"Middlemarch" as a cobweb of relations.

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Name: Hariyani Vaidehi C.

Roll no- 19

Year- 2015-17

M.A Semester - 2

Paper no. (6) The Victorian Literature

Email Id: - vaidehi09hariyani@gmail.com

Assignment topic:

 “Middlemarch” as a cobweb of relations.

Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad

Smt.S.B.GARDI

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH,

M.K. BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY,

 BHAVNAGAR, GUJARAT, INDIA.

Author:-

Marry Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880) was well-known English Novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is known by her pen name ‘George Eliot’. She wrote many novels like “Adam Bede”, “Silas Marner”, “Middlemarch” and many more. Most of the novel are set in provincial England and known for their realism and critical insight.

Middlemarch: A study of provincial life is novel by George Eliot.  It was first published in eight instalments during 1871-72. The novel is set in the fictitious midlands town of Middlemarch during 1829-32. It comprises several distinct stories and large cast of characters. It is based on many themes including the status of women, the nature of the marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform and education.

List of Characters:-
1.) Aurther Brooke

  2.) Celia Brooke

  3.) Dorothea Brooke

  4.) Nicholas Bulstrode

  5.) Harriet Bulstrode

  6.) Elinor Cadwallader

  7.) Edward Casaubon

  8.) Sir James Chettam

  9.) Mr.Dagley

 10.)    Peter Featherstone

 11.)  Mary Garth

 12.)   Will Ladislaw

 13.)  Dr.Tertius Lydgate

 14.)   Captain Lydgate

 15.)   Miss Noble

 16.)   John Raffles

 17.)  Joshua Rigg Featherstone

 18.)  Walter Tyke

 19.)   Mr. wrench

And Many more…………………………………

The plot of the novel:-

Dorothea Brooke is a young woman living with her uncle and sister in the small-but-growing town of Middlemarch, England in around 1830. She's got all the makings of a Victorian heroine: she's beautiful, intelligent, and generous. But she's also so idealistic, it's almost laughable. Her main ambition in life is to take on a noble project – so she marries a dried-up old scholar named Casaubon, thinking that helping him in his research will be the project she's after. Not so much. Dorothea quickly discovers that he cares more for his own scholarly pursuits than he does for her, but she can't do much about it (this is in the days before divorce was allowed for anything other than adultery or physical abuse).

Meanwhile, an idealistic young doctor named Tertius Lydgate moves to Middlemarch to set up a practice with his new-fangled ideas about medicine and science. But he encounters a lot of obstacles. First of all, most of the residents of Middlemarch have lived in the town for their whole lives, and they don't trust newcomers. Second, they don't trust new ideas, and Lydgate is all about scientific progress. Lydgate falls in love with Rosamond Vincy, the sister of one his patients, and marries her.

More unhappiness in marriage! Lydgate discovers that Rosamond is a superficial and selfish, and Rosamond learns that Lydgate will always be "married" to his work as a doctor. And then they run out of money because neither of them knows how to stick to a budget.

These two unhappy couples (the Lydgates and the Casaubons) are connected by Mr. Casaubon's young cousin, Will Ladislaw. Will is a handsome, young artist with a sparkling wit. Seriously, he sparkles. Lydgate finds Will to be sympathetic to his ideas about science and medicine, and since Will is an outsider in Middlemarch, too, they quickly become friends. Everyone seems to like Will. Especially Dorothea, who finds that he understands her in a way her husband doesn't. But don't worry – Dorothea's halfway to sainthood, and she's not about to cheat on her husband. The thing about marrying a much older man, though, is that they pass away and leave you free to remarry.

But there's a catch: Mr. Casaubon was always jealous of the friendly bond between his cousin, Will, and his wife. So Mr. Casaubon leaves a codicil in his will (basically a postscript) saying that Dorothea will lose all the money she's supposed to inherit from him if she remarries Will Ladislaw. Dorothea hadn't even thought about marrying Will until she reads the codicil. She thought they were just friends! After some serious thinking, and some misunderstandings (Dorothea thinks that Will likes Rosamond), Dorothea and Will decide to get married. They live happily ever after, despite the fact that they forfeit the large inheritance from dead Mr. Casaubon. And Rosamond and Lydgate live unhappily ever after – or, until Lydgate dies at a tragically early age, leaving Rosamond free to marry someone who's more willing to cater to her whims.

Multiplicity of characters:-

 We can see a large number of characters in Middlemarch. There are more than 25 characters which make the novel difficult to understand. It also creates confusion in remembering the sequence of the plot also. There are many families living in Middlemarch. Middlemarch is in middle and all the families march around it in different direction.

The town is also divided into two parts: - old and New. Old was more dominant on new. Even the religion was divided in this town. This divided the town as well as the characters in different ways.

The plot of the novel moves around four different stories apart from other small episodes which contribute in the main plot. They are:-     

Dorothea – Casaubon – Ladislaw story

        Rosamond – Lydgate story

      Fred Vincy – Mary Garth story

     Bulstrode’s Episode

Let’s see the cobweb of relationships in “Middlemarch”:-

All the characters have their own different stories which lead to the main plot. There many stories interwoven in the main story.

For example:-

Let’s look at the story of Dorothea-Casaubon-Ladislaw:-

This story itself is very confusing. Dorothea marries Casaubon to help him in his research, but doesn’t find that happiness she craved for. She falls for Will Ladislaw, but Will Ladislaw is relative of Casaubon. Casaubon hates Ladislaw and makes a condition in his will that if Dorothea marries Ladislaw after his death, she won’t get any money. In between we also see that Dorothea is in a misunderstanding that Ladislaw is in love with Rosamond Vincy. At last the confusion gets clear.

Another example is of Mr. Casaubon and his family. As we saw before that Will Ladislaw and Casaubon are relatives. Julia Casaubon is grandmother of Mr. Casaubon and aunt of Ladislaw. Later in the novel it is known that she was first wife of Nicholas Bulstrode. More confusion we can find that Mr. Bulstrode’s 2^nd wife Harriet Bulstrode is sister of Mr. Walter Vincy (father of Fred Vincy and Rosamond Vincy).

So, we can see that the characters as well their stories interwoven with each other which creates so much confusion. This confusion makes it difficult as a reader to understand the plot. The novel looks like a cobweb, where ones you enter you get stuck and with great difficulty you come out of it.

Many novelists of English Literature use multiplicity of characters.

For Example:

“The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling”, often known simply as “Tom Jones” by Henry Fielding. It also has a large crew of characters and small episodes which puts the reader in a dilemma.

Narratology in Middlemarch:-

Though a lot of confusion is seen in this novel, but the narrator has very interestingly presented the stories. It is narrated in very intelligent way. It is the third person Omniscient way: temporal, spatial & psychological. Although the author gives us birds view, she has paid attention to every character. There maintenance of continuity of the flaw. This continuance makes the novel more explicit and clear. She also uses the style of fictional rhetoric. The story is about the people lived in the town named ‘Middlemarch’. Every character has his or her own dream to fulfil. The special and notable thing is that each chapter is started with a beautiful quote. She has created romantic atmosphere balanced with reality. Although Dorothea is focalized, other characters are also portrayed well. It seems that she talked about how woman should choose a man for her. But for her every event is important comparatively to the Jane Austen.

Conclusion:-

The plot of the novel becomes complicated due to large number of characters. The novel gives us realistic, vivid and comprehensive picture of provincial life of England. The number of characters belongs to different age group and profession. All the characters has its own story. Therefore, there are many different stories in this novel which makes the novel more complicated, but an interesting one.


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