Failed Idealism in Middlemarch
Name :- Gohil Dvangiba Aniruddhsinh
Roll No. :- 14, Semester- 2
Paper no.:- 6 ( The Victorian Literature)
Topic :- Failed Idealism in Middlemarch
Submitted to Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Failed Idealism in
Middlemarch
Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life is
a novel by English author George Eliot, first published in eight installments
(volumes) during 1871–2. The novel is set in the
fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch during 1829–32, and it
comprises several distinct (though intersecting) stories and a large cast of
characters. Significant themes include the status of women, the nature of
marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and
education.
Middlemarch is a
novel of epic proportions, but it transforms the notion of an epic. Epics
usually narrate the tale of one important hero who experiences grand adventure,
and they usually interpret events according to a grand design of fate. Every
event has immediate, grand consequences. Kings and dynasties are made and
unmade in epic tales.
Middlemarch's subtitle is "A Study of Provincial
Life." This means that Middlemarch represents the lives of
ordinary people, not the grand adventures of princes and kings. Middlemarch represents
the spirit of nineteenth-century England through the unknown, historically
unremarkable common people. The small community of Middlemarch is thrown into
relief against the background of larger social transformations, rather than the
other way around.
I do not believe that it is sufficient to
say that Middlemarch explores the ways in which social and spiritual energy can
be frustrated; it would be more appropriate to say that Middlemarch explores
the ways in which social and spiritual energies are completely destroyed and
perverted. One need only look to Lydgate to see an example of idealism being
destroyed by the environment in which it is found. At the start of the novel,
we are introduced to the Young, poor and ambitious” and most of all idealistic Doctor
Lydgate, who has great plans fore the fever hospital in Middlemarch, throughout
the novel, however, we see his plans frustrated by the designs of others,
thought primarily the hypocritical desires of Nicholas Bulstrode.
The second example
of the idealism of the young being destroyed by the old is that of Dorothea.
This can be seen by her containing desire to “bear a larger part of the world’s
misery” or to learn Latin and Greek, both of which are continually thwarted by
Casaubon, though this ends after his selfish and suspicious nature, by way of
the codicil. The character who has their ambitions and ideals brought most
obviously low is Lydgate. The earliest example is when he has to make the
choice between fair brother And Tyke both of these character rather are rather
poor examples are clearly with fair brother for a number of reasons; he doen’t
gamble because he wants to, but because the wage he receives from running his
parish alone is too small to support him and the various members of his family
that rely on him.
It can be
embarrassing to love Dorothea in this day and age. It’s like loving Saint
Theresa, the gruesomely self-mortifying sixteenth-century saint to whom
Dorothea is compared in the novel’s introduction and conclusion, or Patient
Griselda. We don’t find stories of female masochism terribly attractive
anymore. But if Dorothea were truly a masochist, she would not have engaged my
imagination so strongly over the years. Eliot makes it clear that Dorothea is no
saint but rather a morally immature young woman. Her self-denials have roots in
in youthful arrogance and impetuousness. Remarking on how much Dorothea loves
riding (a love which clearly reveals her physically passionate side), Eliot
slyly adds that her heroine “always looked forward to renouncing it.” When
Dorothea’s younger sister Celia wants to look over the jewelry their dead
mother has left them, Dorothea first behaves as if it would be vulgar to wear
any of the pieces, then ostentatiously gives the best one to Celia. Celia urges
her to at least accept a necklace with a simple cross, but Dorothea replies
that she would never wear a religious symbol as “a trinket.” (Celia
rebelliously if silently objects that “I trust the wearing of a necklace will
not interfere with my prayers.”) And if her behavior in marriage is initially
dutiful and injured, eventually it becomes something larger—something generous
and large-minded. In a moment of crisis, she comes very near to releasing her
built-up outrage toward her husband, but her anger slowly turns to pity for his
inadequacies, and the next time she sees him she notices his haggard, defeated
face—his health is poor, he has realized his lifetime of work has come to
nothing—and is surprised when he speaks to her with gentleness. “When the kind
quiet melancholy of that speech fell on Dorothea’s ears,” writes Eliot, “she
felt something like the thankfulness that might well up in us if we had
narrowly escaped hurting a lamed creature.”
This
represents the choice between, as John Stuart Mill would have put it, higher
and lower pleasures. The choice of Lydgate can almost be equated with the
choice of Paris between Athena, Aphrodite and Hera. He chooses beauty over
wisdom, choosing the pleasures of the flesh over the pleasures of the mind. Had
Lydgate chosen Dorothea then there would have been no question of buying the
most expensive clothes, furniture and cutlery, as Dorothea would have been more
concerned with helping at the hospital than with material possession. In this
way, we can see that both Dorothea’s desire to be useful and Lydgate’s desire
to help are frustrated due to Lydgate’s choice of wife. This is however
impossible, as neither Lydgate not Dorothea has much choice in who they marry:
Dorothea sees Casaubon as the father she never had, and so feels attracted
towards him, and it is only after finding out how mean and selfish he was that
she seeks a husband rather than a father. Lydgate, because of his intense
kindness, and his desire not to hurt anyone has no choice but to marry
Rosamond, as he doesn’t want to see her sad, and she has maneuvered both
herself and him in such a way that to reject her could only cause this.
Dorothea, the heroine of the novel, is another example of frustrated idealism.
Throughout the novel, there are numerous references to her desire to help the
poor, thought this is more often than not frustrated by her surroundings. The
first example is her designs for the cottages; they are dismissed by her sister
as being a “fad” and by her uncle as being too expensive. It is only when sir
James chettam attempts to woo her, and builds the cottages in an attempt to
gain favor with her, that her destroyed through her association with Casaubon.
These characters are supposed to represent life and hope, meaning that Dorothea
is characterized by these qualities.
Eliot's
refusal to conform to happy endings demonstrates the fact that Middlemarch is
not meant to be entertainment. She wants to deal with real-life issues, not the
fantasy world to which women writers were often confined. Her ambition was to
create a portrait of the complexity of ordinary human life: quiet tragedies,
petty character failings, small triumphs, and quiet moments of dignity. The
complexity of her portrait of provincial society is reflected in the complexity
of individual characters. The contradictions in the character of the individual
person are evident in the shifting sympathies of the reader. One moment, we
pity Casaubon, the next we judge him critically.
Middlemarch stubbornly refuses
to behave like a typical novel. The novel is a collection of relationships
between several major players in the drama, but no single one person occupies
the center of the action. No one person can represent provincial life. It is
necessary to include multiple people. Eliot's book is fairly experimental for
its time in form and content, particularly because she was a woman writer.
Thank You…..
Reference :-
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