Unit Nine: George Eliot, Middlemarch (1874)

Question 1

Who wrote Middlemarch and when?

Answer 1

George Eliot (real name Mary Ann Evans) wrote Middlemarch and published it in 1871–1872

Question 2

Dorothea Brooke

Answer 2

Dorothea is a kind-hearted and honest woman. She longs to find some way to improve the world. She thinks Casaubon is a great intellectual, but after she marries him, she quickly discovers that he is not passionate enough to make her happy. She also learns that she is not as submissive and sacrificing as she had previously thought. She draws plans for comfortable cottages to replace the ramshackle buildings on large estates. She helps Lydgate when he suffers for his connections with Bulstrode. She falls in love with Casaubon’s young cousin, Will Ladislaw. She defies Casaubon’s machinations and marries Will even though it means losing her inheritance as Casaubon’s widow.

Question 3

Tertius Lydgate

Answer 3

Tertius Lydgate is the orphan son of a military man. He chose the medical profession at a young age, much to the chagrin of his wealthy, titled relatives. He comes to Middlemarch hoping to test new methods of treatment. He marries Rosamond Vincy, whose expensive habits get him into debt. He takes a loan from Bulstrode and becomes embroiled in Bulstrode’s scandal. Dorothea aids him in his darkest hour. He hopes to find the tissue that is the most basic building block of life.

Question 4

Rosamond Vincy

Answer 4

Rosamond Vincy is the daughter of Walter and Lucy Vincy. She grows up accustomed to an expensive lifestyle. She marries Lydgate because she thinks he is rich and because he has titled relatives. She dreams of leaving Middlemarch and living an exciting, aristocratic lifestyle, but her expensive tastes get Lydgate deeply into debt.

Question 5

Walter Vincy

Answer 5

Walter Vincy is a modestly well-off businessman in manufacturing. He is also mayor of Middlemarch. Fred and Rosamond’s expensive tastes infuriate him. He refuses to lend Rosamond and Lydgate money to pay Lydgate’s debt. He is Harriet Bulstrode’s brother.

Question 6

Lucy Vincy

Answer 6

Lucy Vincy is Walter Vincy’s wife. She is the daughter of an innkeeper, much to Rosamond’s chagrin. She dotes on her son and doesn’t want him to marry Mary Garth. She is the sister of Featherstone’s second wife.

Question 7

Fred Vincy

Answer 7

Fred Vincy is the oldest son of Walter and Lucy Vincy. His father sends him to college because he wants Fred to become a clergyman, but Fred doesn’t want to work in the Church. He gets himself into debt by gambling. He is accustomed to a lavish lifestyle. He causes financial difficulty for the Garths because he cannot pay the debt on which Caleb Garth co-signed his name. He wants to marry Mary Garth, but she won’t have him unless he finds a steady occupation other than the Church. He hopes to inherit Stone Court from his uncle, Peter Featherstone. These hopes are disappointed, so he works for Caleb Garth.

Question 8

Arthur Brooke

Answer 8

Brooke is Dorothea and Celia’s bachelor uncle. He is a bumbling man who can never stick to an opinion, always wanting to please everyone. He hires Will Ladislaw to write for his paper, the Pioneer. He runs for a seat in Parliament on the Reform platform, but he lets his own tenants live in poverty and squalor. The scandal resulting from his hypocrisy prompts him to improve conditions on his own estate, Tipton Grange.

Question 9

Celia Brooke

Answer 9

Celia is Dorothea’s sister. She marries Sir James Chettam.

Question 10

Nicholas Bulstrode

Answer 10

Nicholas Bulstrode is a wealthy Middlemarch banker. He is married to Walter Vincy’s sister. Bulstrode professes to be a deeply religious Evangelical Protestant, but he has a dark past: he made his fortune as a pawnbroker selling stolen goods. He married Will Ladislaw’s grandmother after her first husband died. Her daughter had run away years before, and she insisted that Bulstrode find her daughter before she re-married, because she wanted to leave her wealth to her only surviving child. Bulstrode located the daughter and her child, Will Ladislaw, but he kept her existence a secret. He bribed the man he hired to find her, John Raffles, to keep quiet. John Raffles blackmails him with this information. When Raffles becomes ill, Bulstrode cares for him. However, he disobeys Lydgate’s medical advice, and Raffles dies as a result. When the scandal about his past and the circumstances of Raffles’s death become known, Bulstrode leaves Middlemarch in shame. He purchases Stone Court from Joshua Rigg Featherstone.

Question 11

Harriet Bulstrode

Answer 11

Harriet Bulstrode is Walter Vincy’s sister. She is a kind, honest, religious woman. No one in Middlemarch blames her for her husband’s misdeeds. She resolves to stay with her husband even after she learns of his wrongdoing.

Question 12

Elinor Cadwallader

Answer 12

Elinor Cadwallader is the wife of the Rector at Tipton Grange, Brooke’s estate. She was born to a good family, but she married down and angered her friends and families. She is a practical woman who is forever trying to play matchmaker to unmarried young people, including Dorothea, Celia, and Sir James.

Question 13

Humphrey Cadwallader

Answer 13

Humphrey Cadwallader is the Rector at Tipton Grange, Brooke’s estate. Unlike his wife, he doesn’t believe in meddling in other people’s affairs.

Question 14

Edward Casaubon

Answer 14

Edward Casaubon owns a large estate called Lowick. He is a scholarly clergyman. His lifelong ambition is to write the Key to all Mythologies, but he is insecure and uncertain about his own abilities. He marries Dorothea because he thinks she is completely submissive and worshipful. Her stubborn independence frustrates him, and he mistakenly believes that she is constantly criticizing him. Casaubon is Will Ladislaw’s cousin. His mother’s sister was disowned by her family for running away to marry a man they didn’t like. Her own daughter, Will’s mother, also ran away to marry. Casaubon offers financial support to Will because he feels obligated to make amends for his aunt’s disinheritance. He becomes jealous of Will’s relationship with Dorothea. He includes an addendum in his will stating that Dorothea will lose his wealth and property if she ever marries Will Ladislaw. He dies before finishing his Key.

Question 15

Sir James Chettam

Answer 15

Sir James Chettam is a baronet. He owns a large estate called Freshitt. He courts Dorothea, but she chooses to marry Casaubon. He later marries her sister. He enacts Dorothea’s cottage plans on his own estate.

Question 16

Mr. Bambridge

Answer 16

Bambridge is a Middlemarch horse dealer. Fred Vincy sinks into his debt; Raffles meets him at a horse-fair and tells him everything about Bulstrode’s past.

Question 17

Mr. Dagley

Answer 17

Dagley is one of Brooke’s impoverished tenants. His son is caught poaching on Brooke’s lands. He refuses Brooke’s request that he chastise his son.

Question 18

Camden Farebrother

Answer 18

Camden Farebrother is a Vicar, but he doesn’t consider himself to be a very good clergyman, though many people like his sensible sermons. He becomes fast friends with Lydgate and supports his mother, sister, and aunt on his small income. He must gamble to make ends meet and to pursue his scientific hobbies. He loses in the election for the chaplaincy at the New Hospital. He receives the Lowick parish after Casaubon’s death. Fred Vincy enlists his help in courting Mary Garth. He himself loves Mary, but he does his duty.

Question 19

Mrs. Farebrother

Answer 19

Mrs. Farebrother is Camden Farebrother’s widowed mother.

Question 20

Winifred Farebrother

Answer 20

Winifred Farebrother is Camden Farebrother’s unmarried sister.

Question 21

Peter Featherstone

Answer 21

Peter Featherstone is a wealthy, manipulative old widower. He owns Stone Court. He married twice, but had no legitimate children. His first wife was Caleb Garth’s sister. His second wife was Lucy Vincy’s sister. He hints for years that he plans to leave his entire estate to Fred Vincy, his nephew by marriage. He even writes two separate wills. Mary Garth refuses to burn one of them. He leaves his property to his illegitimate son, Joshua Rigg.

Question 22

Caleb Garth

Answer 22

Caleb Garth is a poor businessman. He earns his living managing large estates. He co-signs a debt for Fred Vincy. When Fred is unable to pay, Garth’s family suffers. He receives new business, overcomes the loss, and hires Fred Vincy to work for him. He declines to manage Stone Court for Bulstrode after Raffles reveals Bulstrode’s dark past.

Question 23

Susan Garth

Answer 23

Susan Garth is Caleb Garth’s wife. She is a former schoolteacher.

Question 24

Mary Garth

Answer 24

Mary Garth is the daughter of Caleb and Susan Garth. She loves Fred, but she refuses to marry him if he becomes a clergyman and fails to find a steady occupation.

Question 25

Will Ladislaw

Answer 25

Will Ladislaw is the grandson of Casaubon’s disinherited aunt. Bulstrode tries to give him money to atone for hiding his existence from his grandmother. He refuses the money because he knows it came through thievery. He worships Dorothea. He doesn’t care for money and loves everything that is beautiful.

Question 26

Sir Godwin Lydgate

Answer 26

Sir Godwin Lydgate is Tertius Lydgate’s uncle.

Question 27

Captain Lydgate

Answer 27

Captain Lydgate is Tertius Lydgate’s foppish cousin. He takes Rosamond out riding. She suffers a miscarriage as a result of an accident on horseback.

Question 28

Naumann

Answer 28

Naumann is Ladislaw’s painter friend in Rome. He uses Casaubon as a model for Thomas Aquinas as a ruse to draw a sketch of Dorothea.

Question 29

Miss Noble

Answer 29

Miss Noble is Mrs. Farebrother’s sister. She steals small items of food to give to the poor. She becomes fond of Will Ladislaw.

Question 30

Selina Plymdale

Answer 30

Selina Plymdale is a good friend of Harriet Bulstrode. Her son courts Rosamond Vincy, but he is rejected.

Question 31

Ned Plymdale

Answer 31

Ned Plymdale courts Rosamond, but she refuses him.

Question 32

John Raffles

Answer 32

John Raffles is an old business partner of Bulstrode. Bulstrode bribed him to keep the existence of the daughter and grandchild of his first wife secret. He comes back to blackmail Bulstrode. He is Joshua Rigg Featherstone’s stepfather. He dies at Stone Court because Bulstrode interferes with Lydgate’s medical treatment.

Question 33

Joshua Rigg Featherstone

Answer 33

Joshua Rigg Featherstone is Peter Featherstone’s illegitimate son. John Raffles is his stepfather. He inherits Stone Court. He sells it to Bulstrode because he wants to become a moneychanger.

Question 34

Borthrop Trumbell

Answer 34

Borthrop Trumbell is an auctioneer in Middlemarch.

Question 35

Walter Tyke

Answer 35

Walter Tyke is an Evangelical Protestant minister. Bulstrode is a supporter of his. He wins the election for the chaplaincy at the New Hospital, beating out Farebrother.

Question 36

Mr. Wrench

Answer 36

Mr. Wrench is a Middlemarch doctor. He misdiagnoses Fred when Fred catches typhoid fever. Lydgate treats Fred’s illness, and the Vincys fire Mr. Wrench. Mr. Wrench becomes Lydgate’s enemy as a result.

Question 37

Theme: The Imperfection of Marriage

Answer 37

Most characters in Middlemarch marry for love rather than obligation, yet marriage still appears negative and unromantic. Marriage and the pursuit of it are central concerns in Middlemarch, but unlike in many novels of the time, marriage is not considered the ultimate source of happiness. Two examples are the failed marriages of Dorothea and Lydgate. Dorothea’s marriage fails because of her youth and of her disillusions about marrying a much older man, while Lydgate’s marriage fails because of irreconcilable personalities. Mr. and Mrs. Bulstrode also face a marital crisis due to his inability to tell her about the past, and Fred Vincy and Mary Garth also face a great deal of hardship in making their union. As none of the marriages reach a perfect fairytale ending, Middlemarch offers a clear critique of the usual portrayal of marriage as romantic and unproblematic.

Question 38

The Harshness of Social Expectations

Answer 38

The ways in which people conduct themselves and how the community judges them are closely linked in Middlemarch. When the expectations of the social community are not met, individuals often receive harsh public criticism. For example, the community judges Ladislaw harshly because of his mixed pedigree. Fred Vincy is almost disowned because he chooses to go against his family’s wishes and not join the clergy. It is only when Vincy goes against the wishes of the community by foregoing his education that he finds true love and happiness. Finally, Rosamond’s need for gentility and the desire to live up to social standards becomes her downfall. In contrast, Dorothea’s decision to act against the rules of society allows her to emerge as the most respectable character in the end.

Question 39

Motif: Gossip and Speaking for Others

Answer 39

Often characters, especially characters of opposite genders, do not communicate to each other directly, instead using other characters to speak on their behalf. Carrying messages, sending “diplomats,” and not speaking for themselves draws attention to the weblike community of Middlemarch. Part of this web functions to maintain an intricate social web, but it also works to avoid direct communication. Gossip, another form of speaking for another person, plays an important part in the novel as it is often how information is conveyed. Characters frequently use the fact that the information will eventually come around to avoid direct conversation.

Question 40

Motif: Debt and Borrowing Money

Answer 40

Debt appears throughout Middlemarch, and money often indicates elements of a character’s personality. The plot is driven by characters worrying about money or asking others for money. Fred Vincy must ask several people for loans, Lydgate incurs serious debt due to his failure to manage money and his wife Rosamond’s cultured tastes, and Raffles’s constant begging and blackmailing for money indicates his threatening role. On the other hand, Mary Garth’s refusal to take money from the dying Featherstone proves her good, honest nature. The exchange of money and the passing of debts ties the characters together in an economic subtext.