I have finished yet another George Eliot book with the feeling of having lived through a lifetime through it. Even though Middlemarch hardly covers a span of 3/4 years, the characters (especially Dorothea) have come a long way by the end of the story. I can't say that I loved it completely because many bits made me very impatient. I could not understand why G.E. goes deep into the nature and history of many very temporary characters! I just didn't feel interested enough in them to read all that. I wish she had given more time to the Fred and Mary romance which I loved best :D :D But she did do them justice in the Finale. I also could not get myself interested in the local politics of that time so I didn't enjoy reading those scenes either. I think many of the things that bored me would have had more significance and meaning for readers of those times. I wonder if the times I'm living in has made me more impatient of too much data that does not have any information in it ;)
But apart from that, the book did move me a great deal. I was inspired especially by Dorothea's character and with what grace she dealt with the problems she faced, how unselfish she was. I hope I learn to deal with life in a more selfless and courageous way myself. In this book, Eliot has delved deep into the human mind and laid bare many little inconsistencies and anomalies of the human nature that we often would be ashamed to admit even to ourselves. I will cover those in the excerpts which should come up soon! She has again made it very hard to feel in a consistent way for any character by making them as complicated as people in real life are :) I began by disliking Will and even Dorothea but loved them towards the end! This really does set her apart from other writers who have their characters more or less aligned with either the good side or the bad. Even her most useless side-characters often make a surprising show of courage or generosity and stump you. In this book, I was really surprised by how Mrs. Bulstrode dealt with the truth about her husband. The most touching scene in the book was when she gives him her silent support and they sit and cry together :( But I noticed that Eliot, like quite a few other female authors, could not resist exposing the true sly nature of the blonde coquette that male authors love to worship as angels :D I don't blame them...men have an annoying way of blindly attributing every other virtue where they see beauty (even my good ol' Dickens would not have any contradiction between beauty in appearance and in character). By the way, Eliot's pretty, blonde characters are really dangerous! Rosamond and Hetty( from Adam Bede) are two ladies I would stay away from :O Has she seen someone like that in her life?
Another way in which this book brought to light the realities of human nature is by showing how even the closest relationships are not devoid of private motives and judgements. For example, Dorothea and Celia truly love each other but each has her private unfavourable notions about the other. Many of Lydgate's tender gestures towards Rosamond are more a result of personal motives than any real feeling on his part. And it was a little sad when Sir James did not think his baby flawless in appearance. I always thought parents loved their children blindly so this possibility was a little shocking. Next thing you know, even your dog is judging you :O
Anyway, I have Virginia Woolf to thank for her recommendation of this book (I think in one of her own essays). But I must again bring up the point that she made about Austen being awesome enough to not use a pseudonym! Seeing the kind of frankness about human nature that Eliot and the Brontes had in their writing, you really can't blame them! Austen always played it safe...she was sarcastic but didn't really say anything that a 'lady' is not supposed to or have anything really bad happen in her stories (the worst I know is Lydia's elopement with Wickham). These women show that they know more about the vileness of things than is acceptable for a proper lady to know. So really, they can't be compared!
Middlemarch sure gave me a lott to think about but I will stop this long essay here and hopefully, come up with the excerpts soon.
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