Saturday 27 January 2018

Middlemarch.....

Introduction:

Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life, (1871–72 ) is considered to be George Eliot’s masterpiece. both a kind of paradigm of Victorian realist fiction and at the same time a challenge to many of it's conventions.

Background:

Middlemarch is subtitled “A Study of Provincial Life”, and indeed it captures the goings on of a fairly large cast of characters over the period of a couple of years in an unremarkable English town in the 1830s. Middlemarch touches on many of these issues: political reform, advancement in medical knowledge, the obligation of landowners to their tenants, education and the role of women in society.

Major Characters:

For better understanding see the video.....




Dorothea Brooke: Dorothea Brooke (later Dorothea Brooke Casaubon), the protagonist, wants to perform great acts for humanity.

Edward Casaubon: Edward Casaubon is a middle-aged clergyman who marries Dorothea and expects to write the Key to All Mythologies.

Will Ladislaw: Will Ladislaw, Edward Casaubon's cousin, falls in love with Dorothea and chooses public life as his vocation.

Tertius Lydgate: Tertius Lydgate is an exceptional doctor whose "spots of commonness" stymie his aspirations to be a leader in medicine.

Rosamund Vincy Lydgate: Rosamund Vincy Lydgate, a social climber, gets both more and less than she bargained for in marrying Tertius Lydgate.

Nicholas Bulstrode: Nicholas Bulstrode is an Evangelical banker who hides the dishonest deeds on which he built his success.

Camden Farebrother: Camden Farebrother is an empathetic clergyman and gifted preacher.

Arthur Brooke: Arthur Brooke is a shallow dilettante who briefly runs as a Reform candidate. He is Dorothea and Celia's uncle.

Harriet Vincy Bulstrode:Harriet Vincy Bulstrode is Walter Vincy's sister and Nicholas Bulstrode's wife.

Fred Vincy: Fred Vincy is the eldest son of Walter Vincy and expects to inherit a fortune. He is in love with Mary Garth.

Lucy Vincy: Lucy Vincy is Walter Vincy's wife and a shopkeeper's daughter.

Walter Vincy: Walter Vincy is a manufacturer with a large family and the mayor of Middlemarch.

Overview:

The story begins with the introduction of Dorothea the primary protagonist and her sister Celia Brooke. The orphaned sisters are in the care of their uncle, Mr. Brooke. Dorothea is pursued by Sir James Chettam, a handsome and wealthy baronet, but she rejects him in favor of the clergyman Edward Causabon, and so James marries Celia. She also becomes friends with his young cousin, Will Ladislaw, a student who has not yet found his career. Ladislaw soon falls in love with Dorothea, although he is content to worship her from afar. Nonetheless, Casaubon becomes extremely jealous. Dorothea is not aware of Ladislaw's feelings or the intensity of her husband's dislike for his cousin.

A secondary protagonist in the novel is Tertius Lydgate ,recently arrived in Middlemarch, and Rosamond Vincy, the mayor’s spoiled daughter. Both married each other in false impression. Rosamond wanted to live extravagant life like upper-class people where as Lydgate though was a doctor could not earn that much. As Lydgate's financial situation worsens, he discovers that his wife does not really love him and will never be more to him than an expensive and demanding ornament.

Rosamund's brother Fred gets into financial troubles by gambling. He expects to inherit his uncle Featherstone's money and land, but when the miser dies and leaves his property to his illegitimate son. The woman that he loves, Mary Garth, will not marry him if he takes up a vocation he is clearly not suited for, and she is waiting for him to become a responsible adult.

Mr. Bulstrode, an Evangelical Christian, banker, and the paternal uncle of Lydgate's wife. Bulstrode wields a lot of power and is resented by many for his harsh judgments about people's moral character. Ironically, Bulstrode is harboring a great secret: he made his first fortune by snatching the inheritance of the heirs of his first wife, now dead. John Raffles who is an alcoholic and a swindler, comes to town to torment him and to extort money for keeping quiet about his past.

At the final chapter deals what happens to all the major characters; Dorothea and Will Ladislaw try to stay away from each other because of Casaubon's codicil, but they cannot help but love each other. Against the objections of Dorothea's family they end up becoming engaged on the strength of her personal fortune. Lydgate eventually has to leave town with Rosamund and come to terms with the fact that he will never fulfill his potential. Bulstrode felt serious Ill and died. The town soon finds out about Bulstrode's disreputable past. Mary's father agrees to take Fred on as an apprentice to learn the business of land management, which affords Fred the opportunity of a profession. The story ends in one more marriage—between Fred Vincy and Mary Garth.

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