Middlemarch
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George Eliot
I have studied this text in MA part 1. Middlemarch is a novel by Mary Anne Evans. She
was writing with a pen name of George Eliot. George Eliot was experst in
presenting the psychological elements in character’s behaviour and its effect
on their life.
‘Middlemarch – a study of provincial
life’ is a story of two sisters. The protagonist is Dorothea and Celia is her
sister. Dorothea is highly moral and knowledgeable and Celia believes in materialistic
life. Here Eliot has presented the two different classes of people in Victorian
age. One was still in the influence of classicism and Romanticism and the other
believed in the new trend of Victorian age which was about industrial revolution
politics and upper class.
The book was published in 1871 but the
setting in the novel is 1830. ‘Middlemarch’ is the name of the town. It is the
fictional town in the England. This novel has first started as a short novella ‘Miss
Brooke’ but later it was published as a novel named ‘Middlemarch’. It was
published in eight parts. The title “A Study of Provincial life” suggests that
it is a life of ordinary people and how they struggle into their life.
The main character Dorothea Brooke falls
in love with an aged scholar Casaubon but soon she came to know about his
disinterested behaviour towards life. He was not having value of woman in his life.
she again falls in love with Casaubon’s cousin young brother Will Ladislaw. Here
the psychological condition of Casaubon and Dorothea is quite noticeable.
Casaubon was scholar and linking Dorothea
but was not able to give enough love and respect. Dorothea was in love
of Casaubon’s intelligence but was not able to get respect and freedom and she
fall in love with other man. Celia was in love with Lydgate and she married to
him. But she was not able to adjust with him. She was not able to leave her
high sophisticated lifestyle. She was frustrated with the marriage because of
poverty.
In this case if we imagine that Celia was
a wife of Casaubon she would have been happy and if Dorothea was married with
Lydgate both would have been lived perfect life. But perfect life is not for
everyone. They have suffered because of their false assumptions towards persona
and high expectations. The novel contains themes like Imperfection of marriage,
the harshness of social expectations and self determination vs. Chance.
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