The Representation of Motherless and Fatherless Homes in Novels of George Eliot

George Eliot wrote about the social, cultural, and historical issues of her time. She represented the middle-class homes in her novels and showed how the Industrial Revolution changed the very setting of domestic environment. The home became the domain of women, where they were to fulfil the nurturing duties while men moved to work place to provide for their dependents. In middle class families, the nurturing duty was not the domain of the father only in the society of this period. Fathers and mothers substituted their duties either under extraordinary circumstances or as a matter of choice. This study analyses the substitution of duties by fathers and mothers in Eliot’s novels with the help of comprehensive and interdisciplinary supporting literary, social, and historical resources like magezines and books, from the Victorian age. The study concludes that George Eliot’s homes are not perfect without a benevolent mother and responsible father.