middle march provincial mores

8/2/2019 Middle March Provincial Mores

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/middle-march-provincial-mores 1/5

Universitatea Hyperion, Bucuresti

Facultatea de Litere si Limbi Straine

GEORGE ELIOT’s provincial mores

HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

Chirieci (Badea) Adelina

Anul III, Semestrul I

1



GEORGE ELIOT’s provincial mores

Middlemarch

"Middlemarch is at once one of the strongest and one of the weakest of English novels. (...) Middlemarch is a treasure-house of details, but it is an indifferent whole. (...) All these people,

solid and vivid in their varying degrees, are members of a deeply human little world, the full

reflection of whose antique image is the great merit of these volumes." - Henry James, Galaxy

Middlemarch is a complex novel. This "study of provincial life" begins with a short prelude,

focussed on Saint Theresa, whose "passionate, ideal nature demanded an epic life". Eliot speaks of

"later-born Theresas", and the book proper then begins with young Dorothea Brooke, the Theresa-like

figure whose epic life is, one imagines, surely to dominate the narrative. But Middlemarch takes some

twists and turns, and though Dorothea's story figures prominently Eliot isn't satisfied with it alone.

Other fates are also explored, in any number of storylines and with a huge cast of characters. It makes

for an odd mix, just like a complex monography of provincial life and mores.

Dorothea's story is, at least in the beginning, the central one. She and her sister, Celia, are orphans,

now living with their uncle, Mr. Brooke. Dodo (as Celia calls her sister) is the unfortunate family

intellectual. She is not yet twenty when the book opens but she already "knew many passages of

Pascal's Pensées and of Jeremy Taylor". This isn't entirely as bad as it sounds, she could also be

"regarded as an heiress", and so she had good prospects for making a fine marriage. Still, it is Celia

that is the sensible, but much simpler sister.

Mr. Brooke is also quite the character, but saw the dangers of the intellectual life for himself:

The fact is, human reason may carry you a little too far -- over the hedge in fact. It carried me a good way at one time, but

I saw it would not do. I pulled up; I pulled up in time. But not too hard.

Unfortunately, his good and often confused sense doesn't influence Dorothea. She does set out to

marry, but turns down the sensible possibility, Sir James Chettam, who naturally then meets his match

in Celia. Instead, Dorothea opts for the ridiculous but scholarly Casaubon.

Casaubon is the caricature of the amateur scholar, working on a mammoth Key to all Mythologies.

The man seems good enough, in some Christian way, but he is as dry and dusty as the books he

consults. One of the reasons he marries Dorothea is the expectation that this "would enable him to

dispense with a hired secretary". He is also the sort of man who, as Eliot notes in a rare parenthetical

observation "always said 'my love' when his manner was coldest". Dodo tries her best, but it is clear

from the beginning that this isn't going to work out well.

Matters are complicated by Casaubon's relative, Will Ladislaw. Will comes from the disgraced part of the family. Dorothea is friendly towards him, but Casaubon can barely stand him and only does

what is apparently his duty. Eventually, Casaubon becomes very jealous of Will as well, as there is an

obvious mutual attraction between Will and his wife. It leads also to Casaubon adding a nasty codicil

to his will, to prevent Dorothea and Will marrying.

Even Eliot apparently couldn't stand Casaubon much, and she does away with him soon enough.

Dorothea finds herself widowed and wealthy at age twenty-one. But Casaubon's shadow still hangs

over her for a while. She does good works, but it takes a while for her heart and spirit to find complete

fulfillment.

Dorothea is a good soul, using her money to help others, conceiving grand projects for the

betterment of humanity. She says: "I should like to make life beautiful - I mean everybody's life." Still,

she is too good for her own good, and takes most things quite too seriously. Near the end, when thingslook fairly bleak, Celia wonders what all has happened:

2



"Oh, all the troubles of all people on the face of the earth," said Dorothea, lifting her arms to the back of her head.

"Dear me, Dodo, are you going to have a scheme for them ?" said Celia

Which pretty well sums up the two sisters.

Everyone, except Dorothea, recognizes that she shouldn't marry Casaubon. The poor man seems

her ideal scholarly, making her blind to what a boring, mediocre figure he actually is. Returning totheir residence, Lowick Manor, after their pseudo-honeymoon in Rome, most of which Casaubon

spends pursuing his "work", Dorothea sees that "the volumes of polite literature in the bookcase looked

more like immovable imitations of books", and indeed in this house all passion, all imagination is

paralyzed.

Ladislaw is a different beast altogether a free spirit, interested in the arts. Art troubles Dorothea

because she doesn't believe she understands it. And she thinks also that it "seems somehow to lie

outside life and make it no better for the world."

Ladislaw is a flighty character. Eliot noticeably describes him often, perhaps never quite sure

herself of who she means him to be. Casaubon speaks of his "desultory vivacity", Mrs. Cadwallader

sees him as "a sort of Byronic hero", Lydgate finds him "rather miscellaneous and bric-à-brac", and so

on. He acts unusually playing with the local children, stretching out on the floor if it so pleases him andhe is, of course, attracted to Dorothea. He knows her better than she knows herself, at least at the

beginning, pinning her down exactly:

I suspect that you have some false belief in the virtues of misery and want to make your life into a martyrdom.

Ladislaw is very open, generally speaking his mind, in this he, like Celia and the delightful Mary

Garth, is among the more sympathetic characters. Still, he stands out oddly in this close-mouthed

society. And he can be a whiner too: "I suppose one gets a habit of doing without happiness or hope",

he tells Dorothea, playing the sympathy card much too hard.

Will they or won't they is, of course, one of the novel's big questions, though Eliot seems to get a

bit bored with it after a while.Another story-line is also very prominent: that of the "very intellectual and clever" doctor,

Lydgate, new to town and also with grand ambitions. Intellectualism is, of course, a curse, especially in

provincial Middlemarch, and Lydgate promptly lives up to type. He also marries incorrectly, wedding

Rosamond who is, unfortunately, also clever in her own way. Rosamond's fancy tastes and

expectations and Lydgate's sense of honour and limited means are a recipe for disaster. By the end

poor Rosamond finds: "her married life had fulfilled none of her hopes and had been quite spoiled for

her imagination."

Lydgate and Rosamond's marriage is best summed up by how they react to their troubles: "He did

not speak to her on the subject, and of course she could not speak to him." Which is, of course, an ideal

way to make everyone's life miserable.

These silences and a general unwillingness to share information and speak one's mind are far too prevalent in the novel. There are a few big secrets, including some around banker Bulstrode that

eventually touch nearly everyone in the book. This dreadfully annoying literary device was, of course,

in full flower when Eliot wrote Middlemarch, but it is still no excuse. Matters aren't helped by the fact

that she doesn't use the secrets to ideal purpose, unfolding them somewhat clumsily. It is the most

artificial aspect of an otherwise very realistic novel.

There are other plot lines as well: rich man Featherstone and the terms of his will, the wooing of

Mary Garth, local politics, and other events. The novel does provide a fair "study of provincial life" at

the time, though Eliot doesn't manage to keep the focus on many of the matters. In fact, the book seems

often to drift literally out of focus.

Still, there is a great deal here, including many engaging characters and stories. The book is fully

populated, and several of the minor characters are particular successes. Mary Garth is a nice presence,

and the scene in which Farebrother speaks to her on behalf of Fred, with the realization only slowly

3



dawning on her that he too is a suitor, is among the most touching in the book.

Eliot has some strange lapses in the book. Her priorities are odd: marriage, that meeting of minds

and melding of souls, is a major concern throughout, but some of its consequences only remarked upon

in the most offhanded manner. So, for example, she writes of troubled Dorothea

Books were of no use. Thinking was of no use. It was Sunday, and she could not have the carriage to go to Celia, who had lately had a baby.

That is the first mention of Celia's child, an event surely worthy of greater attention. But children,

babies especially, don't fare well in this book: they are hardly worth mentioning, and most arrive only

incidentally or in fact after the story itself is largely over, in the summing up of the finale-chapter.

There are a few fairly happy families - the Garths, in particular - but for the most part "family" isn't an

ideal Eliot much cares for: Dodo and Celia are orphans and Dorothea manages to get herself widowed

before she can really start a family of her own, Ladislaw's (and Casaubon's) family is hardly

exemplary, Rosamond and Lydgate fail miserably at starting a family, and so on.

The airy idealism of Dorothea and Lydgate is also annoying. They both mean to do good for the

world, but they are also apart from this world, too locked in their high and mighty intellectual spheres.Writing of Lydgate Eliot allows:

Only those who know the supremacy of the intellectual life -- the life which has a seed of ennobling thought and purpose

within it -- can understand the grief of one who falls from that serene activity into the absorbing, soul-wasting struggle withworldly annoyances.

By which point readers of course think this guy fully deserves whatever comeuppance he has

coming.

About the provincial mores aspect, Middlemarch seems to have it all, beginning with the ascetical

and moral Dorothea, continuing with Mrs. Cadwallader, the perfect gossiper and matchmaker and also

ending with the rapacious Bulstrode banker.I think that the novel seems realistic because none of his characters is entire moral or immoral,

they all have good parts and bad parts, just like normal people and George Eliot manages to describe

them with so many psychological details, that you often identify with them and understand why they

act like that.

More important than the morality of the characters in the novel is how morality is perceived in a

provincial town like Middlemarch, where everybody knows everybody. In Middlemarch is more

important to look and act like a moral man, than to be indeed a moral man. For example, Dorothea was

thought to be immoral because she married such an old man and nobody was aware of her noble

intentions. On the other hand, Bulstrode was thought to be a moral, religious man, although his fortune

was the result of an immoral act.

Middlemarch is a grand book – although it has many faults. There are several stories here thatcould be at the center of a novel and Eliot seems unable to choose between them, presenting instead a

sometimes uncomfortable mix of stories. She also wants to present a broader canvas, of Middlemarch-

provincial life and mores as a whole, but fails here too because she isn't willing to commit to that the

focus of her book either. Still, most of her characters and their stories are very strong, and there are

almost no lulls over the 800 pages of the book. There is also a considerable amount of often sly

humour, which adds to the enjoyment of the text.

Middlemarch is a classic, and still well worth reading. Henry James was perhaps correct in his

diagnosis when he wrote:

It sets a limit, we think, to the development of the old-fashioned English novel.

4



Bibliografie

Henry James – Galaxi – London, 1873

www.complete-review.com– 07.01.2012George Eliot – Middlemarch – Bucureşti, 1977

5

http://www.complete-review.com/

http://www.complete-review.com/

middle march provincial mores

Documents