What exactly was George Eliot trying to say by that quote?
If you put that statement in context of her life, I believe it’s tinged with melancholy, rather than arrogance. Rosehill served as a place of enlightening education for Eliot, and there she found debate with some of the greatest minds of that time. Yet, despite her accomplishments, she is most famous under her male pseudonym, and was often considered scandalous and fought feelings of self-doubt and depression. I think some digging into independent females of the time period, and the struggles they faced in the “real world” (outside of intellectually stimulating & progressive groups) might shed more light. I suspect that once she left some of the more liberal and “radical” debates with the great minds that considered her equal, she found that the world wasn’t ready for a woman with such genius. I can see where that would torment someone’s soul. To have such genius, but to be belittled because of your gender.
