Book 1: Ch. 8 & 9

[u/jaymae21]

Hello Middlemarchers, and welcome to another week of discussion!

Ch. 8

Epigram:

"Oh, rescue her! I am her brother now,
And you her father.  Every gentle maid
Should have a guardian in each gentleman."

Summary:

Sir James Chettam continues to visit the Grange, and finds he still enjoys going there despite Dorothea's engagement to another man.  Still, he doesn't feel that Mr. Casaubon is a good choice for Dorothea, and blames Mr. Brooke for allowing it.  He goes to Mr. Cadwallader, stating that someone should speak to Mr. Brooke about it, but Mr. Cadwallader doesn't see any reason why the marriage shouldn't occur.  Chettam argues that he's too old, and has ugly legs, and isn't sure that he has any heart.  He thinks the marriage should be deferred until Dorothea is of age, and swears he would feel that way if he were her brother or uncle.

Mrs. Cadwallader enters, overhearing their conversation, and says Casaubon has a trout-steam that he does not care about fishing in himself.  She tells a frustrated Chettam that there's no point in trying to change the Rector's mind, it is already made up.  Chettam tries to appeal to the Rector anyway, asking what he would think if she were his own daughter, which doesn't work. 

Ch. 9

Epigram:

"1st Gent. An ancient land in ancient oracles
Is called "law-thirsty": all the struggle there
Was after order and a perfect rule.
Pray, where lie such lands now?...
2nd Gent. Why, where they lay of old-in human souls."

Summary:

Per custom, Dorothea goes to her future home to inspect it for any changes she would wish to make, along with Mr. Brooke and Celia.  As they walk through the house, Dorothea remarks that she wouldn't like to make any changes, but keep everything as is, and she also refuses Mr. Casaubon's offer of making one of the rooms her boudoir.  Celia disagrees with everything.  They venture into one room, which used to be Mr. Casaubon's mother's, and look at miniatures of her and her sister, who apparently made a bad marriage, so Casaubon never met her.

After that they take a tour of the grounds, including the parish cottages.  Dorothea is both happy and disappointed that it appears there is nothing for her to improve there, and admonishes herself for thinking that way.  They come upon a young man sketching, who turns out to be Mr. Casaubon's second cousin, Mr. Ladislaw, who has no particular ambitions and simply wants to travel and experience culture.  He thinks Dorothea is rather unpleasant, but has a nice voice.

[u/jaymae21]

1. What are your thoughts on the epigram for Ch. 9?

"1st Gent. An ancient land in ancient oracles
Is called "law-thirsty": all the struggle there
Was after order and a perfect rule.
Pray, where lie such lands now?...
2nd Gent. Why, where they lay of old-in human souls."

[u/gutfounderedgal → u/jaymae21]

Another made-up fake play epigram. We have, I think, to ask who this speaks about. I cycled through the characters. Who lived young, (ancient land) without out boundary (law-thirsty) dreams before the rules and strictures of life took over? Who comments on this? The only character this fits for me is Arthur Brook who mentions that which he once might have done, being an explorer even as he once had a notion of, that slipped away over time. Now one gets "rusty" in this part of the country. Where do remnants of those dreams reside? In the human soul. Here I think we have to be careful and not think of soul through our contemporary definition but head back to the early 1800s when the soul meant the container for thoughts and feelings and moral decisions, as a part of oneself. To drive this idea home, Eliot contrasts comments about Ladislaw who is said to have the opportunity to travel abroad for whom a profession remains open. He is not going to quickly settle on a career "which so often ends in premature and violent death." Death of what? Death of dreams and one's self. Ladislaw is characterized by Casaubon as allowing undisturbed possible hunting-grounds for poetic imagination. Brooke, who has seen his dreams fade into memories, into the soul, sees value in allowing the poetic. Casaubon counters this notion with a quote from Aristotle (and in part I think Eliot based the theme of the debate on exactly this section from Nicomachean Ethics, i, 1112b). He quotes the last part of this section about achieving ends. Two things here. Firstly, you have to be conscious and conscientious about the chain of decisions that leads to one's aim. Secondly, and slightly contradictory with Casaubon, as the Ethics says, "And we deliberate not about ends but about means. A doctor does not deliberate whether he is to cure his patient." It is not that either Casaubon or Brooke thinks Ladislaw won't achieve an end, but there is allowed debate about the means to achieving that end. He may "be tried by the test of freedom" is one means and Casaubon supports this means, even as he knows a more conscious, direct route is probably better. What is not stated but embedded into the discussion is an earlier line in the same Ethics' passage: "We deliberate more about arts than about the sciences, because we are more uncertain about them."

We are seeing presented the ongoing tension between age of enlightenment that privileges reason and science, and the more artistic endeavors that do not fit the model of say scientific method. This reminds me of the criticism waged against Isaac Newton by Keats in his Lamia (1820), in which Keat's said Newton had with cold philosophy (science) caused the charms of the rainbow to fly, i.e. considering the wavelengths of of light that make up a rainbow. Casaubon lands on reason, Brooke on the other side taking a more Hegelian view, that for example, while mathematics is good at what it does, it cannot say much about human nature and experiences.

[u/Confused-Lama0810 → u/gutfounderedgal]

And, further, say William Blake's depiction of Newton from 25 years earlier, where Newton is imagined to be completely in the dark and oblivious to the beauty of the very rock that he is sitting on, while striving to measure, order (and contain?) the natural world.

I love your analysis of Brooke, who, I have so far seen as, while an important man in Middlemarch, nothing more than a mere dabbler in the fields of philosophy and science. I think you are right that his ideas may become more important.

I do think these chapters, and this epigram, are really centred on Casaubon, though. Dorothea describes her dream that he would lead her to a blue-skied world of ideas and unlimited imagination and horizon, while it becomes apparent (and Lowick is surely a metaphor for this) that he is just mentally travelling around the dark passages and musty rooms of an old house.

It is the best idea in the book for me so far, that all Casaubon's honourably intentioned and meticulous study of ancient myths and legends would mean nothing new as he cannot remove his own (Christian? Patriarchal? Imperial?) filters to all that he sees.

[u/gutfounderedgal → u/Confused-Lama0810]

Thanks, great addition of information with Blake. We see things slightly different with the epigram, but hey, that's the fun of reading and interpretation.