| Abstract in Chinese | 第1-7页 |
| Abstract in English | 第7-11页 |
| 1. Introduction | 第11-19页 |
| ·George Eliot's life experience and her literary creation | 第11-13页 |
| ·Middlemarch: "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people" | 第13-15页 |
| ·The feminist reviews on Middlemarch and the focus of the dissertation | 第15-19页 |
| 2. The Handicap of Women's Lot in Middlemarch | 第19-34页 |
| ·Looking for an epic life: the new Theresa in Middlemarch | 第19-21页 |
| ·Eliot's Darwinian feminism | 第21-25页 |
| ·Saint-Theresa Syndrome: an existence sinking into oblivion | 第25-34页 |
| ·Dorothea: under the confining power of womanhood | 第25-30页 |
| ·Rosamond and Lydgate: the victims of a false ideology | 第30-34页 |
| 3. Compassion and Caring through Partnership | 第34-56页 |
| ·Maternal emotions: the "feminine specialty" | 第34-37页 |
| ·The embodiment of Eliot's feminist ethics in Middlemarch | 第37-48页 |
| ·Egotism and sublimation | 第38-41页 |
| ·Against masculine reasoning: living through compassion and caring | 第41-44页 |
| ·Mary the arbiter of justice: a reversal of traditional sex roles | 第44-48页 |
| ·The sympathetic involvement of Eliot in artistic creation | 第48-56页 |
| ·Transcending gender bias: the sympathetic imagination of George Eliot | 第49-52页 |
| ·The organic society: adherence to duty | 第52-56页 |
| 4. George Eliot's Transcendence of the Woman Question | 第56-64页 |
| ·The Victorian Athena: feminine or feminist writer? | 第56-60页 |
| ·The molding of Eliot's feminist ethics | 第60-64页 |
| ·Rebellious life versus conventional roles | 第60-62页 |
| ·The influence of Feuerbach: humanistic moral views | 第62-64页 |
| 5. Conclusion | 第64-66页 |
| Bibliography | 第66-67页 |
