Damn, Dorothea: Rereading Middlemarch, chapters 1-6

We’re reading Middlemarch again, seeing how our past opinions line up with new ones and how eight years of perspective have changed things for us! As we go, we’ll be recapping our chats of each section here on the blog; you can find all of our Middlemarch posts here.

This week, we talk insufferable women, innocuous men, and, across the George Eliot Extended Universe, who should bust out of their own book and maybe marry someone in another book entirely.

Kate: OK, first, I think what struck us both so far was that Dorothea is so much more insufferable than we remembered, right?

Corey: Right. I remembered her yearning and straining against a too-small society who couldn’t see that she wanted something More. Basically the human personification of a musical’s “I Want” song.

Kate: She’s just so painfully earnest and determined to hate everything, from puppies to jewelry to her sister. And so willing to judge other people! But also so super ready to ascribe all kinds of romantic ideals to Mr. Casaubon, who is a man made up entirely of waving red flags. Maybe not red, that seems too bright and interesting for Casaubon. Gray flags. 

Corey: Absolute dishrags waving all over him! But to your point more broadly: Dorothea wants so much, including when it comes to Casaubon, but has so little context and information to inform what she wants and how she processes the world around her. When he hears of her engagement, the excellent baronet Sir James suggests that her uncle should have made her wait to get married until her majority because he, only a few years older, can see how much you learn and grow in those crucial years. (Is he entirely unbiased on not wanting her to marry that old mummy? No, but he can still be right that she should wait!)

Kate: Sir James, giver of dogs and horses, the amiable and excellent baronet! The Charles Bingley of this book! And, truth be told, about as good a husband as a woman in the 19th century could want—wealthy, generous, kind, and ready and willing to respect his wife’s opinions. Also presumably looks good on a horse.

Corey: I’m sure he is exceedingly dashing on a horse. As Mr. Brooke puts it, “I should have thought Chettam was just the sort of man a woman would like” — he’s got it all!

Kate: We talked a little bit about this—we don’t agree with Mrs. Cadwallader that he and Dorothea would have been a match. But we do think he’d be good for Celia…and then we started matchmaking Daniel Deronda characters with Middlemarch characters and came up with some good pairings, I think! My favorite was Sir James and Gwendolen Harleth, because we decided that’s exactly who she wanted to marry in the first place—an innocuous baronet with great horses who wouldn’t, you know, be actively abusive. 

Corey: It would be so good for her! Sir James isn’t abusive and doesn’t keep a secret family in coal country, two huge pluses over the future-baronet Gwendolen does marry, plus he’ll happily support her desire to look fetching and make a good impression on everyone around her. He’d be so proud of her! He’d probably say nice things about her singing and acting!

Kate: Corey, I think you also suggested Daniel and Dorothea? 

Corey: Yes! Not necessarily because of Daniel Deronda himself, who I think is also a big bundle of “I Want” songs, but because they both seem to want the same nebulous thing: the chance to do something meaningful. And also learn Hebrew! They could both study with Mordecai, which would lead Dorothea down the primrose path of Zionism with Daniel. Finally, a Great Cause in which she could entirely subsume herself and support her husband in his great works!

Join us next time for Book 1: chapters 7-12 and don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and favorite cross-literary pairings in the comments!