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Is Middlemarch Progressive or Regressive in the Modernization of the Novel?

Submitted by Yuen Leung on

Excerpt for the following discussion:

“Oh, how cruel!” said Dorothea, clasping her hands. “And would you not like to be the one person who believed in that man’s innocence, if the rest of the world belied him? Besides, there is a man’s character beforehand to speak for him.”

“But, my dear Mrs. Casaubon,” said Mr. Farebrother, smiling gently at her ardour, “character is not cut in marble—it is not something solid and unalterable. It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do.”

 

Mr. Bulstrode As A “Late-Comer” To Middlemarch

Submitted by Yuen Leung on

Look at this narrative from Mrs. Bulstrode on her husband’s supposed origin:

“Mr. Bulstrode’s narrative occasionally gave of his early bent towards religion, his inclination to be a preacher, and his association with missionary and philanthropic efforts. She believed in him as an excellent man whose piety carried a peculiar eminence in belonging to a layman, whose influence had turned her own mind toward seriousness, and whose share of perishable good had been the means of raising her own position.” (613)

 

Question

Submitted by Yuen Leung on

How is idealism contributing to those single-sided admirations seen among the characters? Can idealism itself explain this observation? 

Question

Submitted by Yuen Leung on

How idealism is contributing to those single-sided affirmations seen among the characters? Can idealism explain these attachments or what else is the more important acting factor?

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