Category: Middlemarch

Published in 1872 but set in the year 1829, Middlemarch documented an age that hungered for progress for both men and women. This use of this specific era immensely contributed to the themes of the novel as the concept of social improvement was initially being introduced to Great Britain. This novel follows four relationships, each with its own narrative, during the years leading up to the passing of the 1832 Reform Act. The 1832 Reform Act predominantly addressed voting rights and political representation but painted a picture of revolution and cultural change. Middlemarch is an intricate novel infused with eccentric characters and themes that not only address the issues of femininity, class, and spirituality but serve as catalysts to societal change. Reformation is a dominant theme throughout Middlemarch and is present in both the plot and in each character’s lives and actions. During a time of limited franchise, convoluted electoral systems, and almost non-existent female representation, Great Britain yearned for pollical and societal change.

The ever-changing patterns of life in Victorian England were the cause of overarching debate. The shift from land-ownership to a life dependent on manufacturing and trade bled into the Victorian period, causing urbanization to expand and population to increase. Industrialization such as railways and telegraphs introduced a new pace that would change our world forever. Despite these increases in population and recently established industrial cities, the British Parliament failed to recognize the necessity of inclusive representation. When a reform bill was developed that would redistribute votes and eliminate votes from “rotten boroughs,” a term used to describe a town able to elect a parliament representative despite a small number of voters, often a single person or family, it was rejected. After one year and a rejected second reform bill, the third reform bill was passed due to overwhelming public pressure.

The Reform Act of 1832 was established in order to “’take effectual Measures for correcting divers Abuses that have long prevailed in the Choice of Members to serve in the Commons House of Parliament. The act resulted in the addition of parliament seats to cities that became dominant during the industrial revolution, and extraction of seats dominated primarily by rotten boroughs. It also widely increased the electorate, allowing more eligibility voting to adult males. This act ultimately made parliamentary constituencies more representative of the nation as a whole, removed corrupt parliament seats, and expanded voting eligibility beyond wealthy patrons.

In order to provide readers with the societal and political context of this time period, Eliot presents numerous references throughout Middlemarch in both the environment of the characters and in the lives of the characters. By doing so, Eliot is able to truly exemplify the complexity of this era amidst industrialization and cultural reform. A few references made to this time period include the mention of George IV’s death in chapter 37, reference to diseases and contemporary medicine, and the demonstrated effects of a newly introduced railway system in the lives of our characters. While many hesitated to accept and encourage reform, it was welcomed by many, including Caleb Gath, who in chapter 56 of this novel states: ‘Now, my lads, you can’t hinder the railroad: it will be made whether you like it or not.’

Political reform is a dominant theme in Middlemarch. To execute this theme, Eliot introduces a number of characters that continually strive to refine the diplomacy of this era., specifically Mr. Brooke. Readers are given an inside look at the politics of Middlemarch through the involvement of Mr. Brooke, a parliamentary candidate, and desperate reformer. Despite his eventual failure, Brooke longs to be elected by reformers. Unfortunately, Brooke is described in the following way: “a man nearly sixty, of acquiescent temper, miscellaneous opinions, and uncertain vote … Mr. Brooke’s conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather: it was only safe to say that he would act with benevolent intentions and that he would spend as little money as possible in carrying them out.” While these traits lead to an eventful defeat in his run for parliament, Eliot used this loss to provide readers with an inside look into the timeline of the Reform Bill and the issues it aimed to solve. In fact, it is through Brooke we learn of the initial denial of this proposal. In chapter 84, readers are informed of this failure and potential strategies for passage. This can be seen in the following passage: “It was just after the Lords had thrown out the Reform Bill … The ladies also talked politics, though more fitfully. Mrs. Cadwallader was strong on the intended creation of peers: she had it for certain from her cousin that Truberry had gone over to the other side entirely at the instigation of his wife, who had scented peerages in the air from the very first introduction of the Reform question, and would sign her soul away to take precedence of her younger sister, who had married a baronet.”

Will provides readers with insight into the future of democracy. In chapter 46 of the novel, Will states: ‘Things will grow and ripen as if it were a comet year. The public temper will soon get to a cometary heat, now the question of Reform has set in. There is likely to be another election before long, and by that time Middlemarch will have got more ideas into its head.” Soon, Will is proven correct, which ultimately leads him to the side of Mr. Brooke, to whom he will serve as campaign manager for Brooke’s parliamentary candidacy. Although his intelligence and idealism cause him to doubt Brooke’s ability to secure an election, Will supports Brooke throughout its entirety. Throughout this experience, Will provides Brooke with advice regarding the principle of reform and continues to develop his own passion for electoral improvement which remains even after his marriage to Dorthea. While political reform is a commanding theme throughout this novel, the plot of scientific reform has an equally outstanding correlation to the 1832 Reform Act.

Eliot presents scientific reform in a number of ways throughout Middlemarch. Although the 1832 Reform Act primarily addressed political reform, it was political reform that led to the question of medical and scientific progress. This era, referred to by Eliot as a “dark period,” suffered due to a lack of secure healthcare. The link between political reform and scientific reform is made clear in the following statement made by the narrator in chapter 46: “While Lydgate, safely married and with the Hospital under his command, felt himself struggling for Medical Reform against Middlemarch, Middlemarch was becoming more and more conscious of the national struggle for another kind of Reform.” The passage of the 1832 Reform act resulted in a more democratic society, meaning that more citizens would now practice medicine based on their own ability rather than based on their family’s societal position. As with political reform, many Middlemarch citizens denied the necessity of scientific reform despite instances such as Fred Vincy’s near-death due to an incorrect prescription. The issues of science and medical practices are addressed a number of times throughout the novel and can be exemplified through characters such as Lydgate and Cadwallader.

George Eliot, a 19th-century Victorian novelist, did not end her stories at marriage like other novelists of the time but added development and depth between individuals and their relationships through the use of thematic symbols such as money. Money appears in Middlemarch in several controversial and complicated situations which include greed, debt, wills, inheritances, stealing, and characters on the opposite end who reject money as a paramount necessity. It is through personal ideals and beliefs regarding money and the way money interconnects relationships that help build character development and set characters onto their prospective journeys. In this book and in many novels of the time, society is built upon the prop of a hierarchical ladder in which money could buy you steps up the ladder. This ladder plays into the value different people and opportunities hold, which furthers the plot and development of the story.

To begin, the female protagonist, Dorothea Brooke, and her sister Celia reside with their uncle Mr. Brooke and are considered to be of upper-class standing. While Dorothea abides by her own ideas and wants to focus more on doing good in concern for others, Celia simply wants to find a wealthy husband. Their two separate convictions and passions which gear their lives towards their respective journeys show a vast difference in character type found within this novel–Dorothea sets herself apart from those that are money-hungry. She finds herself becoming interested in a man named Edward Casaubon who is loyal to his practice and doctrines. She marries Casaubon, much to Middlemarch’s disapproval, and in doing so prioritizes her idealism and romanticism over society’s expectations. Gradually, this relationship leads to marital problems as well as financial complications. Casaubon, being an older character in the novel, dies and leaves in his will a message to Dorothea stating that if she marries Will Ladislaw, she will not receive any of his inheritance. Dorothea ultimately decides to marry Will and forfeits the money.

Dorothea’s actions do not follow a life guided by a lust for money, and to ultimately choose love over an inheritance, sets her up as an example of a character who rejects greed. Throughout the novel, Dorothea repeatedly mentions that she is opposed to her wealth, and makes the ultimate decision to wed Ladislaw even though the stipulation in Casaubon’s will means she will lose everything she inherited. In choosing to marry Ladislaw, she echoes the decision of Ladislaw’s own grandmother Julia, who was cut off by her family after she chose to marry a poor Polish musician whom she loved. Dorothea’s fascination with Ladislaw’s grandmother’s story suggests that Dorothea has a rather romantic idea of choosing love over money. She explains that she would love to know how Julia “bore the change from wealth to poverty,” unaware that this foreshadows her own trajectory later in the novel (although, importantly, Dorothea does not end up impoverished, only significantly less wealthy than she was before). The novel strongly indicates that it is important to stick to one’s principles (be they love or honor) and in doing so choose fulfillment over money.

In a separate scenario, another couple experiences trials and tribulations regarding money within their own relationship. Doctor Tertius Lydgate, a man of middle-class, marries Rosamond Vincy. Lydgate realizes she is shallow and annoying as he’s in love with his work and not her. Lydgate buys a practice in Middlemarch which is funded by his income from treating patients. He’s noted and coveted by Rosamond. Lydgate is shunned by other practitioners, but Bulstrode appoints him but with no salary at his hospital has financed. Tertius is drawn into bankers’ problems. Rosamond tries keeping Lidgate in their expensive house instead of a more economical one, pushing them closer to financial ruin. They fight over money. Yet, before they marry, Rosamond spends most of her time convincing her mother and father that she can handle it and that her betrothed will not end up being poor. Her mother says, “[Y]ou are not fit to marry a poor man” (283). Her mother is right, although Rosamond will not admit it and does not show her true colors until things go bad. “Of course, he had a profession and was clever, as well as sufficiently handsome; but the piquant fact about Lydgate was his good birth, which distinguished him from all Middlemarch admirers, and presented marriage as a Prospect of rising in rank and getting a little nearer to that celestial condition on earth in which she would have nothing to do with vulgar people, and perhaps at last associate with relatives quite equal to the county people who looked down on the Middlemarchers. It was part of Rosamond’s cleverness to discern very subtly the faintest aroma of rank.” Rosamond Vincy (156).

Yet another significant way in which money ruins people’s lives is the concept of “dirty money,” which becomes especially prominent toward the end of the novel. When a desperate Lydgate is forced to the brink of declaring bankruptcy, he accepts a loan offered to him by Bulstrode. It turns out that this money was acquired through deception and theft, and when this fact emerges Lydgate is implicated in the scandal that ensues, making him a pariah in Middlemarch society. Lydgate’s foolishness in accepting Bulstrode’s money is further emphasized by the fact that earlier in the novel, Will Ladislaw had refused money Bulstrode offered him precisely because he knew Bulstrode had acquired it by nefarious means. Rather than being seduced by the prospect of Bulstrode’s offer, Ladislaw declares: “You shall keep your ill-gotten money.” This incident confirms Ladislaw’s status as one of the most admirable, morally upstanding characters in the novel. Of course, it would be possible to argue that Lydgate’s desperate financial situation makes it impossible for him to refuse Bulstrode’s money. At the same time, the comparison between Lydgate’s decision and Ladislaw’s suggests that it is never worth it to accept “ill-gotten money,” even if the alternative is bankruptcy. This reinforces the point that acquiring money often ultimately causes more problems than it solves. Lydgate’s debt is also a yoke, but it’s not a productive one. It oppresses and hampers him. And when that debt, like Fred’s, is transferred from the hands of anonymous bankers to Mr. Bulstrode, someone he knows, the yoke becomes still worse. Being indebted to Mr. Bulstrode turns out to be the worst thing that could have happened to Lydgate, so Dorothea generously offers to take on the debt herself.

The novel presents a variety of ways in which money issues can have a damaging, even ruinous impact on a person’s life. One way is through gambling and debt. Garth family. Caleb garth, agricultural manager and engineer but cannot always manage his finances well. He supports his family and is well-liked in MM. Mary (daughter). Rosamond’s brother Fred is a young man who never had to earn a living. He wants to marry Mary. Garth’s are fond of him. Caleb signs a bill for Fred, but that puts Caleb and his family in debt. Fred Vincy gambles and becomes indebted to the local horse-dealer Mr. Bambridge, a situation he at first does not take seriously because he has always been able to rely on his father’s money: “Fred had always (at that time) his father’s pocket as a last resource so that his assets of hopefulness had a sort of gorgeous superfluity about them. Of what might be the capacity of his father’s pocket, Fred had only a vague notion.” This quotation highlights that growing up wealthy can make people foolish and reckless with money, leading them to make bad decisions that end up losing them their wealth. His father’s money has always given Fred a sense of security, but that security is in fact counterproductive, firstly because he doesn’t actually know how much money his father has, and secondly because it leads him into reckless behaviors like borrowing and gambling. Fred’s debt and inability to pay it ends up causing him misery. Whatever brief elation is sparked by gambling is counteracted by the difficulties that follow. The example of Caleb Garth further demonstrates that eschewing money is important in principle but can cause problems in reality. The narrator notes that in contrast to their more lavish neighbors, “the Garths were poor, and ‘lived in a small way.’” Considering the novel’s condemnation of greed, this is an admirable quality. At the same time, the Garths’ relative poverty means that when Caleb lends Fred Vincy money, Fred’s inability to pay him back becomes disastrous for the Garths. Caleb’s generosity is admirable but also dangerous, due to the fact that money is necessary to survive. Comparing Caleb Garth’s and Fred Vincy’s behavior suggests that both greed and indifference to money can lead to foolish decisions. While the novel indicates that it is important not to be greedy, a total lack of greed is not advisable either, because money is (perhaps unfortunately) such an important part of life.

There’s an awful lot of debt, both literal and figurative, in Middlemarch: Fred Vincy gets himself into trouble by persuading Caleb Garth to co-sign a loan that he isn’t able to repay, Lydgate falls into serious debt after his marriage to Rosamond, Will Ladislaw hates feeling indebted to Mr. Casaubon, and Mr. Farebrother enjoys feeling indebted to Lydgate for recommending him for the new post at Lowick. Fred’s debt to Caleb Garth is both literal (he owes the man money) and figurative (he’s later obliged to him for his trust in giving him Stone Court to manage and his daughter to marry). Fred’s debt actually helps him mature as a character – it’s a joke, but it’s one that he needed to make him settle down and work for a living. Owing money to a stranger (Mr. Bambridge) didn’t provide him with an incentive to work hard and pay it off, but owing money to Caleb, the father of the girl he loves, certainly does. Debts in Middlemarch are always getting transferred from person to person so that characters are always indebted (either literally or figuratively) to someone new. So one way of looking at debt in Middlemarch, both literal and figurative, is that it ties characters together – indebtedness reinforces the intricate ‘threads of connection’ that form the social (and economic) ‘web’ of the novel.

Another way in which money has a problematic impact on people’s lives is through the greed stimulated by the possibility of inheritance. This is best demonstrated by the scene of Mr. Featherstone’s funeral when all his many relatives (some very distant) assemble to hear the reading of his will. This scene brings out the very worst in the assembled characters; rather than focusing on mourning Featherstone or even just maintaining dignity during the reading of the will, they greedily obsess over how much they will inherit from him. This is illustrated by the description of Fred Vincy biting his cheeks to stop himself from smiling when he learns of his inheritance. When the second version of Featherstone’s will is read, stipulating that the beneficiaries will not actually receive what they were promised in the first will, the anger that ensues further shows how greed brings out the ugliest sides of people.

Both money and the lack of it cause many problems for the characters in Middlemarch. Some characters are obsessed with money, whereas others spurn it. The novel strongly indicates that it is better not to obsess over money and to focus on other forms of fulfillment. At the same time, it also becomes clear that it is impossible not to care about money at all. Not only is having some amount of money necessary to survive, but money is also a major factor in the social hierarchy of the Middlemarch community. For this reason, it cannot be ignored.

Marriage – the act of uniting two beings under vows that uphold morals to honor, love, and cherish for as long as both partners shall live – is undoubtedly one of the oldest traditions known to human existence. There may not be an era as exceptionally pro-marriage as the Victorian period, as it was the societal norm to dictate marriage as the ultimate goal. However, the expectations of marriage seemed to perplex more free-thinking Victorians like the author George Eliot. Such notions are addressed in the novel Middlemarch, which examines a number of characters as they traverse through courtship and marriage relationships. Through the characters of Dorothea, Casaubon, Rosamond, and Lydgate and their particular marriages, Eliot shows how people can be blinded by fantasies of an idealized relationship. And these fantasies render them woefully unprepared for the realities of a true marriage union when these rose-colored glasses are taken off.

The marriage between Dorothea Brooke and Edward Casaubon is a prime example of such unrealistic expectations and disillusionment. It appears as though Dorothea has one great flaw: her excessive hopes and expectations. From the very beginning of the novel, she develops optimistic assumptions about married life. Rosamond Vincy too weaves fantasies about marriage to Tertius Lydgate upon his arrival in Middlemarch. She does not want to marry a man from Middlemarch: “she was tired of the faces and figures she had always been used to” (Eliot 106) so a seemingly well-off newcomer such as Lydgate appeared to fit her grand idea of romance. And Dorothea views Causuabon as a “great soul” (Eliot 20), and soon the idea of marriage is “already planted in her mind” (Eliot 24). Both Dorothea and Rosamond begin idolizing their respective suiters, thus establishing their first misleading expectations of marriage.

Dorothea falls in love with the potential Casaubon brings for her own personal growth to fuel her ambition to change the world for the better: “the union which attracted her was one that would deliver her from her girlish subjection to her own ignorance, and give her the freedom of voluntary submission to a guide who would take her along the grandest path” (Eliot 22). She would finally be able to rise above the restrictions imposed on her as a young woman in Victorian society. However, with marriage so dispassionate and ultimately broken, his aspiration never comes to fruition. In parallel, Lydgate maintains his own fantasies about marriage, hoping for one in which “his wife would have that feminine radiance…beauty which by its very nature was virtuous, being molded only for pure and delicate joys” (Eliot 183). Upon meeting Rosamond, he remarks that she is “grace itself…she is perfectly lovely and accomplished. That is what a woman ought to be: she ought to produce the effect of exquisite music” (Eliot 103). And thus, Lydgate’s perception of what a woman should be leaves him terribly unprepared for his marriage to a woman particularly like Rosamond, who proves to be quite the opposite of “exquisite music.”

Like Lydgate’s unpreparedness in a marriage with Rosamond, once married, Dorothea strives to help Causabon in his affairs, but in truth, he desires a wife that will not get involved with his work but more so take care of domestic affairs. Dorothea soon realizes that her marriage is not as fulfilling – both intellectually and emotionally—as she thought it would be. Almost similarly to Dorothea’s initial fascination with Casaubon, when Lydgate meets Rosamond he is impressed by her charms, talents, and beauty and thus indulges in his own fantasy about Rosamond being everything “a woman ought to be.” He is “completely mastered by the outrush of tenderness at the sudden belief that this sweet young creature depended on him for her joy” (Eliot 189). With time, however, both Rosamond and Lydgate soon realize that they have deceived themselves, which the narrator had previously foreshadowed: “Poor Lydgate! Poor Rosamond! Each lived in a world in which the other knew nothing” (Eliot 185).

The marriage between Rosamond and Lydgate is a clear image of the violent shattering of expectations, as both enter their union with shockingly false ideas of one another and ultimately with no inclination to compromise. Rosamond is devastated to discover that Lydgate does not see the necessity in living at the level of luxury she sees as obligatory. Eliot metaphorically compares their marriage to a “delicate crystal” to convey the fragility and marred beauty, of their union. Dorothea and Rosamond – and of course Lydgate and Casaubon – indeed face the difference between what they expect from marriage, and what they receive. However, Dorothea learns from this eye-opening experience and brings her newfound knowledge when she marries Will Ladislaw after Casaubon’s death. She finally gains autonomy, and Rosamond, it seems, will continue to learn the art of compromise for the remainder of her life.

Dorothea and Rosamond are not content with the normal ways of Middlemarch, and the two women seek ways to escape what they discern as their society’s mediocrity. Dorothea learns to save herself through compromise, and her perseverance comes from her own will to do so. And thus Eliot reveals a significant theme within the novel: compromise, which is a vital part of marriage. The reality of married life consists of expectations, disappointments, and understandings. And ultimately one cannot have a successful marriage without reaching the final, almost ego sacrificing step: compromise.