How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
[…] there was nothing for her to do in Lowick […]; she would have preferred […] finding that her home would be in a parish which had a larger share of the world's misery, so that she might have had more active duties in it. (1.9.35)
Dorothea is so eager to help people that she's actually disappointed to find that the poor people in Lowick are actually pretty well taken care of already. She's ready to save the world, and is sad to find that it's already been saved – in this neighborhood, at least.
Quote #8
Such was Lydgate's plan of his future: to do good small work for Middlemarch, and great work for the world. (2.15.8)
Lydgate's dreams and plans are as lofty as Dorothea's: he wants to do good work on a local level in the town of Middlemarch, and to do great work on a grander level "for the world." He wants to save lives and cure sick people in Middlemarch and also to make a great scientific discovery that will advance the knowledge of the world.
Quote #9
character too is a process and an unfolding. (2.15.9)
Characters in Middlemarch develop from beginning to end – very few characters, even minor ones, remain static. Their hopes and dreams are adjusted accordingly: by the end of the novel, Dorothea learns to reconcile her ambitions with the realities of her social position.