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Portrayal of Martial Conflict in Eliot’s Middlemarch
“Such, my dear Miss Brooke, is the accurate statement of my feelings; […] to be accepted by you as your husband and the earthly guardian to your welfare.” In doing so, Eliot positions the traditional assumptions of marriage, as “decided according to custom, good looks, vanity and merely canine affection,” (p. 8) she will undercut. Eliot presents the marriage between Dorothea and Casaubon, as driven by selfish motivations and egoism. Ironically, that which draws Dorothea to Casaubon, by means of his “knowledge,” (p. 34) and her desires “to be [more] wise,” (p. 52) and Casaubon to Dorothea, for his interest in her youth, “she had the very considerate thought of saving my eyes,” (p. 53) is what propels the inevitable conflict which will arise within their marriage. As such, both Dorothea and Casaubon are limited by their own ambitions; the separation between what Dorothea’s expects to receive from her marriage, and the reality of her relationship with Casaubon, proves extremely different. Andrew Dowling suggests that unrealistic expectations “operate as a central sign of hidden pain that disrupts rather than maintains an image of marital unity.” Eliot illustrates as such through omniscient narration, whereby Dorothea is described as “sobbing bitterly,” (p. 157) on her honeymoon with Casaubon, upon realising “that her feeling of desolation was the fault of her own spiritual poverty.” (p. 158) Thus, I would articulate Eliot’s critique on early Victorian perceptions of marriage as realised through the realities of marital conflict in the second half of the nineteenth century.
In Eliot’s Middlemarch, marital conflict is also recognised as giving rise to female self-expression within the patriarchal domain of the 1800s. Cara Weber writes that by “[calling] attention to Dorothea’s expression of pain,” in her relationship with Casaubon, she gains a greater sense of herself: “Middlemarch enacts the coming into being of the self in conflict: the self comes to know itself in its realisation that it is divided from itself.” Whilst married to Casaubon, Dorothea experiences a growing sense of helplessness, emphasised by means of claustrophobic imagery – illustrating the confinement of the self within traditional Victorian convention: “it appeared that she was to live more and more in a virtual tomb.” (p. 388) Eliot utilises emotive language, such as “repulsed,” (p. 388) to depict the major conflict between Dorothea and Casaubon regarding Will and “his claims on the family property,” (p.388) that drives Dorothea’s emotional “benumbing.” (p. 388) In this vein, Casaubon is recognised as an amalgamation of female repression. His growing distrust in his wife and her relationship with Will – “[marking] more strongly the alienation between them,” (p. 387) is representative of the female plight towards individual freedom beyond the realm of marriage. It is Dorothea’s painful experience in her marriage to Casaubon, and in the event of his death, that Weber posits as “[opening] up the space for a question as to what is going on in her life and how she should respond to it.” Metaphorically rejecting traditional Victorian ideals of marriage, Eliot positions the marital conflict between Casaubon and Dorothea as avowing her authentic self-expression, by means of her love for, and eventual marriage to, Will Ladislaw: “[Dorothea] was conscious of another change which also made her tremulous; it was a sudden strange yearning of her heart towards Will Ladislaw.” (p. 401) Thus, the self emerges as a process. Clifford Marks suggests that Dorothea’s relationship with Will presents “a character who must act against the will of the world,” and both exemplifies the role of marital conflict in driving personal development and reflecting Eliot’s musings regarding shifting Victorian attitudes in the relationships between men and women.
Although Eliot situates marital conflict as bolstering the process of female self-expression, it simultaneously serves to hinder an individual’s personal growth. This is exemplified in the relationship between Rosamund and Lydgate, both of whom promote the notion of marriage as static and embody the role of marital conflict in propelling false selves. Rebecca Mitchell, in The Rosamund Plots: Alterity and the Unknown in Jane Eyre and Middlemarch, dislocates traditional assumptions associated with Victorian perceptions of marriage as unifying by “[insisting] on the unknowability of the other.” Whereby, an individual can never really know who they are married to because expectations place limitations on the self. Echoing the egoism which fosters the connection between Dorothea and Casaubon, Rosamund and Lydgate are drawn to each other for their own selfish reasons and in turn, create falsified ideas of who the other is. For Lydgate, Rosamund appears “polished, refined, docile,” (p. 134) – her “feminine radiance,” (p. 134) as seemingly connoting the subservience and obligation which makes a good Victorian wife. Similarly, Rosamund recognises Lydgate as the vehicle through which she may elevate her social standing beyond that of the “daughter of a Middlemarch manufacturer.” (p. 82) As such, Mitchell upholds that the marital conflict which arises between Rosamund and Lydgate is founded on the failed assumption that both individuals “understand the other perfectly.” Eliot writes: “between [Lydgate] and [Rosamund] indeed there was that total missing of each other’s mental track, which is too evidently possible even between persons who are continually thinking of each other.” (p. 478) Through the deliberate and purposeful characterisation of Rosamund, highlighting her agreeable but inauthentic disposition, which “aids the impression of refined manners,” (p. 130), Lydgate is shocked to learn “of his powerlessness over Rosamund.” (p. 477) Driven by idealistic desires associated with the female body and marriage in the Victorian context, Rosamund creates a false self in her marriage to Lydgate to sustain the luxurious lifestyle she leads. Likewise, Lydgate retreats from telling Rosamund of the “sorrow,” (p. 478) which her lifestyle choices bring. Lydgate too, creates a false self, “[abstaining] from mentioning to Rosamund,” (p. 479) the financial burdens which weigh him down. Thus, both individuals are inherently unknown to each other and therefore, are unable to learn anything from each other or about the self – illustrating marital disharmony as propelling false selves.
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