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One of Eliot’s most influential works, Middlemarch is literally packed with characters that, nevertheless, turn out to be fully developed and have unique personalities. Obviously unwilling to resort to creating stereotypes, Eliot managed to create unique story arches for each and every one of them – and, naturally, they all leave an impression.
One of the major characters to the plot, Lydgate is a mixture between a positive and a negative character, who, on the one hand, fights stereotypes and, on the other hand, reinforces them, which, combined with his passion for science and complete disregard of the everyday world, makes him one of the most memorable characters in the book.
One of the most fascinating things about Lydgate’s character is that it cannot be classified as either the positive or the negative character in the context of the II and the II parts of the book. True, he does make a few mistakes, yet his intents are never malicious, and he clearly means no harm. His naivety and self-absorbedness, however, clearly shows that he is far from being perfect, therefore, adding a touch of humanity to him and making him more relatable.
To start with, his dreams are completely unrealistic; like a stereotypical mad scientist, he craves to cognize the entire world, whence his major flaws, like self-assurance, stem from: “From that hour Lydgate felt the growth of an intellectual passion” (Eliot).
In his pursuit of what he considers the essence of existence and the pinnacle of human thought, he leaves a number of important elements of a social life, like interactions with the people around him, out. In addition, he has an interesting yet tragic history of relationship: “Lydgate was in love with this actress, as a man is in love with a woman whom he never expects to speak to” (Eliot).
However, with all these flaws and strange traits of character, Lydgate is never portrayed weird to the point where he becomes unlikable or unrelatable. Tertius Lydgate is one of those characters that prefer acting instead of sympathizing; he would check the patient’s pulse rather than listen to his/her tedious stories of feeling unbearably bad.
Hence, it could be argued that, though being seemingly cold-hearted, he helped much better than those who spent their time listening to others’ stories with compassion, yet did little to no effort to help people out.
In many ways, Lydgate’s attitude towards the rest of the humankind is vastly predetermined by his profession; condescending and benevolent, he is concerned much more with the results of his actions than with the process of interacting with other people: “I have seen him. He gave me his vote. I must call to thank him. He seems a very bright pleasant little fellow. And I understand he is a naturalist” (Eliot).
Although Lydgate might seem a comparatively unsophisticated element of Eliot’s story, as the character evolves, one may notice that he is actually very nuanced and complex. Instead of portraying him as a traditional anti-social researcher, Eliot decides to breathe a new life into a worn-out character stereotype and create a compelling personality out of it.
Miraculously enough, she succeeds – one of the few appealing male characters in the book, Lydgate finally comes out of the shell that he was originally confined to due to the stereotype of a scientist engrossed in researches. While making him somewhat socially awkward, the author adds him unique charm, thus, creating an original and truly memorable character.
Works Cited
Eliot, George. Middlemarch. 1871. Web.
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