Middlemarch

Read our complete notes on the novel “Middlemarch” by George Eliot. Our notes cover Middlemarch summary, characters, themes, and analysis.

Middlemarch Summary

Book I Summary

The first chapter of book one opens with the character Dorothea Brooke. Dorothea’s parents had died, and she is living with her Uncle Mr. Brooke, along with her sister, Celia. Regardless of the fact that Dorothea comes from a well-off family, she chooses to dress modestly. She still possesses beauty in her modest dress. Dorothea wishes to live a life in which she can devote herself to some great project to change and improve the world. There are lots of tenants on her uncle’s estate. Dorothea persistently tries to convince her uncle to spend money so that the tenants.

Many men find Dorothea bewitching because of her Puritan energy and that for Mr. Brook, worries will hinder her marriage prospects. Dorothea thinks that Sir James Chettam frequently visits the Tipton Grange because he wants to marry Celia and has nothing to do with her.

Celia gathers courage and asks Dorothea to give her the share in their mother’s jewelry. Dorothea gives her all of the jewelry and only keeps an emerald ring and a bracelet.

There is a dinner party at Mr. Brooke’s estate. Sir James comes with Rev, Edward Casaubon, a 45 years old clergyman. He informs Mr. Brooke about his plan to improve the tenants. When Mr. Brooke says that he has already spent a lot of money on it, Dorothea points out in a disagreeable tone that he is spending more on entertainment and very few on such good projects. Mr. Casaubon is attracted to her well-spoken retort.

Dorothea and Casaubon spend much time talking about social issues. He likes her for not bothering about the petty issues in life, while Dorothea likes him because of his kindness and “great soul.” Dorothea wants to marry him. Sir James also tries to court her by showing his interest in her plan.

Dorothea starts spending time in making plans for the housing of tenants at Brook’s estate. When Sir James tells her Mr. Brooke will not spend money on such a project, rather would like Dorothea to work on his estate, Dorothea becomes happy. They start working to put the plan into action. 

Celia tells Dorothea that Sir James wants to marry her. Dorothea cannot believe it and decides to disappoint him. Meanwhile, Mr. Brooke informs Dorothea that Casaubon has brought a marriage proposal for her. She happily agrees on the spot. When Dorothea informs Celia about the engagement to Casaubon, she responds with sadness and anxiety.

Sir James does not believe in the news of Dorothea’s engagement to Casaubon when Mr. Cadwallader tells him. Mrs. Cadawallader acts as a matchmaker for Dorothea, and Sir James, however, still tells him that Dorothea is too religious for him, and he should marry Celia instead. Being a gentleman, he continues his collaboration with Dorothea on her plans on his estate. 

Casaubon decides to work on his great work, the Key to all Mythologies. In order to help Casaubon in his projects, he asks him to teach him Latina and Greek. He agrees and likes her submissive affection towards him.

Sir James thinks that Mr. Brooke should not permit Dorothea to marry such an old and dry man as Casaubon. He asks Mr. Cadwallader to talk to Mr. Brook about it. However, Cadwallader refuses to say that Casaubon is a respected person as he helps his poor relations. Sir James tells him that Casaubon’s age is enough justification to stop the marriage. He finds it impossible to hide his feelings for Dorothea.

The Brookes go to the residence of Casaubon. Casaubon talks about his sisters and other family members. They notice the brilliant sketches of Will Ladislaw, Casaubon’s cousin, who is sketching. They admire his sketching.

Casaubon does not appear to be happy when the marriage date approaches. He is also not happy that Celia will not accompany them on the honeymoon. He also worries about Dorothea when he will be working on his projects; she will be lonely. Dorothea regrets her short temper and affirms that she will take care of herself.

Dorothea meets a new surgeon, Lydgate, at the engagement party. He considers Dorothea too earnest and prefers the company of Rosamond Vincy, the daughter of the mayor. For his, she looks at things from a feminine perspective. Rosamond also takes an interest in him as she prefers a man who is not from Middlemarch.

Fred, Rosamond’s brother, is a lazy, arrogant, and irresponsible young man. Fred hopes to inherit his uncle’s inheritance. Mr. Featherstone, Fred’s uncle, is a very wealthy person; he is sick and is greatly disliked by most people. Fred borrows money from him by using this anticipation. Fred loves Mary Garth. He has known her since his childhood. Rosamond is interested in marrying Lydgate so as to raise her status and wealth.

Book II Summary

Bulstrode decides to hire Lydgate as the superintendent of the Fever Hospital. Lydgate wants to reform the outdated procedures of treatments. Farebrother warms him that he will spur the jealousy among the Middlemarch medical men. Bulstrode does not like the doctrines of Farebrother and wants to replace him with Mr. Tyke.

Lydgate’s parents are dead, and he is the son of a military man. He is made to earn his living. He does not have any plans to marry. He wants to discover the most important part of life, tissue.

While living in Paris, Lydgate started loving an actress Laure who kills her husband onstage. This makes Lydgate have a scientific attitude towards women. Like Rosamond, he does not want to marry her that soon. He also refuses to have any views on the clerical matter. However, when Bulstrode forces him, he votes in favor of Tyke.

None knows the origin of Bulstrode, and he arrived in Middlemarch some twenty years ago. He married Mr. Vincy’s sister to ally himself with the respectable family. He spreads his Protestant ethic by using money. He loves to be in power.

Fred informs his father about Featherstone’s request. However, his father does not want to write a letter as he is not approved of Fred’s habits. He also believes that Vincy should not have paid for Fred’s college expenses. Vincy criticizes Bulstrode for moralizing. Bulstrode agrees on writing a letter after consulting with his wife. 

Fred takes the letter, and Featherstone gifts him one hundred pounds. He has failed his examination and does not want to be a clergyman. Fred asks Marry to promise him that she will marry him. She asks him to pass the exam and refuses to encourage him on marriage prospects. Fred invested one hundred and sixty pounds in gambling.

During the dinner at Vincy Household, Vincy states his preference for the doctrines of Farebrother. However, Lydgate suggests that he wants to choose the best man rather than the one he likes. When the debate turns on the reforms in the profession, Lydgate insults the Middlemarch coroner. Later Lydgate goes with Farebrother. He observes his skills at the game and thinks about Rosamond.

Moreover, Lydgate learns that Farebrother supports his mother, sister, and aunt on his small amount of income. He also learns that Farebrother studies entomology. He also smokes and gambles. Farebrother tells him that Tyke is a strict type of person and also warns him of the politics of Middlemarch people. He also tells him not to offend Bulstrode by voting for him. This makes Lydgate like him more, and he eventually votes for Tyke. 

Will Ladislaw’s friend, Naumann, becomes interested in a beautiful lady on the street of England. The woman is no one else but Dorothea. Will tells him who she is, and Naumann convinces him to ask her for a portrait. Dorothea is weeping and cannot tell anyone why. She realizes that her marriage does not turn out like what she has expected. Soon after the marriage, Casaubon returns to his work. When Dorothea suggests something for his work, he takes it as criticism. Dorothea is made to bow to his will as she does not want to fight with him. 

Ladislaw goes to meet Casaubon’s. He only finds Dorothea at home. When Casaubon arrives, he invites him for dinner the next day. Dorothea also asks for forgiveness for her short temper the earlier day. Will then takes them to Naumann’s studio as Naumann wants to make a portrait of Dorothea. Will has started liking her a lot and plans to see her alone. When he visits her home, he finds her locked away.

Will then tells her about Casaubon’s plodding scholarship on her unfinished work. However, he has decided to renounce that as he wants to be independent in hopes of impressing her. 

Book III Summary

As Mr. Vincy gets angry about Fred’s expensive habit, he does not want to go to his father. He settled with Mary’s father, Caleb Garth, who likes him. However, Garth also failed in business, so he has little money. He also did not tell his wife that he has co-signed the debt of Fred. 

Fred hopes to gain profit by selling his horse. However, he cannot succeed. He goes to Garth’s home and confesses his inability to pay the debt. Mrs. Garth expresses deep disappointment and scolds her husband to be damn foolish to sign the debt.

At Featherstone’s place, Fred declares to Mary that she will consider him good for nothing. He also thinks that they have asked for money from Featherstone for his brother’s apprenticeship. However, Mary tells him that they believe in earning money rather than begging for it. She also accuses him of being selfish as he is too reluctant to think about anyone else’s suffering.

Fred leaves feeling ill. Garth arrives to collect money from Mary and tells her that Fred is not trustworthy. Mary assures him to be careful of him. Featherstone informs Mary that he is aware of what has happened and criticizes her father.

Fred catches a fever and is diagnosed with typhoid fever by Lydgate. Mr. Vincy fires Mr. Wrench for his carelessness and mistake and replaces him with Lydage as his family doctor. Wrench becomes envious of Lydgate.

Featherstone sends a message to wish for Fed’s good health and asks him to visit him when he gets well. Lydgate visits Vincy’s house by using the end of Fred’s illness. He flirts with Rosamond.

When Dorothea comes back from Rome, she anticipates the portrait of the ill-fated aunt of Casaubon. She relates herself to it as she is also facing marriage difficulties. Celia informs her of her engagement to Sir James. Casaubon thinks that he has found more than enough in Dorothea as she is a submissive wife, and admires him uncritically.

Will sends a letter to Casaubon to visit Lowick Manor. However, he decides to decline as his presence will disturb his work. Dorothea becomes irritated. This headstrong behavior of her makes Casaubon nervous and begs her to end the matter. Casaubon suffers from a fit. They call Lydgate.

Lydgate advises Casaubon to take care of his working hours In Private, Dorothea asks Lydgate if she is the cause of his heart attack. He denies and says that he can live a healthy life if he follows his advice. Dorothea also reads Will’s letter informing him about his return to England to deliver Naumann’s painting in person. She asks Mr. Brooke to tell him not to come as Casaubon is ill. However, Brookes invites Will to stay at Tipton Garage.

The mother of Ned Plymadale, Selina Plymdale, informs Mrs. Bulstrode that she thinks Lydgate and Rosamond are engaged secretly. Selina is annoyed because she has rejected her sun in favor of a Middlemarch. When Mrs. Bulstrode asks Rosamond, she declines, she then warns her that Lydgate is not rich. However, Rosamond tells her that she is certain about Lydgate’s good connection.

Mr. Bulstrode informs his wife that Lydgate is not planning to marry soon. He also tells her that Rosamond has a very wrong idea about Lydgate. Lydgate stays away from Vincy’s family. However, one day he visits Mr. Vincy as Featherstone’s health is failing. Lydgate meets Rosamond as Mr. Vincy is not at home. He becomes touched by Rosamond’s heartache. While leaving home, he got engaged to Rosamond. Later, Lydgate asks permission from Mr. Vincy to marry Rosamond. However, Mr. Vincy is delighted to hear that Featherstone is dying.

Featherstone’s failing health brings all of the family is at Stone Court. They all quarrel over the inheritance of Featherstone as he is soon going to die. Featherstone sends all of them away and does not want to see anyone of them. He then asks Mary to open his iron chest and tales out his two will. He wants to burn one of them. Marry refuses. When he tries to bribe her, she says that she cannot compromise her reputation. Featherstone dies holding the key of the iron chest and the would-be bribe money.

Book IV Summary

Featherstone was given a large and impressive funeral. Dorothea and the Brookes watch it from the window and observe a stranger among the attendants. Celia informs Dorothea of Will’s stay at Tipton Grange. Casaubon becomes upset as he thinks that Dorothea has asked Mr. Brooke to do so. Dorothea does not know why Will is present among the Middlemarch.

All of the relatives come to listen to Featherstone’s will along with the frog-eyed stranger. The stranger is assumed as the illegitimate son of Featherstone, and his name is Mr. Rigg. In the first will, Featherstone left a small amount to his siblings, ten thousand to Fred, and the land to Joshua Rigg.

In the second will, everything is revoked except a small bequest. Joshua gets the inheritance. Fred laments that now he will become a clergyman.

Mr. Vincy decides to send Fred back to school to pass his exams. He also decides to revoke his consent for Rosaamond’s marriage to Lydgate. However, Rosamond is determined. Vincy asks Lydgate to insure his life. However, Lydgate refuses.

Lydgate rents a nice home and decides to marry. He gets short of his savings, so he buys things for credit. Rosamond asks him to visit his uncle Sir Godwin and also suggests him to leave Middlemarch and find practice somewhere else.

Mr. Brooke appoints Will as an editor of his newspaper, Pioneer. Brooke is looking forward to a political career. Will decides to stay near Dorothea and takes care of her. Casaubon has refused to hire a secretary, and Dorothea is upset. Will tells her that he disagrees with Casaubon. That is why he does not like him. They then talk to Will’s family.

Book V Summary

The Cadwalladers and Sir James talk about the political Career of Mr. Brook. An opposing newspaper, The Trumpet, criticizes Brooke as he is preaching for charity while his own tenants are in very bad condition. Sir James and the Cadwalleders hope that Mr. Brook will start focusing on his tenants in fear of publishing embarrassment. Sir James tries to persuade Mr. Brooke to hire Garth for management. 

Sir James also convinces Dorothea to help Brooke in reforming. She agrees and shows admiration for his plan to improve the condition of his estate better. In the meantime, a man comes to inform that he caught the son of Dagley, a tenant, stealing. Will informs Dorothea that Casaubon has banned him from going to Lowick as he refuses to quit Middlemarch. She feels disgusted with Casaubon. 

To manage Tipton and Freshitt, the property of Sir James, Mr. Brooke, appoints Caleb. This makes Celeb Garth and his family from the financial crisis. Fed comes back from the university after passing his exams and also obtained a degree. He is still reluctant to become a clergyman and enter the church.

The stepfather of Joshua Rigg, John Raffle, has arrived in Middlemarch to get from him. Raffles is an alcoholic and would beat Rigg. Rigg refuses to give him any money.

Lydgate returns from his honeymoon and discusses the medical reforms with Dorothea. Dorothea agrees to give £200 annually for the medical reforms to the New Hospital. Regardless of having financial success, Lydgate still receives opposition from the people in Middlemarch. Lydgate has befriended Will, and Will then spends most of his time at Lydgate and Rosamond’s place.

Casaubon’s health starts failing. He asks Dorothea to promise him that she will fulfill his request when he dies. Dorothea assumes that Casaubon will ask her to complete his book, The Key To All Mythologies. She tells him that she will inform him in the morning. Sir James and Mr. Brooke get to know that Casaubon has willed that if Dorothea marries Will after his death, she will lose all of his property. When Celia discloses this to Dorothea, she becomes surprised and shocked. It is this time that she, for the first time, becomes conscious of her feelings for Will.

Mr. Brook delivers a speech for his election campaign. However, he is bombarded with eggs. Fred asks Farebrother to aid him in finding out if Mary would agree or approve of him becoming a clergyman. Mary tells Farebrother that if Fred becomes a clergyman, she will never marry him.

Raffles also comes back to Middlemarch and starts blackmailing Bulstrode. Raffle knows the secrets of Bulstrode’s past and is using them to blackmail him. These secrets also involve Will.

Book VI Summary

After the death of Casaubon, Dorothea shifts to live with Celia and her baby at Freshitt. However, she has grown exceedingly bored. A mob of farmworkers attacks Caleb and his assistance, Tom, while Caleb is surveying the land. For the construction of the railway, they are preparing the railway. Fred aids Celeb and Tom in their defending. Celeb offers him a job apprenticeship. Mr. Vincy does not feel good about this job and thinks that Fred’s education is gone into waste.

Rosamond is pregnant, and Lydgate advises her not to take horseback riding. She does not listen to him and has a miscarriage. Rosamond and Lydgate are facing serious debts. It urges Lydgate to seal the silverware. Rosamond becomes angry. She also tells him that Casaubon has stipulated Dorothea to marry Will in his will.

Bulstrode is trouble with the presence of Rabble. At a young age, Bulstrode befriended Mr. Dunkirk, a man from his church. Mr. Dunkirk was an owner of the pawnbroking business. Bulstrode started working for him as an accountant. The business was mainly of pawning stolen goods. Bulstrode married Mr. Dunkirk, a widow when he died. The widow wants to find her estranged daughter Sarah, the mother of Will, so that he can give her the inheritance. Bulstrode enticed Raffles to act that Sarah is nowhere to be found. Bulstrode inherited all the money. 

Sometimes back in the present, Bulstrode tries to hand over Will’s inheritance to him in the form of compensation, which he refuses to accept. Will visits Dorothea to tell him goodbye. She realizes that he truly loves her. He leaves forever. 

Lydgate has indebted £1000. He also tries to sell his only house to Ned. However, Rosamond stops the sale secretly. Lydgate asks for money from Bulstrode in desperation. However, he refuses to give him money. He also tells him to file for bankruptcy. He also tells him to step back from running the New Hospital.

Book VII Summary

Raffles comes back to Middlemarch and appears to be very sick. Bulstrode gets him to call Lydgate for diagnosis. Lydgate diagnoses Raffles with alcohol poison. Bestrode instantly changes his mod and gives £1000 to Lydgate that he needs. Bulstrode does not properly instruct his servant to take proper care for Raffle, and Raffle soon dies. However, before dying, he tells Bulstrode secret to a horse dealer Bambridge. The gossip instantly spread in the Middlemarch like a fire in the jungle.

People start assuming that he had bribed Lydgate to poison Raffles. This scandal leaves them with disastrous aftermath. They both prepare themselves to leave Middlemarch and abandon the New Hospital.

Book VIII Summary

Dorothea believes in Lydgate’s innocence and tries to convince him to stay. However, Lydgate refuses to accept her request. She gives him a check of £1000 so that he no longer carries the debt of Bulstrode. When she goes to the home of Lydgate, she sees Rosamond and Will carrying each other’s hands while Rosamond is crying. She misinterprets it and assumes that Will loves Rosamond. Dorothea leaves and comes later to Rosamond. Rosamond tells her that she misunderstood them, and Will only loves her.

Dorothea and Will express their feelings to each other. However, Will assumes that he cannot marry her because of Casaubon’s stipulation in the will. Dorothea tells him that she will abandon her fortune to marry him. Many friends and family members of Dorothea are against this union, but she marries him anyway. Bulstrode escapes from Middlemarch and gives his house to Fred.

The narrator in the “Finale” tells the readers what has happened to each of the characters at the end of the main narrative. Mary and Fred marry and start living a happy and prosperous life. Lydgate dies at the age of 50; however, his marriage with Rosamond remains unhappy as he considers himself to be a failure. Will and Dorothea shift to London, where Will has a successful political career. Dorothea has become a mother. 

Background of the Novel

Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life is written by George Eliot. It appears in eight volumes (installments) from 1871 to 1872. The novel is set in a fictional English Midland town from 1829 to 1832. The novel follows interesting and distinct stories with lots of characters. It deals with issues such as the nature of marriage, the status of women, religion, self-interest, political reform, hypocrisy, and education.

Along with the comic elements, George Eliot employed realism to deal with the historical events in the story. The novel is about the early railways, the 1832 Reform Act, and the accession of King William IV.

Historical Context

The novel Middlemarch is set forty years before it was written. The novel is considered a historical novel. However, the critics do not agree on the difference between its setting period and its publication date and argue that the difference is not worthy of calling it a historical novel. Middlemarch vividly deals with the historical events of the time. These historical events play a great role in the background and foreground of the narrative.

The most important historical event it deals with is the 1832 Reform Act. This Act increased the population of eligible voters, and to make parliament more democratic, it changed the aspects of the Parliamentary system.

The novel also deals with the 1829 Catholic Relief Act. This Act allows the catholic sect to be a part of parliament. Moreover, there was rapid development in science and technology in the early 19th century. This development led to the railway boom in the 1840s. 

Literary Context

The novel Middlemarch takes after the other extensive realist novels of the 19th century of Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. The novel focuses on political radicalism, rural life, and the oppression of women and bears. It resembles the novels of Thomas Hardy. Since its publication, Middlemarch remains influential for many other novelists such as Marcel Proust, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf. Contemporary novelists like Zadie Smith, Hilary Mantel, and Min Jin Lee also appear to be greatly influenced by Middlemarch.

Characters Analysis

Mr. Bambridge

He is a horse dealer in Middlemarch. He is the center of a few actions in the novel. Fred sinks his debt to the horse dealer. Moreover, Raffle tells him Bulstrode’s secret and past when he meets him at a horse-fair.

Dorothea Brooke

She is an honest and kindhearted woman. She wishes to improve the world and is always looking for some cause. She considers Casaubon a man of great intellectual and is greatly impressed by him during her first meeting. However, after marriage, she soon learns that he is not passionate enough, and her marriage turns to unhappy.

Casaubon has thought her to be sacrificing and submissive. However, she shows her headstrong attitude. She also plans to construct comfortable cottages for the tenants and replace the ramshackle buildings of estates. She also helps Lydgate in funding the new Hospital. Moreover, when he suffers from his connection with Bulstrode, she helps him by giving him the money he needs.

She loves Will Ladislaw, the young cousin of Casaubon. She abandoned her inheritance to marry Will.

Arthur Brooke

He is the bachelor uncle of Dorothea and Celia. He is an inept man who does not keep one opinion. He is always struggling to please everyone around him. He appoints Will to work for his newspaper, the Pioneer, as an editor. He wants to be a Member of Parliament and runs for a seat on the Reform platform. However, his tenants are not happy with him as they are living in very poor conditions. He is a harsh citizen for his hypocrisy and incurs him to improve the condition of his tenants. 

Celia Brooke

She is the only sister of Dorothea. She marries Sir James Chettam when Dorothea marries Casaubon.

Nicholas Bulstrode

He is a wealthy Middlemarch banker. He is married to the sister of Walter Vincy. He portrays himself to be a highly religious and Evangelical Protestant. However, he has a dark past that no one knows in the Middlemarch.

 Bulstrode made his fortune by marrying the widow of his friend Dunkirk, the grandmother of Will Ladislaw. The window insisted him to find her daughter to give her the inheritance as she had run away years before. Despite the fact he had located them, he kept their existence secret. He bribed the man, Raffles, whom he hired for looking for them to tell the widow that they are nowhere.

When John Raffles meets him after years in Middlemarch, he blackmails him. When Raffles is alcohol poisoned, he takes care of him. Yet, he does not follow the medical advice of Lydgate, and Raffle soon dies. His past scandal and the circumstances of Raffles become known, he abandons the Middlemarch in shame.

Harriet Bulstrode

She is the sister of Walter Vincy and the wife of Bulstrode. She is an honest, kind, and religious woman. In Middlemarch, no one accuses her of any of her husband’s misdeeds. Even when she learns about her husband’s misdeeds, she still stays with him. 

Elinor Cadwallader

She is the wife of Rector at Tipton Grange, the estate of Brooke. She was born into a well-off family. However, she married against her family’s support and made her upset. She appears to be a practical woman who plays the role of matchmaker to the young unmarried people in the novel.

Humphrey Cadwallader

He is the Rector at Tipton Grange. He does not like to interfere in anyone’s matter, unlike his wife.

Edward Casaubon

He is the owner of a large estate known as Lowick. He is a well-read clergyman. He is very ambitious to write the book The Key to All Mythologies. However, he is uncertain and insecure about his potential. He considers Dorothea to be a submissive and admiring wife and marries her. However, when he learns that she is stubborn and headstrong, he gets frustrated. He, all the time, misunderstands her suggestion to be criticism.

He is the cousin of Will Ladislaw. His aunt was disowned by her family because she escapes with the man they do not like. Later, Will’s mother, the daughter of his aunt, also runs away to marry someone else. To make amends to his aunt’s disinheritance, he tries to support Will financially. However, he is jealous of Will’s good relationship with Dorothea. Before dying, he makes stipulation in his will that if Dorothea marries Will, she will have to leave his inheritance. Casaubon dies before completing his book.

Sir James Chettam

 He is a baronet. He is the owner of a large estate known as Freshitt. He wants to marry Dorothea. However, she chooses to marry Casaubon. Later, he marries Celia. He appoints Dorothea to make plans for improving his estate.

Mr. Dagley

He is one of the tenants at Mr. Brooke’s estate. A person catches his son for stealing in Brook’s land. He refuses to discipline his son on Brooke’s request.

Camden Farebrother

He is a Cleric in Middlemarch. However, he does not think of himself as a good Cleric even though people like his sensible preaching. He befriends Lydgate. He also supports his sister, mother, and aunt with his meager salary. He has to pursue his scientific hobbies and gambles to make both ends meet. He is replaced by Tyke for the post of chaplaincy at the New Hospital. After the death of Casaubon, he gets the Lowick parish. Moreover, Fred Vincy also takes his help to court, Mary Garth. 

Mrs. Farebrother

She is the widowed mother of Farebrother.

Winifred Farebrother

She is the unmarried sister of Camden Farebrother.

Peter Featherstone

She is the manipulative, wealthy old widower. He is the owner of Stone Court. Even though married two times, he does not have any legitimate children. Celeb Garth’s sister was his first wife, while his second wife was the sister of Lucy Vincy.

He, for a long time, hints that he will leave his inheritance for Fred Vincy, his nephew, by marriage. However, he leaves his inheritance to the illegitimate son, Joshua Rigg, according to his second will.

Caleb Garth

He is a poor businessman. Garth earns by managing the large estates. He has foolishly co-signed the debt of red Vincy. His family greatly suffers when Fred cannot pay his debt. When he gets a new job at Mr. Brooke and Sir James’ estate, he overcomes his loss and also hires Fred as an apprentice. When Raffles reveals Bulstrode’s past, he declines to work for him to manage Stone Court.

Susan Garth

She is the former schoolteacher and wife of Caleb Garth.

Mary Garth

She is the daughter of Caleb and Susan. She is in love with Fred Vincy. However, she refuses to marry him if he becomes a clergyman and also fails to have any job.

Will Ladislaw

He is the cousin of Casaubon, the grandson of the disinherited aunt. Bulstrode tries to support him financially as compensation for hiding him from his grandmother. He denies getting the money as he knows the source of the money is thievery. He loves Dorothea. He is not a materialist man and loves beautiful things around him.

Tertius Lydgate

He is an orphan. His father was a military man. Much to the humiliation of his wealthy relatives, he chooses the profession of medicine. In hopes of finding new ways of treatment, he comes to Middlemarch. He falls in love with Rosamond and marries her. However, Rosamond’s expensive habits of living make him indebted. He loans some money from Bulstrode, but unfortunately, gets involved in the scandal of Bulstrode. It is only Dorothea who helps in his tough time.

Sir Godwin Lydgate

He is the uncle of Tertius Lydgate.

Captain Lydgate

He is the narcissistic cousin of Lydgate. He takes Rosamond for horse riding when she is expecting. Rosamond then suffers a miscarriage as a result of falling from horseback.

Naumann

He is the friend of Will in Rome; he paints and has his own studio. He draws the sketch of Dorothea by using Casaubon as a model for Thomas Aquinas.

Miss Noble

She is the sister of Mrs. Farebrother. She starts liking Will Ladislaw. She often steals food items to give it to the poor.

Selina Plymdale

She is the friend of Harriet Bulstrode. His son is courting Rosamond. But Rosamond marries Lydgate.

Ned Plymdale

He is the son of Selina Plymdale. He courts Rosamond and wants to marry her. But Rosamond refuses.

John Raffles

He is the stepfather of illegitimate son Mr. Featherstone. He is an old friend and partner of Bulstrode. He takes a bribe from Bulstrode to keep secret that his wife’s daughter and grandson are found. When he sees Bulstrode in Middlemarch, he blackmails him into revealing his secret. Bulstrode interferes with the medical treatment given to him by Lydgate, and he dies at Stine Court.

Joshua Rigg Featherstone

He is an illegitimate son of Peter Featherstone. He is the stepson of John Raffles. He gets Stone Court in inheritance. He wants to become a moneychanger, so he sells the Stone Court to Bulstrode.

Borthrop Trumbell

He is an auctioneer and works in Middlemarch.

Walter Tyke

He is the minister of Evangelical Protestantism. Bulstrode supports him over Farebrother. He also wins over Farebrother for the post of chaplaincy at the New Hospital. 

Rosamond Vincy

She is the daughter of Lucy and Walter Vincy. She is accustomed to living a rich lifestyle. She falls in love with Lydgate and marries him. She assumes that Lydgate is rich by family and has titled relatives. She wants to leave Middlemarch and live in an aristocratic lifestyle. However, she gets Lydgate into severe debt because of her lifestyle.

Fred Vincy

He is the son of Lucy and Walter Vincy. His father wants him to become a clergyman, so he sends him to college. However, Fred does not want to become a Clergyman. He has an expensive habit and also does gambling. He gets into serious debt because of gambling. He also makes Garth and his family suffer financially because Garth has co-signed his debt contract, which he is not able to pay.

He also loves Mary and wants to marry him. However, if he becomes a clergyman, Mary will not marry him. He also hopes to get the Stone Court inheritance from his uncle Featherstone. He, eventually, works for Caleb Garth as an apprentice.

Walter Vincy

He is a well-off and modest businessman. He is the mayor of Middlemarch. He gets infuriated with Fred’s and Rosamond’s expensive lifestyle. He refuses to give a loan to Rosamond and Lydgate to pay off his debt. He is the brother of Harriet Bulstrode.

Lucy Vincy

She is the wife of Walter Vincy. She is the sister of the second wife of Featherstone. She is the daughter of an owner of the inn. She doesn’t want her son to marry Mary and dotes him.

Mr. Wrench

He is a family doctor of Vincys in Middlemarch. When Fred gets ill, he cannot diagnose him properly. When Lydgate treats Fred and diagnoses him of typhoid fever, Vincy fires Wrench and replaces him with Lydgate as a family doctor. After that, Mrs. Wrend envies Lydgate.

Themes

Women and Gender

The novel Middlemarch is set in the fictional Midland towns during the early nineteenth century. The environment and atmosphere of the early nineteenth century are very conservative, and the typical gender role is forced upon people. Even though males are also urged to live up to the prescribed gendered ideal, the novel mainly focuses on how women made to live up to strict gender norms. 

This main theme of the novel is illustrated through the main character, Dorothea Brooke. Dorothea wishes to live a purposeful and grand life; however, her expectations are not compatible with the gender roles prescribed by society. Consequently, Dorothea turns into a confused woman who does not know what she really wants from her life and makes wrong decisions. These decisions make her further isolated from her true identity and desires.

The novel is an explicit critique of society’s submissive attitude towards women. However, at the same time, the novel also demonstrates that any resistance to such oppression is inherently limited because there is no alternative way for women but to conform to these roles.

Dorothea is the protagonist of the novel. She is a highly sympathetic, idealistic, kind, and free-spirited woman. The admirable aspects of her personality make her difficult to conform to the norm of society. The desires and passions of Dorothea are not something that society expects from any woman. Even though she is very passionate about her dreams to reform society, she feels ashamed of it and tries to suppress them. Moreover, she wants to adopt the feminine ideal, which eventually makes her take the wrong decision.

The character of Dorothea is the illustration of the notion that the prescribed gender roles in society makes women alienated from their own desires and more important from the identity.

Casaubon only wants to marry Dorothea because he perceives her as a submissive and admirable wife. However, when he realizes that she is stubborn and headstrong, he becomes frustrated with her. The marriage life of Dorothea and Casaubon turns into a disaster. It is painful to witness Dorothea make such a patently bad life decision, which ends up making her miserable. 

At the same time, the novel’s exploration of gender norms shows that Dorothea’s decision to marry Casaubon is not made out of mere foolishness. Rather, Dorothea is trapped by the conflict between her own impulses and society’s expectations of her as a woman. The misery of her marriage to Casaubon is only a symptom of this wider problem. Even after the death of Casaubon, she is entrapped in the marriage and cannot marry Will, whom she loves. She has to abandon everything to marry him.

This life of Dorothea is the resonation of the life of other strong-will women of the nineteenth century. These women want to have a rich and expensive life but out of any marital bond. However, in reality, there is no alternative for them. Even if these women want to go against them, they will not achieve much out of their rebellion.

Ambition and Disappointment

Disappointment is the only experience that unites the characters in the novel Middlemarch. In the novel, the feeling of disappointment is taken in both broader sense (for instance, when someone cannot come up to one’s own life long ambitious) and narrow sense on an everyday scale. 

For example, the narrator of the novel, at one point, asserts that we human beings demolish many disappointments between breakfast time and dinner time. According to the narrator, the feeling of disappointment is both universal and more frequent.

As disappointment in life cannot be avoided, the novel must be accepted to be a part of life. This will have positive effects in life as it forces people to compromise and reconcile the conflicting perspectives.

The novel Middlemarch also deals with the notion of ambition and considers it as an important part of human life. The novel shows the positive side of being ambitious as it helps people moving forward in life with some purpose and also advance society.

For example, the death of Tertius Lydgate’s father’s death does not make Lydgate follow the vocation of his father and join the military. He chooses a profession for him that is more intellectual. He becomes a passionate doctor that has a good impact on his life, as well as on society. The novel also portrays ambition as a source to fulfill personal desires and incurring the progress in society. Life appears to be meaningless and pointless without ambitions. 

However, the novel also shows the negative side effects of being overly ambitious, as it only leads a person to be disappointed at a large scale. For example, Lydgate is an ambitious persona, and he has set certain high goals for himself. He single-minded pursues the career that causes him to neglect the other aspects of life, such as being engaged and married to someone. 

Initially, Lydgate does not want to marry until he has set himself in his profession. However, it is his obsession with a career that makes him marry Rosamond. This marriage proves to be his wrong decision, and it destroys his career.

The tragedy of Lydgate suggests that if one tries to pursue ambition single-mindedly, it will only lead to disappointment as it disturbs life.

The conventional novels of the nineteenth century often end with a marriage. However, George Eliot, in the novel Middlemarch, shows how marriages are often filled with disappointments, misery, and conflict. The novel, thus, challenges the very concept of marriage in Victorian society, which considers marriage as ambition and “happy ever after.”  The novel shows how marriage is the most disappointing experience in one’s life.

For example, Dorothea tries to reconcile her dreams and ambitions by marrying Edward Casaubon. She wants to work on her ambitions with her role as a married woman. However, soon after her marriage, she realizes that her decision to marry Casaubon was wrong and regrets it. The imperfect union of Casaubon and Dorothea is the most prominent example in the story of a disappointing marriage.

In the novel Middlemarch, George Eliot makes it obvious that one can avoid being disappointed in life by setting realistic goals and ambitions. However, it also shows that one cannot avoid disappointment altogether. It is impossible for one to track the future of marriage or career. Thus one cannot avoid disappointment. Moreover, it also shows that being ambitious carries the idea of disappointment with it. Thus both are an essential part of one’s life.

Community and Class

Middlemarch is a novel about an entire community. It does not focus on the lives of a few characters. The novel is set in the fictional town named as Middlemarch. It is important to note that the time period in which it is set is thirty years before its publication. This period is known as the tumultuous and important period in English history

Moreover, the subtitle of the novel is “A Study of Provincial Life,” which suggests that it gives a taste of the provincial life of that time to the reader. In the early nineteenth century, the class system was extremely prominent in structuring the parts of society. The “provincial life” is also important as it shows the connection between characters living in a single town. It shows how characters are connected through marital, political, familial, and professional links.

The novel shows the close-knit aspect of the community. However, it is the critique of how communities like Middlemarch can incur pettiness, narrow-mindedness, and intense social hierarchies.

One’s obsession with the reputation of the family causes class anxiety in the novel Middlemarch. This obsession with the family reputation makes people of the community be overly concerned and involved in other’s life and criticizes the choices of others, particularly the choice of a woman to marry. In the community of Middlemarch, people do not respect other privacy. Some characters in the novel are much involved in gossiping and passing judgments about other people. Mr. Cadwallader, for example, is very much judgmental about Dorothea’s life.

In the community of Middlemarch, being from a good family is the only valuable thing, and the only way to change one family status is through marriage. The novel also deals with the idea of fixation on social status through marriage can have a negative affect. For example, Rosamond marries Lydgate by assuming that he comes from a noble family. 

For example, the narrator says the Lydgate “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.”

Rosamond’s obsession with improving her social status makes her ignore the fact that Lydgate is actually poor. And, at the end of the novel, Rosamond’s marriage to Lydgate turns unhappy and disastrous because of his lack of money.

Moreover, the community also sees the outsider and the one whose families cannot be treated with suspicion. For example, Joshua Rigg is the illegitimate child of Featherstone, and people do not treat him well. Likewise, the community is also suspicious about the origin of Bulstrode as no one knows about his early twenty-five years of his life. Those who are different or do not have a good family reputation are treated as low people.

Life in the town becomes dysfunctional and backward because of everyone’s obsession with family reputation and class. For example, the profession of doctors is looking down upon. For instance, the narrator says that “this was one of the difficulties of moving in a good Middlemarch society: it was dangerous to insist on knowledge as a qualification for any salaried office.”

Some doctors are preferred over others simply because they have been around for a long time, not because they are very much skilled and updated. In this sense, the community of Middlemarch is unable to advance in the field of science and technology. There are, indeed, some benefits of living interconnected in a community; however, the small-town aspect of life urges people to be stuck in old traditions and self-defeating ways of time.

Money and Greed

Having lots of wealth and having no money is problematic for the character in the novel Middlemarch. In the novel, some characters spurn money, while others are very much obsessed with it. The novel suggests the drawbacks of one’s obsession with the money and incurs the people to focus on their ambitions and other fulfillment. However, at the same, the novel also suggests that money is an essential part of life, and one cannot live without caring about it at all. Money is not only necessary to ensure survival in the world; it is also one of the major factors in determining the social hierarchy of the community of Middlemarch.

The novel illustrates a variety of ways in which money has damaging affect one’s life and also ruins one’s life. Debt and gambling are damaging aspects of life. For example, because of gambling, Fred becomes indebted to Mr. Bambridge, the local horse dealer. He was not taking such situations seriously as he was largely dependent on his father’s money. 

For instance, the narrator says that: “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 shows that growing up in a wealthy family with lots of unnecessary resources can make a person reckless and foolish. The money given to Fred by his father gives him a sense of security. However, this security is counterproductive as he does not really know how much money his father exactly has. Moreover, it makes him live a reckless life of gambling and borrowing. At the end of the novel, his inability to pay his debt makes his life miserable.

Moreover, the greed incurred by the possibility of owning someone’s inheritance is another problematic aspect of money in the life of people. This is shown through the scene of Mr. Featherstone’s funeral. All of the relatives of Featherstone are interested in taking his inheritance after his death. They only attend the funeral to listen to the will. Instead of showing dignity after listening to the will, they are highly disappointed. They all are greedily obsessed with who will inherit how much.

There is another problematic aspect of money. That aspect is “dirty money.” This aspect of money becomes prominent towards the end of the novel. When Lydgate is on the verge of bankruptcy, he accepts the money from Mrs. Bulstrode. Later, it turns out that he earns that money through thievery and deception. This makes Lydgate implicated in Bulstrode’s scandal, thus making him an outsider in the community of Middlemarch.

The foolishness of Lydgate is emphasized by the fact that when early in the novel, Bulstrode offers Will money. He simply refuses because he suspects it to come from ill means. This shows his morally upstanding and admirable character. However, Lydgate’s desperate need for money makes him accept the same money, which Will refused. One can compare Will and Lydgate’s decision and argue that it is not worthy enough to accept money earned through ill means despite the fact that it is the only alternative for bankruptcy.

Dorothea and Garth are the examples in the novel that prefers human relationship over money. Throughout the novel, Dorothea repeatedly says that she is not fond of money. At the end of the novel, she abandons her inheritance to marry Will.

The example of Caleb Garth in the novel shows how money is necessary for life. However, it can also cause serious problems in life. The novel condemns greed and admires the modest living of Garth. However, when he lends some money to Fred and Fred is not able to pay, he and his family suffer financially.

By comparing the behavior of Fred Vincy and Caleb Garth, the novel suggests that both indifference to money and greed can lead to foolish decisions and severe problems in life. Even though the novel does not advocate greediness, it also does not suggest being completely reckless about it as money is an essential part of one’s life. 

Progress and Reform

The novel Middlemarch is set forty years before it was written. The novel is considered a historical novel. However, the critics do not agree on the difference between its setting period and its publication date and argue that the difference is not worthy of calling it a historical novel. Middlemarch vividly deals with the historical events of the time. These historical events play a great role in the background and foreground of the narrative.

The most important historical event it deals with is the 1832 Reform Act. This Act increased the population of eligible voters, and to make parliament more democratic, it changed the aspects of the Parliamentary system.

The novel also deals with the 1829 Catholic Relief Act. This Act allows the catholic sect to be a part of parliament. Moreover, there was rapid development in science and technology in the early 19th century. This development led to the railway boom in the 1840s.

In the novel Middlemarch, the notion of “Reform” also refers to the general reforms in the novel. For example, Dorothea is ambitious to reform society. At the same time, Lydgate is highly ambitious to bring reform in the medical field. The narrator also refers to the “anti-reforms time” in the novel. 

The time shown in the novel is an anti-reformative period as most of the inhabitants in the Middlemarch appear to be skeptical or opposed to the reforms taking place around them. The novel emphasizes the fact that such close-mindedness can lead to backwardness in the Middlemarch.

The atmosphere of the novel is apocalyptic as it is set in the tumultuous period of English history. For example, in the novel, Mr. Vincy is uncertain that “whether it was only the general election or the end of the world that was coming on, now that George the Fourth was dead, Parliament dissolved Wellington and Peel generally depreciated and the new King apologetic.”

This shows that instead of welcoming the reform and change with excitement, the residents of Middlemarch are horrified. However, it is natural to be terrified with the great change, thus suggesting that Vincy has a very narrow point of view of changes occurring across the country. The changes or reforms taking place across the country are an attempt to make England more fair, democratic, efficient, and affluent than destructive. 

As the novel revolves around the Reform Act of 1832, the character Will and Mr. Brooke appear to be supporters of the reformative party. They commit themselves to bring reform in society, even though they face opposition and ridicule.

The locus of political change around which the novel revolves is the Reform Act of 1832. This parliamentary Act created change in what was previously a deeply unjust and undemocratic system of political representation. It expanded voting rights such that 1 in 5 men became eligible to vote, and it simultaneously abolished aspects of the electoral system that allowed wealthy noblemen to wield arbitrary, unearned power.

In the early 19th century, medical reforms, industrialization, and scientific reforms were also sweeping England and thus transforming the lives of many people. The character of Tertius Lydgate explores the medical reforms in the novel Middlemarch.

Despite the fact that medical and scientific advancement has a clear and welcoming prospect, the inhabitants of the Middlemarch community appear to be skeptical and opposed to it just like they are opposed to the political reforms. For instance, when Caleb surveys the land to construct the railway, the farmworker attacks him. The narrator of the novel asserts that the people of the Middlemarch do not seem to be enthusiastic about the new technology of the railway. They presume it to be dangerous and presumptuous.

The residents of Middlemarch are stubbornly opposed to both scientific and political reforms because of their fear of change. They are very much attached to their dysfunctional old ways of life. Their opposition to change intensifies the idea that Middlemarchers is a backward community who suspects progress and change even if it highly benefits them.

Literary Analysis

Even though Middlemarch is a Victorian novel, it is a highly usual novel of its time. Many of the aspects of the novel are similar to modern novels. Critics have mixed views about this masterpiece novel of George Eliot. The novel is often perceived as depressing and morbid in tone. Moreover, there are many obscure scientific and literary allusions in the novel, which many critics do not like, as they have a view that woman writers cannot be intellectual.

George Eliot does not like “silly, women novelists” as they are only confined to writing conventional and stereotypical fantasies of romance fiction. Eliot also was not in favor of imposing constraints on women writing. Her dislike of the stereotypical plotline of the stories is evident in her critique of marriage between Lydgate and Rosamond in the Middlemarch. 

Both of the characters appear to be inspired by the stereotypical romance and take courtship in ideal ways. Moreover, in a traditional romantic novel, marriage has marked the end of the novel, however, in Middlemarch, Eliot gives details of how marriage often turns into a miserable and horrific experience for both men and women.

Many critics also considered Eliot’s Middlemarch to be very much depressing for women writers. However, Eliot denies following the conventions of a happy ending. She is of the view that ill-advised marriage never becomes harmonious if it is between two people who are inherently incompatible. 

The marriages of Dorothea and Lydgate are the perfect examples of such yoke marriages. However, Dorothea is still capable of preventing her from living a dull life because her husband died of a heart attack, while there is no such case with Rosamond and Lydgate’s marriage.

In Middlemarch, there are two major narratives: marriage and vocation. Both of these topics are dealt with seriously. As both men and women amuse unrealistic and fantastic ideals of each other in temporary, romantic courtship, and that eventually causes trouble. Lydgate and Rosamond, and Dorothea and Casaubon get married without properly knowing each other. Both of the couples are not at all compatible.

Eliot views that marriages based on compatibility go along. She also points out that marriages in which women are dominating or greater say also turns out to be successful (sounds like modern feminists). For example, the marriage between Mary and Fred is the happy one. Mary has refused to marry Fred if he becomes Cleric. It is this condition that Fred is saved from an occupation that will torment him forever.

On the other hand, Dorothea and Casaubon both struggle throughout their marriage as he tries to control her and make her submissive. The same is the case with Rosamond and Lydgate.

Another important aspect of the novel is how one earns his living. In Middlemarch, Eliot demonstrates how wrong choices in life can lead to disastrous consequences. She also states the aftermath of keeping women to their domestic sphere with no involvement in the outside world.

For example, Dorothea is never able to work on her ambition and reform society. 

At the end of the novel, she simply becomes a wife and mother, which is considered as waste. Moreover, the shrewd potentials of Rosamond have changed and degenerated into manipulation and vanity. With her domestic sphere, she becomes exceedingly restless. Her subdued ambitions make her unhappy.

Middlemarch is not only meant for entertainment purposes because Eliot does not conform to the idea of a happy ending. In the novel, she deals with real-life issues. She refuses to write about the fantasy world to which most of the women writers are confined to. Eliot tries to draw the portrait of complexities in everyday life. She deals with the everyday issues as a failing of petty characters, quiet tragedies, quiet moments of dignity, and small victories. All of them are part of normal life.

The complexity of individual characters is the reflection of her portrait of provincial life. The shifting sympathies of the readers show the changing characters of an individual person. For instance, the readers at one time show sympathy to Casaubon, and at the next moment, they are highly critical of him.

The novel Middlemarch refuses to be a typical novel. It is the collection of stories of many characters, their lives, and their relationship with one another. It is not based on one central character. As one single character cannot show the provincial life, it becomes necessary to include more than usual characters in the novel. As Eliot was a female writer, this novel appears to be unconventional for this type of form and content in Victorian times.

Motifs

The recurrent images, structures, and literary devices in a literary text are called Motifs. The emphasis on the idea helps develop the major themes of a work. The following are the motifs in the novel Middlemarch by George Eliot.

Epigraphs

In the novel Middlemarch, each chapter starts with a few lines or small quotations known as an epigraph. George Eliot employed epigraph in the novel to summarize the chapter and to move the plot forward. These epigraphs also function to put the novel Middlemarch into a canon of literary works. In Epigraphs, Eliot quotes numerous great writers such as Dante, Shakespeare, Chaucer, and William Blake. Because of the learned nature of Eliot’s quotations, she was often considered as too intellectual for a woman writer.

In the novels, most of the characters do not communicate with each other directly, especially the characters of the opposite gender. They employed other characters to talk on their behalf. Eliot draws the attention of the readers to the web-like community of Middlemarch through carrying messages, not speaking themselves, and sending “diplomats.”

This web-like structure of the community maintains the intricate social interaction among people. However, it also restricts direct communication. In the novel, gossip functions as an important part as it is the source of most of the information. Most of the time, the characters avoid direct communication as they know that the information will eventually come around.

Debt and Borrowing Money

Through the novel Middlemarch, the characters deal with debt and money. The character’s personality is evident in how they carry money or think of money. The plot of the novel is based on how characters are worried about money or asking other people to give them some money.

Having lots of wealth and having no money is problematic for the character in the novel Middlemarch. In the novel, some characters spurn money, while others are very much obsessed with it. 

The novel suggests the drawbacks of one’s obsession with the money and incurs the people to focus on their ambitions and other fulfillment. However, at the same, the novel also suggests that money is an essential part of life, and one cannot live without caring about it at all. Money is not only necessary to ensure survival in the world; it is also one of the major factors in determining the social hierarchy of the community of Middlemarch.

Fred asks for money from many characters in the novel because of his expensive habits. However, Lydgate incurs to take money from others because of his severe debt as he fails to manage the social and cultural taste of his wife. Raffle shows his threatening character as he blackmails Bulstrode for money. Mary refuses to take money from Featherstones and proves her good character.

Symbols

Abstract ideas and concepts in a literary text are represented by objects, characters, and figures. The following are the symbols in the novel Middlemarch by George Eliot.

The Portrait of Ladislaw’s Grandmother

Will Ladislaw’s grandmother’s miniature portrait appears many times in the novel. This portrait symbolizes the future decision of Dorothea to give up her inheritance to marry Will. In the past, Ladislaw’s grandmother gave up all her inheritance to marry a man she loved. The portrait is hanging in the bedroom of Dorothea at Casaubon’s home. 

Whenever Dorothea thinks of Will, she recalls the portrait. Moreover, when Will comes to say a final goodbye, Dorothea is very tense and offers him the portrait as a gift. However, Will refuses to take it, saying that he does not need a past. This points to the fact that they will end up together.

Raffles

In the novel Middlemarch, the character of Raffles is the symbol of the threatening return of the past. Raffles is described as a lonely black figure walking on the roads of the country. He is the man of ill-reputation and skeptical background. He is associated with the danger of the past, along with the unpleasant lower class. The sacredness of the community of Middlemarch appears to be disturbed by his repeated appearance as he is carrying the past of Ladislaw and Bulstrode.

The death of Raffles incurs the gossip that makes Ladilaw leave the town and also causes the downfall of Bulstrode. His death is the climax of the novel.

Cottages

In the novel, Dorothea Brooke is very much ambitious about social reform. She is obsessed with the idea of making her impact on the world. She makes plans and drawings for architecture designs for cottages for the tenant living in their estate. Dorothea’s fixation of making plans for changing the tenants shows her striking difference from the other woman living in Middlemarch.

For example, the women belonging to her class are motivated to engage in aesthetic pursuits such as music and fine arts (even though they are also made to not take it seriously). Disregarding the traditional gender and cultural norms, Dorothea starts making designs for tenants’ cottages. The social norms prevent women from pursuing their careers in fields like architecture, which is solely considered as a man field. However, Dorothea ignores the fact that she does not have a formal education that would support her work. 

Thus the cottages symbolize the utopian vision of Dorothea and the theme of social progress. Dorothea puts a great deal of effort into her designs, hoping to improve the living conditions of tenants. However, the same cottages show the limitation of Dorothea’s ambition along with the naivety of Dorothea and limitations of what women can achieve in a society like Middlemarch. 

Even though characters such as Sir James supports Dorothea in her plan, it is only because he wants to appease her than because he truly believes in her skills. Her plans for transforming cottages are never put into action and thus show the failure of unrealized dreams.

The Key to All Mythologies

Rev. Edward Casaubon is working on a book of a theological scholarship named as The Key to All Mythologies. Casaubon has dedicated many years or several decades of his life to this book. The ambitious scope of the work is highlighted by the grand title of the book. When Dorothea gears about the book for the first time, she is highly captivated by the title and assumes that it will contribute a lot to the knowledge.

However, soon after the marriage, Dorothea learns that the project is not as significant as it appears to be. Will also informs her that Casaubon is unable to read German, so he does not know the new developments in the theological field. This means that his works are doomed to be irrelevant and outdated.

Casaubon was unable to complete his work without dying. He hands over the notes to Dorothea so that she can shape it into the finished project. However, Dorothea learns that it is not worthy of anything and considers it as a tomb in which Casaubon buries her before dying. Just like the symbol of cottages, the symbol of The Key to All Mythologies also symbolizes the failure of unrealized dreams

However, Casaubon shows great confidence in his project, which shows the hazards of self-delusion. Secretly, Casaubon is insecure about his work, and instead of confessing it, he comes cagey and secretive about it. Apparently, The Key to All Mythologies is a very interesting book; however, it is insubstantial.

New Hospital

In the town of Middlemarch, Nicholas Bulstrode and Tertius Lydgate established the new hospital. Bulstrode manages and finances it while Lydgate works as a managing director. They built the hospital to raise the standard of medical care in the town. They decide to conduct scientific research there and also hope to affiliate a medical school as well.   

This hospital is designed to be the front-line institution in the middle of a backward and provincial area that shows the utmost resistance to the progress and reform in the society. The backward residents of Middlemarch make it difficult for the hospital to flourish. No local doctor shows interest in working, so Lydgate employs doctors from outside.

Moreover, the scandal of Bulstrode and the financial crisis of Lydgate eventually doomed the New Hospital. The hospital is then attached to the Old Infirmary. The hospital does not show any sign of flourishing even without the scandals. The New Hospital symbolizes the difficulty of progress in a backward society where people are scared and skeptical of reforms.

Even though Lydgate, Bulstrode, and Dorothea show great hope for the development of the hospital, other characters are attached to the old ways of doing things that make them unable to see the advantages of reform.

Tone

The tone of the novel Middlemarch is detached. The subtitle of the novel “Study of Provincial Life” shows that it is about the people living in a community. The subtitle appears to be scientific. And science is mostly objective. The narrator of the novel looks at and describes the characters as if she is examining them under the microscope. The narrator maintains the level of scientific detachment in the novel. 

She sometimes becomes a little sympathetic towards characters and breaks out her detached tone. For instance, the narrator comments that “For my part, I am very sorry for him.” However, when the narrator describes the senses of Mrs. Cadwallader’s matchmaking, her sympathy changes from the earlier.

Genre

The novel belongs to the genre of historical fiction and literary fiction.

Literary fiction

The novel Middlemarch belongs to the category of literary fiction because it is a novel, it has a third-person narrative, the narrator is concerned with the psychological development of character, the narrator’s reaction to the event sympathetic and realistic, and the novel is written in prose style.

Historical Fiction

The novel Middlemarch is set forty years before it was written. The novel is considered a historical novel. However, the critics do not agree on the difference between its setting period and its publication date and argue that the difference is not worthy of calling it a historical novel. Middlemarch vividly deals with the historical events of the time. These historical events play a great role in the background and foreground of the narrative.

The most important historical event it deals with is the 1832 Reform Act. This Act increased the population of eligible voters, and to make parliament more democratic, it changed the aspects of the Parliamentary system.

The novel also deals with the 1829 Catholic Relief Act. This Act allows the catholic sect to be a part of parliament. Moreover, there was rapid development in science and technology in the early 19th century. This development led to the railway boom in the 1840s. 

Title

The title of the novel is based on the place where it is set. Middlemarch is a novel about an entire community. It does not focus on the lives of a few characters. The novel is set in the fictional town named as Middlemarch. It is important to note that the time period in which it is set is thirty years before its publication. This period is known as the tumultuous and important period in English history

Moreover, the subtitle of the novel is “A Study of Provincial Life,” which suggests that it gives a taste of the provincial life of that time to the reader. In the early nineteenth century, the class system was extremely prominent in structuring the parts of society. The “provincial life” is also important as it shows the connection between characters living in a single town. It shows how characters are connected through marital, political, familial, and professional links.

The novel shows the close-knit aspect of the community. However, it is the critique of how communities like Middlemarch can incur pettiness, narrow-mindedness, and intense social hierarchies.

Setting

The setting of the novel is the fictional town of Middlemarch, England, from 1830-1832. Apart from this, there is Casaubon and Dorothea go to Rome for their honeymoon. There are also flashbacks in the novel. The novel is glued in Middlemarch.

Writing Style

The writing style of the novel is erudite. The term “Erudite” means the well-educated and intellectual. As we read the novel, we come across the writing style as intellectual. Eliot uses scientific, cultural, historical, and literary references to the novel that makes the readers think that it has been written by an intellectual woman. There is a huge range of references in the novel. 

This writing style makes Eliot earn the reputation of “Victorian sage.” In short, the author of the novel is intelligent and educated enough to comment on the aspects of contemporary literature, life, politics, science, and arts.

Narrator Point of View

The narrator of the novel is third-person omniscient. The narrator of the novel has a bird view of the events and characters of the novel. The narrator does not know what simply is going on in the present lives of the character; she knows everything about everyone since ever.

In the novel, the narrator makes comparisons and references to art, literature, music, history, and science. The novel is filled with references, and the readers have to check the footnotes of the novel. The question is why the narrator gives so many references. In order to make the struggles of the character real, universal, and timeless, the narrator gives lots of allusions and references.

The narrator appears to be switching from the problems of characters at the micro-level to the macro-level trends in the society the characters represent. The constant reference to famous authors like Shakespeare, Dante, and Chaucer, makes the points that the struggles in the novel Middlemarch are universal, not something unique to the 19th century.