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Essay / Middlemarch and the influence of Darwin's theory of evolution on the text
Charles Darwin is known for his profound influence on the study of evolution. However, his contributions to 19th century society went beyond his scientific theories; It is undeniable that Darwin influenced what writers wrote about life and what critics wrote about literature. During his famous voyage on the Beagle, Darwin concluded that the physical world had been and was still subject to continuous change under the action of natural forces, and that man is the product of these forces. No book has influenced the modern view of man as much as Darwin's The Origin of Species (1859). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay An intellectual ferment provoked by the evolutionary theory presented in The Origin of Species in Mid- and Late-Victorian England a led to continued controversy over religion and science. While some welcomed the revelation explored by Darwin's book, many resented it. This cast doubt on traditional beliefs about the origin of life and essentially eradicated the need for a God, seen by some as revolutionary and by others as blasphemous and unacceptable. He caused a sensation by refuting the divine origin of man and suggesting that man was a highly advanced and developed descendant of apes. Darwin modified the teleological model of evolutionary theories, refusing to accept the orthodox views that were blindly followed by so many. According to him, we live in a grim world where everyone is fighting in a constant struggle for survival; later this concept was coined as survival of the fittest by Herbert Spencer. He thus undermined the value of traditional religion and mortality that had guided humanity for centuries, thereby revolutionizing humanity's perception of itself. Consequently, his works caused a radical reorientation of philosophical and moral attitudes. As mentioned earlier, such works are of interest not only to scientists, but also to every intellectual thinker in society. For many late Victorians, the traditional teleological interpretation of the world lost its meaning. Darwin's theories threw religion and science into open conflict in the 19th century. Origin of Species has appealed to eminent scientists, such as the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, and several prominent novelists and poets. As a result, many Victorian writers radically altered their views on man's origins and the physical aspect of his existence. The idea of evolution was the main element of Darwin's theory. He devoted three chapters of his work to it, namely: “The struggle for existence”, “Natural selection or the survival of the fittest” and “The laws of variation”. Several Victorian-era writers who supported Darwin's work used his ideas to describe the behavior of their protagonists, writers such as Thomas Hardy, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Thomas Huxley and George Eliot, and dealt with Darwin's ideas from a scientific point of view. Each of them responded to a different aspect of Darwin's work. It was George Eliot who placed the greatest emphasis on human relationships when it came to the ideas presented in The Origin of Species. The publication of Eliot's novels shed new light on the Victorian novel. She not only penetrated human thinking by analyzing human behavior, but also added modern theories to her writings. His novels were not written to entertain.