Victorians! discussion

I can’t believe it’s eight weeks already since we started, and we are at the end of Middlemarch. If we thought things would fall into place in this segment, they certainly did but not before a bit of melodrama, at least where Will and Dorothea were concerned, at least. As the segment opens, Dorothea is keen as she was when we left off to help Lydgate but her family and friends dissuade her from being quite as enthusiastic about the matter as she is—that is to say from taking a step to speak to Lydgate immediately. Still when the time comes to discuss the matter of the hospital, Dorothea finds her chance to convey her sympathy and more importantly her faith to Lydgate. Finding one person who at least still trusts him (Lydgate doesn’t have the support of even his wife, even though his father-in-law at least is not suspicious of his conduct; also Farebrother hasn’t approached him directly even though he supports him), he opens up finally putting forth the whole matter. Dorothea is willing not only to lend a sympathetic ear but to do all she can, enlist the help of those she believes will support Lydgate, even go to Rosamond to soften her heart a little, perhaps convince her to have them stay on at Middlemarch.

But her visit to Rosamond ends up giving her a shock rather than her being an instrument of comfort to Rosamond for when she goes there she comes upon Will who has just come there and Rosamond. She can only assume what her eyes have seen, despite it not having been the truth for it was Rosamond who thought that she had it in her power to charm Will. Poor Will is convinced that any little chance he had of being though well of by Dorothea is gone, and he lashes out in anger, which certainly brings Rosamond back to the ground.

When Dorothea, who is rather a saint, decides to try once again and visit Rosamond once again with the same intention, the tumult in her mind is set to rest by Rosamond who realises by this act what kind of a person Dorothea really is. Dorothea too succeeds in bringing her some comfort, and has also advanced Lydgate the 1000 pounds he needs to pay off Bulstrode and put an end to that association. But after Will’s rejection and Dorothea’s visit, things somewhat begin to improve in the Lydgate household, though he does end up eventually leaving Middlemarch and building a practice in London and an unnamed continental bathing place, and does quite well for himself even writing a book on gout, an illness as GE said, brings in the money. But he dies prematurely at 50, and Rosamond remarries, getting some happiness from it.

Meanwhile Bulstrode receiving strong support from his heart-broken wife Harriet who stands by his side though thick and thin spells good news for Fred, as Bulstrode proposes letting Stone Court to Fred as originally proposed by Mr Garth before he had left off being the former’s agent once his past was revealed. Fred has a chance at a good income and thus at a more immediate marriage with Mary which as expected turns out to be a happy one. Like Lydgate, Fred too writes a book, on agriculture which is a great success while Mary too writes Stories of Great Men from Plutarch.

Dorothea the character we have been following right from the first pages of the book to finally gets her chance at happiness too, as when the misunderstandings with Will are resolved, and he finally seeks to meet her through Miss Noble, she finds she is willing to give up all her income and property to be happy with Will and so she does. Sir James and Celia and the rest of her friends expectedly disapprove but Mr Brooke at least is willing to stand with them, not only keeping contact but also willing to break the entail on his own property so that Dorothea’s children are more secure in their future. [I was cheering for him here.] With time, the others also relent and they seem to have a happy future.

So what did we think of this segment? And what of the book as a whole? Did you enjoy your read? What of the characters did you sympathise with and which of them did you not? Though Dorothea got happiness finally, did you think she got what she was looking for in terms of doing something meaningful? What about Lydgate and Rosamond, what did you think of how things turned out for them? Fred and Mary certainly got an ending that they deserved. What did you think?

Hope you enjoyed the read. Do feel free to also share your review of the book here if you write one.

I'm on Chapter LXXIV:
What a beautiful portrait of a woman Mrs. Bulstrode is! I think Mrs. Bulstrode's attitude is the most moving thing in the novel so far. It touches me because it is fundamentally innocent and good and dignified. She is especially since "imperfectly taught woman, whose phrases and habits were an odd patchwork,...".
Dorothea is good and straight, but she thinks, she is intelligent. While Mrs. Bulstrode is much simpler, then, her kindness seems more animal, if I may say so, more instinctive and great... in my humble opinion...

Lady C, I can't read your summary now, because I don't remember excatly my first reading of Middlemarch in all its details, so I want to savout it once again! :)

I think you point out the difference quite well--Mrs Bulstrode's kindness is instinctive--all kindness is, isn't it--Dorothea's is too--that's her essential nature but her intelligence and way of thought gives it its own version. One can't but admire them both. Poor Dorothea's kindness though is not appreciated as it should be by all her immediate family but Mr Bulstrode at least appreciates and values what his wife is doing for him.

I'm finished! Oh, what a wonderful book! What great and strong portraits of women! For, who saves men? Who leads the guilty men to repentance? Who raises men, gets the best out of them? Who loves, knowing that loving is more difficult than being loved? Who forgives? Who understands? For George Eliot, clearly, it's women.

Mary Garth has always loved Fred, but leads him to correct his flaws before responding to his love. It forces him, thanks to his mental and moral strength and thanks to love to become the man he was too lazy to become of himself.
Dorothea, voluntarily moving Will away, to respect the wicked will of the late Casaubon, strengthens their love. She makes this love an even more beautiful and stronger love.
Mrs. Bulstrode, by loving her husband despite his faults, forces him to do what he had never wanted to do: face the reality of his actions and sincerely repent, and even do any good deed that may be able to make up for his faults here on earth. Finally the proud Bulstrode becomes humble. Now his conscience is his and God's business.
What about Rosamonde? Ah, Rosamonde has also changed in front of Dorothea. Of course, not all women are angels. Then we could feel sorry for Lydgate. But... he chose to marry Rosamonde, he had experience of the world and women before that. He was in a better position than she was to know what he was getting into. At the beginning of the story, Lydgate knew he had to choose between a wife and a household, or his medicinal research. But he chose: he chose Rosamonde.

So? So all is well that ends well, I guess, and the Middlemarchians always remain the same: their prejudices do not move, see this funny passage:

"Fred surprised his neighbors in various ways. He became rather distinguished in his side of the county as a theoretic and practical farmer, and produced a work on the "Cultivation of Green Crops and the Economy of Cattle-Feeding" which won him high congratulations at agricultural meetings. In Middlemarch admiration was more reserved: most persons there were inclined to believe that the merit of Fred's authorship was due to his wife, since they had never expected Fred Vincy to write on turnips and mangel-wurzel.
But when Mary wrote a little book for her boys, called "Stories of Great Men, taken from Plutarch," and had it printed and published by Gripp & Co., Middlemarch, every one in the town was willing to give the credit of this work to Fred, observing that he had been to the University, "where the ancients were studied," and might have been a clergyman if he had chosen.
In this way it was made clear that Middlemarch had never been deceived, and that there was no need to praise anybody for writing a book, since it was always done by somebody else."

On that note, George Eliot, it seems to me that I have learned the lesson: we are all Middlemarchians, it is up to us to choose which one we want to be: the one who does nothing but fills the void of his life by spreading gossip on others; the one who thinks only of himself and hopes that, as long as he does not look at himself in the mirror, he can see himself forever as a good person; or the one who keeps the course of strength and kindness towards and against everyone and hopes that love will triumph.

I finished too. It was a beautiful book and loved it very much. I'll be expressing my views on this segment soon. Meanwhile if anyone is interested reading, I'll post the link for my review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Glad you enjoyed it :) It deserves its accolade of one of th greatest books in English.

Eliot winds up the work satisfactorily. All the the threads were finally neatly tied.

Yes there was a bit of drama before Will and Dorothea were finally united. I'm of the opinion it was necessary because the shock Dorothea received by seeing Will and Rosamond made her realize how well she loved him.

The same drama also helped Rosamond to find her ground. I was surprised to learn that Rosamond has entertained secret romantic feelings for Will while being married to Lydgate. It was actually funny that she could have entertained such feeling to a man like Will for she has always aimed for higher status. Will was poor and was of a questionable parentage (according to Victorian standards). Anyhow I'm glad that Will's outburst helped Rosamond to step out from her fantasy and turn to her husband for comfort and sympathy. The incident definitely improve the relationship between Rosamond and Lydgate.

Mary and Fred finally earn the happiness they deserve. With a final act of generosity Bulstrode yields to his wife's request to help the Vincy family by providing for Fred to manage the Stone Court. It was a happy relief to learn that Fred did well and even went to publish a book on Agriculture. Their marriage is as steady as we always hope it would be.

Overall, the reading was satisfactory. I enjoyed the story and the themes expounded on. I also liked the majority of the characters.

One unique thing about this book however is that through the Finale, Eliot narrates how well the future worked out for all the major characters that we come to love. Most of the Victorian novels rush at a happy ending by uniting the lovers in the story without showing a glimpse in to their future. In such a setting, I'm glad that Eliot took a step further to inform the reader that how the characters formed their future after securing their happy endings. It gives the story completeness.

Piyangie wrote: "Eliot winds up the work satisfactorily. All the the threads were finally neatly tied.

Yes there was a bit of drama before Will and Dorothea were finally united. I'm of the opinion it was necessar..."

In Rosamond's case, I think she believed because of her looks, she could rule anyone she card to, and the other would simply fall under her spell--so the 'rejection' by Will brought her down to earth again.

Piyangie wrote: "Mary and Fred finally earn the happiness they deserve. With a final act of generosity Bulstrode yields to his wife's request to help the Vincy family by providing for Fred to manage the Stone Court..."

Fred publishing a book is quite a surprise isn't it- I mean one expected him to perhaps settle solidly into his occupation but he wasn't one who had much fondness for his studies.

Thank you for sharing this journey of reading Middlemarch. It turns out we have different views of the book - I had very high expectations and was a bit disappointed. I did not find it as awesome as I thought it was supposed to be. I left The Mill of the Floss with an entirely different feeling - that was one of the best books I have ever read and I was deeply astonished. So we really can have different experiences.


What do you think yourself about this question, Lady Clementina?:

“Though Dorothea got happiness finally, did you think she got what she was looking for in terms of doing something meaningful?”

The story took an interesting turn there. Wasn’t Dorothea supposed to be emancipated by Will and continue to make contributions to society? Instead she ended up being the support for her husband. I think she was finished with her good deeds, collaborating with Chettam and assisting Casaubon - she had had enough of that and now that she found true love, she really wanted to devote herself to this man and the son they had together.

Charlotte wrote: "Thank you for sharing this journey of reading Middlemarch. It turns out we have different views of the book - I had very high expectations and was a bit disappointed. I did not find it as awesome a..."

I had a bit of a mixed feeling on that--true, what she truly wanted in life changed, and in that sense one can certainly say that she did have a happy ending-by getting the love that she deserved, and supporting her husband. But then all the loftier goals she had, the projects she had started to take up with the hospital and the tenants' homes seem such a waste on the other. Or may be we are looking at meaningful in a different way from which it was supposed to be looked at.

To answer, Charlotte, I feel that Dorothea worked on all those schemes with a superficial mind. Yes, she is kind-hearted and wants to good to the needy. But she never works on them with a passion. Perhaps her discouraging male relatives and her husband may have curtailed her passion with their all negative remarks. I also feel that she became the do-gooder at a too naive stage of her life without any understanding of her as a woman. We must remember she was sort of a weird, idealistic and somewhat ignorant young girl before life trials made her re-examine her self, her wants and her feelings. Meeting Will changed her, and her perceptions changed totally. However, the do-gooder always lived in Dorothea and she contributed much to the society through Will. By supporting and standing by him, she indirectly contributes to the reforms on which Will was working on. In this sense, I feel Dorothea achieved what she wanted in sort of an indirect way.