Spiritual pilgrimage: a study of its sources and thematic significance in the novels of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to, examine the sources of the theme of spiritual pilgrimage and its significance in the novels of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot. Central to the Victorian imagination, the archetypal quest-motif is a literary expression of a living faith that the journey of life is invested with challenge and purpose. Although the three novelists under discussion present in their work unique variations on the theme, they share the conviction that the ultimate goal of pilgrimage is a reconciliation of the sacred and secular. Spiritual crisis often becomes in their novels the point of encounter between the human and the divine and the means of effecting the new creation, in which the dichotomies of human experience are resolved.

The Introduction places the theme of spiritual pilgrimage within the Victorian context by demonstrating its importance in the thought of major prophetic writers of the age. The main body of the thesis is divided into two sections: Part I. Sources, and Part II, The Novel. Since one of the most vital clues to the interpretation of the Victorian novel is found in its use of biblical metaphor and allusion, the first chapter of the thesis focuses upon the Bible, from which Victorian writers and readers derived their understanding of the essential nature of pilgrimage. All quotations are from the King James Version, and, after the first footnote, all biblical references are included in the text.

The second most familiar source of the pilgrimage theme for the Victorians was The Pilgrim's Progress, which presents in a linear narrative the stages of the journey from the present world to that which is to come. As in the chapter on the Bible, I have included references to The Pilgrim's Progress, following the first full footnote, in the text. The hymns which were sung in the churches and homes of the Victorian era gave voice to the theme of pilgrimage, which was already firmly instilled in the national and cultural consciousness. In their selections from the canon of Christian hymnody and in their own writing of hymns the Victorians reflected their attitudes towards the pilgrimage of life and its ultimate destination, and I have, therefore, given a full chapter to this topic.

Three other strongly influential works were The Divine Comedy, The Imitation of Christ, and Paradise Lost. These inspirational sources, also based upon the pilgrimage motif, were drawn upon particularly by Bronte, Gaskell, and Eliot, and are cited in the relevant chapters on the novel rather than treated separately in the first part of the thesis.

For the sake of consistency I have used as far as possible the Penguin English Library series of novels by Bronte, Gaskell, and Eliot. In all cases I have given complete bibliographical details in first footnote references, including the author's name even if already cited in the text, but have omitted the names of publishers throughout.