In my quest to become as well read as Rory Gilmore, I finally waded my way through Middlemarch. It’s been on my list of books to read for years. I’ve picked it up and subsequently put it right back down again several times over the past 16 years or so. Finally, I bought the book. Since I have, like seven dollars invested in it, I figured it was time to finally read it.
Initially, I was not a huge fan of the book. It’s obvious from the text that George Eliot is extremely intelligent and uncannily perceptive, but she packs her loaded observations into sentences that take up half a page. My mind had difficulty plowing through clause after clause after clause, especially as I was usually reading the book while lying in bed at 9PM after drinking Yogi Bedtime tea. When I finally, triumphantly reached the end of the sentence/paragraph, I was usually duly enlightened by the journey, but it was mentally exhausting.
Fortunately, as the book progressed, I became more interested in the characters and their lives. I grew to really admire Dorothea Brooke for her dedication, wholesomeness, and tenacity. She is just such a good, person – a person with no artifice. Hardly anyone is ever truly honest (with others or even with themselves), and so much time and energy is wasted trying to see past a person’s façade into the reality beyond. This forced construing of another’s true thoughts and motivations leads to misinterpretation and misinformation, which in turn leads to all sorts of needless unhappiness and waste. Life would be so much more fruitful if everyone was like Dorothea, completely honest and open. Mary Garth is another such person – a person I wish I knew in real life, to guide me in always doing the right thing.
Both Dorothea and Mary stand in stark contrast to the (unbeknownst to herself) evil Rosamond Vincy, whose main concern is her own beauty and comfort. Her dissatisfaction with life and its inconveniences is expressed with the ever-so-elegant turn of her neck. All she is is artifice. She is as passionate as Dorothea; however, while Dorothea’s passions drive her to better the world, Rosamond’s passions lead her to destroy whatever chance of happiness she and Tertius (her poor husband) have. Fulfilling her interpretation of what life for a civilized, wealthy, accomplished woman should be trumps any affection she initially felt for the brilliant Tertius and leads to his unnaturally early death. He died a man whose tremendous potential and drive was stifled by succumbing to Rosamond’s outer beauty.
Another thing I really loved about the book is that it shows that human beings haven’t really changed over time. The book was written in 1871, but the way people interact with each other, and the positioning and politics of society have not changed in any material way. I often look back at the 1800s as a simpler, perhaps less sophisticated time, but life back then was very much the way it is today, at least to hear Eliot tell it. In general, the beautiful and rich look down on the working poor, people are concerned with grabbing power and prestige under the guise of improving the less fortunates’ lots, and people are more concerned about their own happiness than with doing the right thing. At least Elliot provides some hope for humankind in the excellent characters of Dorothea, Mary, and Mr. Farebrother, a preacher who deserved Mary but gave her up to secure her happiness and the happiness of a friend.
Watching these characters and how their desires lead each down different paths (some to happiness and some to pain) started to draw me into the story. Eventually, instead of trudging obligingly through the book, I actually looked forward to reading it and to seeing what I could learn from Elliot’s carefully wrought world.
