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Teachers' Resource Web Study Questions on George Eliot "Margaret Fuller and Mary Wollstonecraft" 1. Explore the grounds upon which George Eliot (her real name was Marian Evans) condemns facile attempts to delineate woman's alleged nature. 2. Eliot, following the Enlightenment author Mary Wollstonecraft, argues strongly against female improvement schemes that emphasize women's superior sensibility. Why does she oppose this conception? (Look up the term "sensibility" in the Oxford English Dictionary--the word has specific eighteenth-century connotations.) 3. Does Eliot, again following Wollstonecraft, appear to believe that the average woman of 1855 is the intellectual or ethical equal of her male counterparts? (Eliot is not talking about any purportedly innate distinctions between the sexes; she is considering only actual accomplishments and behavior.) 4. What, according to George Eliot, must be done to improve the condition of females?
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