Middlemarch Marriage Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

In Rosamond's romance it was not necessary to imagine much about the inward life of the hero, or of his serious business in the world. (2.16.58)

Rosamond doesn't need to know anything about Lydgate's feelings, ambitions, or "inward life," because that's not part of the "romance" she has imagined for herself. Part of the reason her marriage is unhappy is because of the romances she has read. She tries to imagine herself as a romantic heroine, and Lydgate as a "hero," but of course that fantasy has nothing to do with the "serious business" of their lives.

Quote #5

She was as blind to his inward troubles as he to hers; she had not yet learned those hidden conflicts in her husband which claim our pity. She had not yet listened patiently to his heart-beats, but only felt that her own was beating violently. (2.20.25)

Dorothea is usually very sensitive and sympathetic to other characters, but she's not able to sympathize with her husband – she's not aware of his "inward troubles," and he's not aware of hers. And here's another instance of Eliot juxtaposing the particular with the universal. She says that Dorothea hasn't "learned" all of her husband's "hidden conflicts," which "claim our pity." By switching to the first person ("our"), instead of saying, "which would claim her pity," Eliot suggests that Dorothea's situation is a common, perhaps universal, one.

Quote #6

The duties of her married life, contemplated as so great beforehand, seemed to be shrinking with the furniture and the white vapour-walled landscape. (3.28.3)

Before her marriage, Dorothea had thought that the "duties of her married life" would be great and noble – she thought that her days would be filled with helping her husband with his book, and with pursuing knowledge that would somehow light up the world for her. In reality, though, her day-to-day life is filled with humdrum, mundane concerns, like dinner parties and social visits. The wide landscape that she had imagined has turned into a cramped sitting room filled with "furniture" and "white […] walls."