As I have been living throughout the Victorian era and in Middlemarch I have witnessed many different events, met many people, and experienced many new things. Living in the period of Middlemarch I have realized that we are not individuals pursuing our own desires, but that we do impact the people around us, and their actions also impact us. In this period people are pressured to conform. Dorothea, for example, in her case conforms to the role of the good wife in her unsatisfactory marriage to Casaubon. He too feels he must conform to the image of a genius and reject Dorothea's enthusiasm and desire to help him. He would rather keep up a front than admit the times that he is behind in research. I have also realized that love plays a major role here. Love brings togetherness, or lack of it allows people to drift apart. Those who lack it like Casubon and Dorothea are very disappointed by their unions.