George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
(1819 - 1880)
‘Many Theresas have been born…ill-matched with the meanness
of opportunity.” Eliot starts
and ends her book on the rueful note that even women like Dorothea are
condemned to fall short of greatness. In your assessment, does Dorothea manifest
the potential for ‘greatness’, regardless of circumstances?
‘A woman dictates before marriage in order that she
may have an appetite for submission afterwards.’ Considering the many marital relationships
portrayed in ‘Middlemarch’, do you find this statement ironic at all in any
way?
How many youthful
mistakes are due to our inexperience of life? And what part is due to our lack
of self-awareness when we’re young?
On the same note (and
keeping in mind Eliot’s dismay at ‘the
pilulous smallness…of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship’), do you think if
Dorothea had met Ladislaw before Casaubon; or, if Lydgate had got to know
Dorothea before he met Rosamond, they would have made different choices?
Eliot creates a vibrant
image of town life in ‘Middlemarch’. Discuss the social dynamics that define
the community.
Lydgate married
Rosamond because she was beautiful, and he imagined that she would be docile
and supportive of him in all matters. He comes to a rude awakening shortly
after his marriage. Like Dorothea, he too fails to realize his full potential.
Do you think that Eliot is implying that the right choice of spouse can make
all the difference to the success that one may achieve in life?
One common feature of
the female characters in this novel is that they are all ‘good women’ who stand
by their men in their time of trial. The only exception to this is Rosamond
Vincy/Lydgate. Do you sympathize with Rosamond’s situation? Do you find her
reactions justifiable?
Middlemarch has that
outstanding trait of small towns – the tendency of rumor to spread like
wildfire. Dorothea says that, “…people
are almost always better than their neighbors think they are.” The people
in Middlemarch seem willing and eager to believe the worst of one another.
Those who learn this all too well are Will, Lydgate, Bulstrode, and Dorothea
herself. Can character ever withstand malicious gossip?
Bulstrode is one
individual who aspires to dominate others with his moral superiority. His fall
from grace is therefore even more ignominious. Hypocrisy was a favorite theme
of Victorian writers. Do you think society has advanced to the extent that we
may say that we live in a less hypocritical age? Why does religious hypocrisy
rankle more than any other kind?
Eliot made a very
earnest attempt to differentiate herself from the more trivial writings of her
female contemporaries by talking of ‘serious’ topics. Do you think the
discussions of the politics and medical sciences of the 1830s have been to the
novel’s advantage? What did you take away from her literary style?
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