Title: Ethnic Choice and Moral Growth in “The Spanish Gypsy”

Abstract: “The Spanish Gypsy” has never received sufficient attention from the academic community. By examining George Eliot’s notebook and travel diaries, it is revealed that Eliot artistically processes the Gypsies from two dimensions: literature reading and real-life experiences. This demonstrates that Eliot responds to the common views of 19th-century historical community through literary reshaping of the Gypsy people, further highlighting the ethical consciousness of personal happiness obeying the national cause. Combining the extensive discussion on ethnic issues in 19th-century Britain and Eliot’s own ideological background, this study examines the contradiction between free will and determinism in the poetry, the utility of sympathy, and the sublation of Comte’s positivism in order to explore the external trajectory and internal motivation of moral enhancement for the male and female protagonists.

Keywords: Gypsy, free will, determinism, moral selection, George Eliot, “The Spanish Gypsy”

Author: Zitian Ding, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University, Beijing, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2025.01.009