"Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster"

George Eliot’s assertion challenges the restrictive social norms that historically dictated the roles and inner lives of women. Societal expectations often prescribed a narrow range of acceptable ambitions and feelings for women: to seek marriage, prioritize family, and perform self-sacrifice. Any deviation from these approved motives, such as a desire for independence, intellectual pursuits, or ambitions outside the domestic sphere, risked censure or worse, being cast as unnatural or monstrous.

Eliot keenly observes the dangerous simplicity of this cultural assumption. Supposing that all women should feel and want the same things erases their individuality and complexity. It denies the existence of women who think differently, aspire to alternative life paths, or express desires commonly reserved for men. Such prescriptiveness pressures women to conform, stifling authenticity and creativity. If a woman’s motives diverge from this predetermined script, she is viewed with suspicion, cast as an outsider, or pathologized as unwomanly, even inhuman.

This binary thinking reveals the inherent sexism of the era, defining “normal” womanhood so narrowly that healthy variation becomes deviance. Labeling nonconformity as “monstrous” functions as a mechanism of social control, incentivizing women to suppress their own desires to avoid ridicule, ostracization, or moral condemnation. This not only limits women’s freedom to define themselves but impoverishes society by dismissing the contributions and perspectives of those who do not fit the mold.

Eliot’s insight endures as a critique of any rigid gender essentialism. True humanity lies in nuance and difference; to demand sameness is to do violence to the intricate reality of women’s lives. Only by recognizing that motives, aspirations, and inner worlds vary as much among women as among men can society hope to cultivate genuine equality and respect.