The Origins of Middlemarch: Part 2
Ending my discussion on the classic with themes, thoughts, and backstory!
Note: this post features spoilers for the book, so if you haven’t read Middlemarch and don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading!
Hello, friends, and welcome back to another post by The Kindness Cafe! Today, I’ll be wrapping up my discussion on the 1871-1872 classic Middlemarch with a post about the themes of the book, as well as the process for George Eliot as she worked through writing the book and my overall thoughts!
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If you haven’t seen the first part, you can read it below!
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There’s a lot to get into, so let’s get started!
Eliot’s Background:
George Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans in 1819 in a rural town located in England. She grew up very well educated and wrote many poems when she was a teenager. By 1851, she was helping run a very successful magazine called the Westminster Review and taking mathematics classes on the side.
After leaving the Westminster Review in 1854, Evans decided to become a professional novelist. She resolved to use a nom-de-plume, George Eliot, to separate her magazine work from her novels. The first name, George, was named after her partner, and the surname Eliot was picked because “a good mouth-filling, easily pronounced word.” She wanted her writing to be judged for its contents and not for being written by a female author.
She published her first work as George Eliot in 1857 and continued publishing up until her death in 1880. She was even introduced to Princess Louise — the daughter of Queen Victoria — after it was discovered that the queen loved her books and wanted to meet her.
Her most famous book is Middlemarch, which she began writing in 1869 and finished in 1872. The book was originally intended to be about Lydgate and the Vincys, but Eliot wrote it so slowly that she had barely progressed six months later. She began writing a separate story, “Miss Brooke”, that went much more smoothly, and in 1871, Eliot decided to combine the two into what would eventually become Middlemarch.
Though Eliot is now considered to be one of the best authors of that time period, many disagreed and complained about Eliot and her writing; William Butler Yeats once wrote, “She is too reasonable. I hate reasonable people…” and George Orwell (1984, Animal Farm) once admitted he had never read anything of Eliot’s despite being an avid reader.
Today, Middlemarch is thought to be Eliot’s finest work and one of the cornerstones of literature. Doreen Roberts, a college professor and bestselling author, wrote in the foreword to the 1994 Wordsworth Edition of the book that “no English novel has more successfully combined the modes of epic, tragedy, social comedy, realism…Edith Simcox surely speaks for us all in declaring that ‘Middlemarch marks an epoch in the history of fiction.’”
My Favorite Themes In Middlemarch:
Some of the major themes in Middlemarch include:
Love
Love is perhaps the biggest theme in Middlemarch. All of the main characters in the book eventually marry — Dorothea and Rosamond both marry twice. The theme of love goes hand in hand with freedom; for many women at the time, no matter how rich they were, still had to marry. Even George Eliot married.
Eliot specifically depicts love in healthy and unhealthy ways to show the amount of power men and women had. Fred and Mary (and Mary’s parents) are the only examples of a healthy, flourishing marriage. To be clear, this doesn’t mean they don’t get into any fights or issues, it just means they’ve learned how to work well with each other – which is why they’re my favorite couple in the whole book!
Life & death
Eliot plays with the idea of life and death a lot in this book. Since Lydgate is a doctor, he is exposed to a lot of life or death situations, and he can only do so much to help people with 19th century medicine, which at the time wasn’t very advanced.
This is also clear in the juxtaposition between Casaubon and Dorothea — Dorothea picks a much older man, when she is barely nineteen years old. They make an odd pair to many people in the town, and when Casaubon dies, Dorothea is widowed after only a short period of time being a wife. Being a widow in that time period meant wearing black and not remarrying for a short period of time – but the widow was expected to (and would) remarry.
Coming back to Lydgate, the subject of life and death is not foreign to him. He is used to talking about these things with people like the pastor Farebrother and even Rosamond on occasion. His reputation is at stake when the bully Raffles dies despite Lydgate’s medical instructions – which are ignored by the banker Bulstrode, who has bias against Raffles.
Finally, life and death can be applied for Fred, who doesn’t want to be a pastor like his father wants him to be. His father’s dream of him becoming a pastor dies when he decides to become a farmer.
Power and reputation
Power struggles in Middlemarch are one of the biggest themes in the book. Casaubon consistently expects Dorothea to submit to him, since she is his wife and assistant, but Dorothea tries to rebel against the status quo. Rosamond and Lydgate’s relationship becomes especially rocky when Rosamond decides to write to Lydgate’s family for help with their money troubles when Lydgate specifically asks her not to. Fred struggles to make good decisions that will uphold Mary’s standards – although he eventually succeeds because he knows she is right and respects her decision.
Power is also shown literally when Lydgate and the other doctors must vote for the new holder of the chaplaincy. Bulstrode and a few other doctors vote for Pastor Tyke, while other doctors vote for Farebrother, who is Lydgate’s friend. Not wanting to offend Bulstrode, Lydgate votes for Pastor Tyke. Once Bulstrode is found to be part of Raffles’ murder, he begins to be excluded from Middlemarch, showing how the town is relieving him of his power and giving him a horrible reputation.
Social standing and money
Social standing is important in this book as well. Both Dorothea and the Vincys come from wealthy families, though when Dorothea marries Casaubon, she becomes even richer, and the oldest Vincy siblings marry below their station to Lydgate and Mary, who are both rather poor.
Dorothea helps donate money for the new hospital to help Lydgate, which is seen as an act of selflessness and responsibility for Dorothea. Once she remarries Will, her social standing and wealth are greatly diminished.
Justice/change
Perhaps the biggest theme is justice and/or change. We see throughout the entire novel that all three characters want to bring justice and change to the table, but they are sidetracked by other people with different agendas and opinions.
All three main characters eventually change some part about themselves – Dorothea and Fred give up their money and Lydgate gives up politics – to try to help other people. Unfortunately, Lydgate’s hospital plans and Dorothea’s housing plans never come to fruition, and Fred for the most part stays out of Middlemarch business when he gets married. Though all three improve emotionally and become wiser, none of them actually achieve any outstanding goals beyond their own private relationships.
My Overall Thoughts On The Novel:
Favorite characters: Fred, Mary, the Garths, and Farebrother
Favorite storyline: Fred and Mary’s romance
Least favorite character: Bulstrode
Least favorite storyline: Probably Lydgate’s marriage and doctor business, but I still like him a lot!
Who do I wish we had gotten more of? I would have loved to see Dorothea after she married Will!
Favorite chapter? Definitely the epilogue!
Well, that’s my overview of Middlemarch! If you liked this post, let me know in the comments below!
If you missed the first part of the series, you can read it here!
Have you read Middlemarch before? If so, what did you think? If not, do you want to? Put your thoughts down below!
Here are some resources I found helpful while researching George Eliot and Middlemarch if you’d like more information:
The George Eliot Archive (website) is an “extensive resource for anyone studying the Victorian writer George Eliot”. It includes a timeline of her life plus much more, and is a great website for learning more about her!
“It Can Be Embarrassing To Love Dorothea” (blog post) includes thoughts on Dorothea as a character and how she’s evolved over the years.
“The Scientist In Victorian Literature: Tertius Lydgate, Surgeon” (blog post) includes thoughts on Lydgate and his scientific discoveries.
Where To Start With: George Eliot (blog post) is a guide to Eliot’s books and which to read if you’d like to start!
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