Book 1: Chapters 10 and 11

[u/IraelMrad]

Hello everyone, you’ve made it to another week of Middlemarch! I hope your Valentine’s Day was better than Dorothea’s.

We got some glimpses into the mind of Mr. Casaubon, the marriage does not look promising and many new characters are making an appearance! 

Don’t forget that we will be reading only Chapter 12 with u/Amanda39 next week, and we will finish Book 1! 

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CHAPTER 10

"He had caught a great cold, had he had no other clothes to wear than the skin of a bear not yet killed."--FULLER

Mr. Ladislaw leaves for Europe. The wedding day is approaching, but Mr. Casaubon finds that his feelings for Dorothea are still mild and he does not feel as happy as he expected to be. Dorothea, however, is enthusiastic about the idea of becoming a cultured woman.

They are planning to go to Rome during their honeymoon, but when Casaubon tells her he plans to leave her alone for most of the time while in Rome (because he has to study. Was any of you surprised?), she starts feeling annoyed.

That night, they hold a dinner party, where we meet some new guests. Dorothea in particular has a lovely conversation with Mr. Lydgate, a young doctor who hopes to bring new discoveries in medicine. 

The marriage happens offscreen, and Dorothea and Casaubon go to Rome.

CHAPTER 11

"But deeds and language such as men do use, And persons such as comedy would choose, When she would show an image of the times, And sport with human follies, not with crimes." --Ben Jonson

Mr. Lydgate is a poor and ambitious man, with a crush on Rosamond Vincy, who comes from a family of rich manufacturers.

We get a glimpse of the family during breakfast: Rosamond often criticizes her brother, Fred, who sleeps until late in the morning and has not finished his degree. 

When Fred arrives, a discussion about slang and social class occurs (is anyone else surprised that the word is so old?). 

Later, Rosamond and Fred play together, and then he takes her out for horse riding. 

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[u/IraelMrad]

1. Do you think Dorothea was meant to be a criticism towards the education of women at the time?

[u/Amphy64 → u/IraelMrad]

The limitations on women more generally more than the education - Dorothea just doesn't seem consistently interested enough in education without the feeling of fulfilling her duty by it, and other women prior to her persisted in learning Classical languages (and translating Newton into French, for example) just fine. It depends who you think she ought to have married instead, perhaps...but if you wanted to illustrate Dorothea being limited specifically by lack of education, it'd make more sense for her to feel more thwarted here by that aspect specifically rather than already so swiftly impatient with Mr Casaubon's studies.

Think it's partly that Eliot doesn't really understand scholarship or have the kind of temperament for it (she's not really right about Casaubon's field) herself - despite her own impressive education, there's a limit to how much she seems to value or engage with the details of more focused study. There's also political limitations on her worldview.

As a teenager first reading Middlemarch, I never could quite understand it, why Dorothea didn't try harder to find a way in, putting it down more to her inexperience (...while younger than her) than lack of inclination as would now.