Middlemarch in Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)

Mar 07, 2021 Martha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-fall-reading-list

It only took me 7 months but I'm finished. I initially struggled to read this book but ended up loving it and thinking that it's a book I'll reread again from time to time. ...more

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Feb 19, 2017 Maggie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: boxall-1001, british, fiction, guardian-1000, romance, classics

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Dorothea, headstrong, idealistic and religiously fervent, marries Mr Casaubon, an old scholar and clergyman whom she admires for his wisdom. However their marriage breaks down as he is controlling and she is not submissive, and his perceived wisdom is exposed as empty. Mr Casaubon dies, but not before making a codicil to his will that Dorothea would lose her inheritance if she marries Will Ladislaw. But Dorothea and Will do fall in love and eventually marry. Concurrently, Lydgate, a new surgeon Dorothea, headstrong, idealistic and religiously fervent, marries Mr Casaubon, an old scholar and clergyman whom she admires for his wisdom. However their marriage breaks down as he is controlling and she is not submissive, and his perceived wisdom is exposed as empty. Mr Casaubon dies, but not before making a codicil to his will that Dorothea would lose her inheritance if she marries Will Ladislaw. But Dorothea and Will do fall in love and eventually marry. Concurrently, Lydgate, a new surgeon in town with ideas of reforming medical practice, marries Rosamond, the town's rich beauty, but finds that she is superficial and expensive to upkeep. He falls into debts that she refuses to economise to repay, and he is unable to put in the work needed to achieve his dreams in the medical field. His fortune is tied up with Mr Bulstrode, a hypocritcally religious man, whose shady past is eventually exposed. But his wife sticks with him through the shame. At the same time, Fred Vincy, carefree and overly optimistic, has his dreams of inheriting his uncle's fortune dashed. Driven by the disapproval of Mary Garth, he finally turns serious, works for Mary's father Mr Garth, builds a career as a farmer, and marries Mary.

Those are just a few characters in this sprawling novel covering provincial life in the town of Middlemarch. Written in 1871-72 but set in 1829-32, the story is set in a time when the Catholic relief act that allowed Roman Catholics to be Members of Parliament was being passed, and the Reform bill that opened up voting rights to the middle class was being debated. King George died, Parliament was dissolved, and Industrialisation with its new ideas and railways was challenging tradition. This is the political backdrop that influences the lives and prospects of the inhabitants of Middlemarch. The lives of these characters are interwoven in more ways than one. They share relationships, as family members through blood or marriage, as friends, as creditors and debtors, as gossip sharers and spreaders. People are influenced not just by what their family members say or do to them, but also by how society judges them for what their family members have done. While Dorothea and Lydgate are the protagonists, the thoughts and behaviours of many other characters are not just described but also analysed.

Societal expectations play a big role in the novel. There are regular scenes of groups of townsfolk sharing gossip in drawing rooms or pubs, and every one of the main characters is judged, often harshly, and often unfairly. Ladislaw is deemed unworthy to marry Dorothea because he is poor and has dishonourable roots, and Bulstrode is judged critically because his riches have been suspiciously gained. Dorothea is considered strange because she is not like other girls, while Rosamond is superficial because she is the ideal girl. Lydgate is medically competent, and his ideas of reform show potential, but they do not take off because he is unable to appease the other medical men, instead allying himself with the unpopular Bulstrode, and hence cannot establish a respectable place in society and falls into personal debt. While Eliot does not seem to approve of this, she makes it clear that such is the society that the Middlemarchers must adapt to to thrive. The only one who comes out victorious despite contravening societal expectations is Dorothea in marrying Will, and this highlights how remarkable a lady she is, and what a remarkable love they share.

This brings up nicely to the theme of marriage. Marriage in this book, unlike many other books of the era, is not the end goal, but the beginning of a relationship. It is emphasised regularly that a successful marriage needs compatible partners, and compatible partners are found through courtship of sufficient duration. Hence rushed marriages, like those between Dorothea and Mr Casaubon, and Lydgate and Rosamond, break down when illusions are exposed. Marriages need tolerance, self-sacrifice and openness. Lydgate and Rosamond, in particular, cannot get along because he expects her to share his career ambitions and then to economise to repay their debts, while she insists on living extravagantly and asking for monetary help as needed. Both see each other as stubborn and unreasonable. They keep secrets from each other, thinking that the other would never understand, and the marriage fails. In contrast, Fred and Mary, though never wealthy, are successful in marriage, because Fred gives up his wild-child ways to please Mary, and allows himself to be improved on Mary's wishes. Mrs Bulstrode, too, almost single-handedly saves her marriage by refusing to condemn Mr Bulstrode, instead giving him unconditional forgiveness. But marriages can be saved. Almost all the marriages end up in varying states of success, despite the characters persisting with all their flaws, because their partner learns to love them and work with them despite their shortcomings. In today's world where divorces are often the solution taken to a troubled marriage, Middlemarch's inhabitants teach us a lesson. Many marriages encounter crises. We can never find a partner who is perfect, and oftentimes a marriage may seem to fail because of the our partner's faults. And love alone may not guarantee a trouble-free marriage. But there are always solutions, if only we can be bold enough, persevering enough, to seek out these solutions, or at least to wait for them, and not give up when problems seem insurmountable.

In the prelude, Eliot talks about Saint Theresa, who achieved great things, and says that this is because Theresa lived in the right environment. "Many Theresas have been born who found for themselves no epic life wherein there was a constant unfolding of far-resonant action; perhaps only a life of mistakes". In the small-town setting of Middlemarch, the grand ideas of Dorothea and Lydgate cannot flourish. But Eliot argues that we need not achieve on a world-scale to be great. Dorothea, she argues, has done great things, through her little project of improving cottages for farm tenants, and by saving the marriage of Lydgate and Rosamond through her compassion. What defines greatness? Is it what man and society acknowledges as being great? Or is it the small, quiet things we do in our daily lives, that perhaps nobody sees but us and God?

And who is an ideal woman? Is it someone like Rosamond? She is beautiful, graceful, quiet yet charming, talented in music, and has exquisite taste. She is one of Mrs Lemon's finishing school's finest graduates. Yet her exterior seems little more than a creation, a superficial facade. Outwardly perfect, inwardly she is jealous, self-serving and childish. Is the ideal woman then Dorothea? She is, as we are repeatedly told, "ardent". Her utmost desire is to do good, to serve others, and to make others happy. When she learns to direct her religious fervour into practical good works, she does indeed save marriages and souls. But society views her as eccentric, and she is almost ostracised by her own brother-in-law and former lover, Sir James Chettam. To the modern lady, our first tendency is to condemn Rosamond and praise Dorothea. Eliot does, as well, yet Rosamond seems a victim of her circumstances. It is, afterall, not her fault that society's feminine ideal is a submissive, beautiful one, neither is it her fault that she was sent to Mrs Lemon's school. It is only natural that she should try to excel in what she has been educated in. And what is the use of trying otherwise, when wealthy ladies like she and Dorothea have no occupation that they can take up, no pastime to occupy themselves with except to socialise and help their husbands?

Eliot used a male pseudonym to gain respect for her work, and her style of writing pours scorn on societal expectations of ladies. It is intellectual, with epigrams at the start of each chapter comprising either her own poetry or quotes from authors like Dante, Chaucer and Bunyan. It demonstrates a mind informed on politics, and accustomed to analysis and critique of human motivations and societal shortcomings. Yet I felt that because it was so intellectual, I could not enjoy it as much as other epics like War and Peace or A Suitable Boy. But it is still a massive, groundbreaking work. ...more

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