Novel 3 Themes, Characters & Summary in Middlemarch by George Eliot
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3 Themes in Middlemarch by George Eliot
Middlemarch as a Provincial Novel
This novel written by George Eliot is set in the fictional town of Middlemarch, North Loamshire, which is probably based on Coventry (her hometown), in the county of Warwickshire. Like Coventry, the town of Middlemarch is described as a town that manufactures silk-ribbon.
The subtitle of the novel ”A Study of Provincial Life” holds great significance. A critic views the unity of Middlemarch as being achieved through “the fusion of the two senses of ‘provincial'”: i.e., on one hand, the geographical, that means “all parts of the country except the capital”; and on the other hand, an individual who is “unsophisticated” or “narrow-minded”.
Carolyn Steedman relates Eliot’s emphasis on provincial life in Middlemarch to Matthew Arnold’s discussion of social class in England in his Culture and Anarchy, published in 1869. It was the time when Eliot began writing stories which later on became Middlemarch.
Arnold in "Culture and Anarchy" classifies British society as the Barbarians, Philistines, and Populace, and Steedman believes that Middlemarch ” is a portrait of Philistine Provincialism”.
It should be noted that unlike her heroine Dorothea, Eliot went to London, where she achieved fame, which is more than Dorothea who remained in the provinces.
Eliot’s family didn’t accept her when she committed to the relationship with Lewes, and “their profound disapproval prevented her from ever going home again”. Thus she did not visit Coventry during her last visit to the Midlands in 1855.
Woman Question in Middlemarch
In Middlemarch lies the idea that Dorothea Brooke cannot hope to achieve the heroic stature like Saint Theresa, as the heroine of Eliot lives at the wrong time: “amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion”.
According to Kathleen Blake (a literary critic), George Eliot emphasizes Saint Theresa’s “very concrete accomplishment, the reform of a religious order”, rather than the fact that she was a Christian mystic.
Some feminist critics have described that “Dorothea is not only less heroic than Saint Theresa and Antigone, but also George Eliot herself”.
In response to these opinions, two literary critics Ruth Yeazell and Kathleen Blake taunt them for “expecting literary pictures of a strong woman succeeding in a period that did not make them likely in life”.
Eliot has also been criticised more widely for ending the novel with Dorothea marrying Will Ladislaw a man so clearly her inferior. Henry James describes that Ladislaw ” has not the concentrated fervor essential in the man chosen by so nobly strenuous a heroine”.
Theme of Marriage in Middlemarch
In Middlemarch marriage is one of the most important themes. According to the critic Francis George Steiner, “both principal plots are case studies of unsuccessful marriage”.
This statement also suggests that the desires of Dorothea and Lydgate are unfulfilled because of the ” disastrous marriages”.
This statement is more appropriate for Lydgate as compared to Dorothea, who gets a 2nd chance through her love marriage to Will Ladislaw (after her 1st husband’s death).
In addition to these marriages, there is the “meaningless and blissful” matrimony of Celia Brooke (Dorothea’s sister) to Sir James Chettam and, more significantly, Fred Vincy’s proposing of Mary Gart.
In this latter story, Mary Garth does not Fred until he gives upthe Church job and gets a more suitable career. Dorothea is a Saint Theresa, born in the wrong century, in provincial Middlemarch, who mistakes in her idealistic ardour, “a poor dry mummified pedant as a sort of angel of vocation”.
Middlemarch is, in part, a Bildungsroman (focuses on the moral growth of the protagonist) in which Dorothea “blindly gropes forward, making mistakes in her sometimes foolish, often egotistical, but also admirably idealistic attempt to find a role” or vocation, with which to fulfil her nature.
On the other hand, Lydgate also mistakes in his choice of marriage partner, as his opinion for a perfect wife is someone ” who can sing and play the piano and provide a soft cushion for her husband to rest after work”.
He, therefore, marries Rosamond Vincy, “the woman in the novel who most contrasts with Dorothea”, with the result that he “deteriorates from ardent researcher to fashionable doctor in London”.
Characters
Brooks
- Dorothea Brooke: She is intelligent and rich girl with great aspirations, Dorothea does not like to display her riches and devotes her time and energy to making cottages for the workers of her uncle, Arthur Brooke. She marries Edward Casaubon an old folk, having idealistic thought of helping him in his research work, The Key to All Mythologies. However, the marriage proves to be unsuccessful, as Casaubon does not give her love and devotion her seriously and resents her youth, enthusiasm, and energy. Her desire to assist Casaubon makes it more difficult for him to hide that this project is obsolete and out of date. Because of Casaubon’s coldness during their honeymoon, Dorothea befriends with his cousin, Will Ladislaw. After some years Casaubon dies and she falls in love with Will and marries him renouncing her inherited fortune.
- Celia Brooke: She is Dorothea’s younger sister. She is more sensual and realistic than her sister and does not like her sister’s idealism. She tries to make Dorothea reject Casaubon. Later she marries and lives happily with Sir James Chettam.
- Arthur Brooke: He is the uncle of Celia and Dorothea. He is famously known as the worst landlord in the country but stands for parliament on a Reform platform.
Graths
- Mary Garth: She is the practical, simple, and kind daughter of Caleb and Susan Garth. She works as a nurse at Mr. Featherstone’s hospital. She loved Fred Vincy since childhood, but she does not marry him until he does not quit his Church job and do some better work.
- Caleb Garth: He is the father of Mary Garth. He is a kind, honest, and generous businessman who is a surveyor and land agent involved in farm management. He likes Fred and eventually takes him under his wing. He even pays Fred’s loan.
Vincys
- Rosamond Vincy: She is beautiful, shallow and vain. She has high regards for her own charms and does not like Middlemarch. She marries Tertius Lydgate as she believes that he will raise her social status and give her all sorts of joy. When her husband becomes financially weak, she thwarts his efforts to economise, seeing such sacrifices as beneath her and insulting. After the death of Lydgate, she marries a rich man.
- Fred Vincy: He is the brother of Rosamond. He loves Mary Garth since childhood. His family hopes that he will raise his class status by becoming a clergyman, but he knows that Mary will not marry him if he does so. He is a spendthrift as he expects to inherit the property of his uncle Mr. Featherstone. He later changes himself because of his deep love for Mary, and finds, by studying under Mary’s father, a good job through which he gains Mary’s respect and love as well.
- Walter Vincy and Lucy Vincy: A respectable manufacturing family. They wish their children to grow in status and are quite dissatisfied by both Rosamond’s and Fred’s marriages. Mr. Vincy’s sister is married to Nicholas Bulstrode. Mrs. Vincy was an innkeeper’s daughter and her sister was the second wife of Mr. Featherstone.
Casaubons
- Rev. Edward Casaubon: A pedantic, selfish, elderly clergyman who is obsessed with his scholarly research. Because of this, his marriage to Dorothea is loveless. His unfinished book The Key to All Mythologies is intended as a monument to the tradition of Christian syncretism. However, his research is out of date because he does not read German. He is aware of this but will not admit it to anyone.
- Will Ladislaw: He is the cousin of Mr. Casaubon. He has no fortune as his grandmother married a poor Polish musician and was disinherited later on. He is a man of talent and idealism but without a profession. He is secretly in love with Dorothea, but cannot marry her without her losing Mr. Casaubon’s property. However, he succeeds in the end of the novel to achieve his love.
- Nicholas Bulstrode: He is a wealthy banker of Middlemarch. He married to Mr. Vincy’s sister, Harriet. He is a hypocrite. He tries to impose his beliefs on Middlemarch society. He also has a sinful past which he tries to hide to avoid disgrace. He killsRaffles indirectly when the latter tries to blackmail him.
Farebrothers
- Camden Farebrother: He is a poor but clever vicar. He is a friend of Lydgate and Fred Vincy and loves Mary Garth. His condition improves when Dorothea appoints him to a living after her husband’s death.
- Peter Featherstone: He is the old landlord of Stone Court. He is a self-made man who married Caleb Garth’s sister and after his wife’s death, he marries Mrs. Vincy’s sister.
- Joshua Rigg Featherstone: He is the illegitimate son of Featherstone who appears at the reading of Featherstone’s will and is given his fortune instead of Fred. He also relates to John Raffles, who comes to visit Rigg but on reaching the town reveals Bulstrode’s past instead. His appearance in the novel is significant to the plot.
Other Characters
- John Raffles: He is a braggart and a bully, a humorous and an alcoholic man. He holds the key to Bulstrode’s dark past and Lydgate’s future and later is indirectly murdered by Bulstrode.
- Tertius Lydgate: A talented young doctor with new ideas, and thought of good birth he is relatively poor. Lydgate hopes to make great progress in medicine through his research. However, he ends up in an unhappy marriage to Rosamond Vincy. His attempts to show that he is not answerable to any man fail and he eventually has to leave town. He ends up and dies sacrificing all of his high ideals in order to please his wife.
- Sir James Chettam: A neighbouring landowner, Sir James is in love with Dorothea and helps her with her plans to improve conditions for the tenants. When she marries Casaubon, he marries Celia Brooke.
- Humphrey Cadwallader and Elinor Cadwallader: Neighbours of the Brookes. Mr. Cadwallader is a Rector. Mrs. Cadwallader is a pragmatic and talkative woman who comments on local affairs with wry cynicism. She disapproves of Dorothea’s marriage and Mr. Brooke’s parliamentary endeavours.
Minor Characters
- Jane Waule: A widow and Peter Featherstone’s sister; has a son, John.
- Mr. Hawley: Foul-mouthed businessman and enemy of Bulstrode.
- Mr. Mawmsey: Grocer.
- Dr. Sprague: Middlemarch doctor.
- Mr. Tyke: Clergyman favoured by Bulstrode.
Summary
Introduction
Read this article to know about Middlemarch summary by George Eliot. Middlemarch is a novel that deals with the lives of the residents of Middlemarch, a fictitious town. The story mainly consists of three or four plots of unequal importance:
- Dorothea Brooke’s life
- Tertius Lydgate’s career;
- the courtship of Mary Garth by Fred Vincy;
- and the Bulstrode’s disgrace
Summary
Dorothea’s Idealism
The two main plots of Dorothea and Lydgate develop concurrently, although Bulstrode’s becomes more significant in the later chapters. Dorothea Brooke an orphan, who lives with her younger sister, Celia, under the guardianship of Mr Brooke, her uncle.
Dorothea is a passionate girl, who desires to improve the condition of tenant farmers by renovating their houses. though her uncle hates this idea.
Sir James Chettam, a young man of her age falls in love with her but she is instead attracted to Edward Casaubon, an old folk of 45. Casaubon proposes Dorothea for marriage and the latter accepts the proposal at once, though her sister tries to stop her.
Meanwhile, Chettam is encouraged to woo Celia, who ultimately develops an interest in her. Fred and Rosamond Vincy, the eldest children of town mayor who could not finish university.
Fred is the presumed heir of his childless uncle Mr Featherstone, an unpleasant, though rich, man. Fred is in love with Marry Grath (niece of Featherstone) and wants to marry her.
Shattering of Dorothea’s Idealism
On their honeymoon in Rome, Dorothea finds for the first time that her marriage did not prove as she wished to be when she finds that her husband has no interest in loving her and remains busy in his intellectual pursuits, which were among her reasons for marrying him. Meanwhile, she befriends Will Ladislaw, Casaubon’s cousin who is jobless and whom he supports financially.
Fred is Indebted & Distress for Garths
Fred falls into debt and finds himself unable to repay the money. Having asked Mary’s father, to co-sign the debt, he now tells Garth he must forfeit it.
As a result, Mrs Garth’s savings, which represent four years worth of income she held in reserve for the education of her youngest son, and Mary’s savings are completely wiped out. Mr Garth asks Mary not to marry Fred.
A New Doctor Arrives
Fred becomes ill and is cured by Mr Lydgate, the newest doctor in Middlemarch. Rosamond (sister of Fred), who is well educated and attractive, decides to marry Lydgate and uses Fred’s sickness as an opportunity to get close to the doctor.
In the beginning, he views their relationship as pure flirtation. However, Lydgate retards back from Rosamond after knowing that people think that they are engaged. However, after seeing her a final time, he gives up the idea to abandon her and the two are engaged.
Death of Casaubon & Recovery of Fred
At roughly the same time, Casaubon, returned from Rome, suffers a heart attack. Lydgate is brought in to deal with him and informs Dorothea that, in all likelihood, Casaubon only has around fifteen years left if he takes it easy and ceases his studies.
Meanwhile, as Fred recovers, Mr Featherstone becomes ill. On his deathbed, he reveals that he has two wills and tries to get Mary to help him destroy one. Unwilling to be mixed up in the business of his will, she refuses, and Featherstone dies with the two wills still intact.
In poor health, Casaubon attempts to extract from Dorothea a promise that, should he die, she will “avoid doing what I should deprecate, and apply yourself to do what I should desire”.
He dies before she can reply, and she later learns of a provision in his will that, if she marries Ladislaw, she will lose her inheritance. Lydgate’s efforts to please Rosamond soon leave him deeply in debt, and he is forced to seek help from Bulstrode.
He is partly sustained through this by his friendship with Camden Farebrother. Meanwhile, Rosamond’s brother, Fred, is reluctantly destined for the Church. However, he is in love with Mary Garth, who will not accept him until he abandons the Church and settles on a more suitable career.
Death of Mr Featherstone
Earlier Mr Featherstone decided to make Fred his heir, but later he rescinded this will. Yet on his deathbed, Featherstone, asks Mary to destroy the second will but she refuses and asks Featherstone to wait till morning so that a new will could be drawn up, but he dies the very night.
Being bankrupt, Fred takes a loan guaranteed by Mary’s father. When Fred fails to repay the loan, Caleb’s finances are compromised. Being humiliated he resolves to train as a land agent under the forgiving Caleb.
Bulstrode is Exposed
John Raffles, who is well aware of Bulstrode’s past, comes to Middlemarch and starts blackmailing him. In his youth, the churchgoing Bulstrode earned by foul means and he inherited by marrying a wealthy widow who was older than him.
Bulstrode’s fears public exposure as a hypocrite. As a result, he hastens the death of Raffles who is morally sick, but the story of his past has already spread throughout the land.
Bulstrode’s disgrace affects Lydgate as well, as knowledge of the financier’s loan to the doctor becomes known, and he is assumed to be the companion of Bulstrode in all his deeds.
Dorothea and Farebrother still have faith in him, but Lydgate and Rosamond are nevertheless encouraged by the public criticism to leave Middlemarch. The only comfort to disgraced Bulstrode is that his wife stands by him as he too faces exile.
A Secret Love
Casaubon’s will leads to the suspicion that Ladislaw and Dorothea are in love. Ladislaw is secretly in love with Dorothea but he doesn’t express it, as he does not want to involve her in scandal or to cause her disinheritance.
Ladislaw works as a newspaper editor for Mr Brooke. However, when Brooke’s election campaign fails, he decides to leave the town and goes to Dorothea to say his farewell. But Dorothea has also fallen in love with him though she had contrary views about him earlier.
She renounces Casaubon’s fortune and announces that she will marry Ladislaw, shocking her family again. At the same time, Fred, who has been successful in his new career, marries Mary.
Final Destiny
The “Finale” describes the destiny of the main characters. Fred and Mary marry and live happily with their three sons. Lydgate works outside of Middlemarch but fails to fulfil his desires and dies at the age of 50, leaving behind Rosamond and four children.
After his death, Rosamond marries a wealthy physician. Ladislaw engages in public reform, and Dorothea lives happily as a wife and mother to of two children. Their son eventually inherits Arthur Brooke’s estate.
