like [ant-like] Dodsons and Tullivers." As to responsibility to family, the right thing is to correct them severely if they are an embarrassment. Self-centered, self-serving, and egotistical, their lives are lived to protect and serve their own self-interests.

Book 4: Chapter 1 Analysis

Eliot takes time out from the story to make clear what her feelings are about communities like St. Ogg's. She does not like them, and her reasons are specific. They are stupidly proud and ignorantly cruel. They...