In Chapter 65 of Middlemarch, Eliot opens with a quotation from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, setting up the reader's expectations for what the chapter is going to be about. However, by the end of the chapter the reader is surprised as the chapter takes a different turn to what the epigraph suggests. What role does the use of the literary device of the epigraph play in Middlemarch and what does it imply about Eliot's intentions for the readers of this novel? 

“One of us two must bowen douteless,

And, sith a man is more reasonable

Than woman is, ye [men] moste be suffrable”  

This quotation from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are the opening lines of Chapter 65 in George Eliot’s Middlemarch, in which Lydgate discovers that his wife, Rosamond has committed the great deceit of contacting his estranged family for money, without his knowledge (714). During the course of this chapter we observe Lydgate attempting to control his understandable anger towards the betrayal by his wife and trying to be patient and sympathetic towards her. The reader’s expectations for the chapter, which is presented entirely from Lydgate’s point of view, are set up by the epigraph which suggests that the man, being the more reasonable and rational one, must be more patient and forgiving of the woman’s mistakes. The reader is sympathetic to this idea throughout the chapter, until the final line in which the narrator admits that Rosamond had “mastered him” (719). The juxtaposition between the epigraph and the final line of this chapter indicates that the use of epigraphs in Middlemarch should not be viewed as simply an introduction to the chapter, but rather, that it plays an important role in allowing the narrator to steer the reader’s consumption of the novel,  either by setting the tone or subverting the expectations of the reader. Furthermore, the use of a wide range of literary sources, many of which are canonical and classic works, situates the novel in a larger “web” of literary works.

            In The Rise of the Novel, Ian Watts explains that novels were exceptional for the time, because they “made their subject the exploration of the personality as it is defined in the interpenetration of its past and present self-awareness.” Though he is primarily discussing the development of the personality of the characters in these novels, I would argue that this extends to the narrator and author as well. Unlike the authors who preceded novelists, and presented themselves as teaching an objective moral truth, authors like Eliot were not only storytellers, but had a personality and opinion which was also presented through the novel. In Middlemarch the narrator plays a significant role in providing insight into the characters and their lives, however the epigraph, in my opinion is a further demonstration that the author has a bigger role to play in the reading of the novel. In choosing to precede every chapter with an epigraph, Eliot makes it impossible to ignore the omnipresent narrator. The power of this narrator is demonstrated by the ability for the epigraph to surprise the reader, as seen in chapter 65; foreshadow the chapters events, for instance in the very next chapter which begins with a quote from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure “Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, another thing to fall” in which Lydgate and Fred Vincy are gambling dangerously (720); and even present a point of view on the characters or events.

            While Eliot herself analogizes Middlemarch as a “particular web” (170), she herself positions the novel within a web of literary works. Through the use of epigraphs ranging from William Blake and Shakespeare to Cervante and even Italian proverbs, Eliot demonstrates that her novel is influenced, shaped and framed by the works that have come before her. Though the novel was a break away from tradition in literature, the epigraphs demonstrate the inextricability of the novel from these webs. Eliot’s use of these multifarious sources could also be viewed as an effort to establish her legitimacy in the web of the literati or literary community, as she demonstrates her own breadth of reading and knowledge of the greats like Chaucer and Milton as well as other lesser-known authors. Furthermore, this can also be viewed as a means of establishing credibility as an author, but also in order to make the type of political and personal commentary on the daily lives of her characters and the country, as she does so in the novel. Regardless of her intention however, in doing so, Eliot acknowledges and actively inserts the reader into this literary community, where literary works are woven and interwoven, and inextricably linked to each other.

            Returning to the question of what the epigraph suggests about Eliot's intentions for the readers of this novel, I believe that in beginning every chapter with an epigraph, Eliot continuously asserts that she, the author is constantly in control of the trajectory of the novel and the reader's experience. They serve as a reminder that the reader's position is one that is subjected to this control as well as bound by and within a larger web, just like the characters in Middlemarch themselves. 

Eliot, George. Middlemarch. Penguin Classics. 1985.

Watt, Ian. The Rise of the Novel, University of California Press, 1957.