George Eliot's novels are widely acknowledged to use the science of her day in their tropes, plots, and themes; but the novels of Charles Dickens (with the exception of Bleak House) do not receive similar critical attention, despite his enthusiastic pursuit of articles on science for the journals he edited, despite his friendships with prominent doctors and scientists, and despite his championing of causes having their wellsprings in science (such as sanitary reform).; This study asserts that Dickens, like Eliot, uses science in the figurative language of his novels and specifically examines the rhetorical functions of metaphors drawn from natural history in two bildungsromane--The Mill on the Floss and Great Expectations--written at nearly the same time (1860-1861). The purpose of the comparison is to examine differences in the two novelists' use of metaphor and to explore how these differences are related to the working methods and theories of composition of the writers. This study also touches on the special relationship of metaphor to the bildungsroman.; While a thorough analysis of the natural history metaphors in The Mill on the Floss and Great Expectations forms the heart of the study, Bleak House and Middlemarch also figure as points of comparison in the artists' development. Essays and short fiction pieces provide further background. Many studies exist on Eliot's use of science, but none discusses the rhetorical uses of science at this level of detail. Using works written at nearly the same time and of the same subgenre lends validity to the comparison. Ultimately a picture emerges of two artists whose working methods differ and whose theoretical positions seem poles apart, yet the message that readers derive is virtually identical--we are all tied to each other through biology and morality.
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