How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"It is the way with all women." But this power of generalizing which gives men so much the superiority in mistake over the dumb animals, was immediately thwarted by Lydgate's memory of wondering impressions from the behaviour of another woman – from Dorothea's looks and tones of emotion about her husband. (6.58.52)
Lydgate used to think of all women from a purely scientific point of view – he lumped all women together and generalized about them in a condescending way. But he's no longer able to do so – Dorothea is so different from other women that he's known that he's forced to think about her as an individual, instead of as a representative of her entire sex. And the impression of individuality that Dorothea has left on him has forced him to think differently about all women. All women aren't the same? Who knew?
Quote #11
For there is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it. A new Theresa will hardly have the opportunity of reforming a conventual life, any more than a new Antigone will spend her heroic piety in daring all for the sake of a brother's burial: the medium in which their ardent deeds took shape is for ever gone. (8.finale.24)
In the final chapter of the novel, the "finale," Eliot once again pulls back from the story to speak more generally about universal human nature. She says that all "creature[s]" are influenced by "what lies outside" of themselves. In other words, everyone is limited by the conditions in which they live. Eliot suggests that anyone who wants to follow in the footsteps of some epic hero or heroine needs to adjust their ambitions to fit with the times. It doesn't matter how passionate you are – your life will be "greatly determined by what lies outside it." Because Eliot uses the generic word "creature" instead of "woman," it seems that she's talking about men and women. Her examples, though, are only of women. She brings up Saint Theresa again and also the Greek tragic heroine, Antigone. So it's not clear whether she wants this claim about the limits our social conditions place on us to apply equally to men.
Quote #12
Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs. (8.finale.25)
These are the final lines of the novel. Dorothea had a "full nature" – full of passionate energy – but the conditions in which she lived forced her "nature" to be divided into a lot of smaller "channels." In other words, she could have been like a mighty, powerful river, but instead her nature got dammed up and redirected. This could be read as a bad thing – Dorothea wasn't allowed to live up to her full potential. She could have lived an "epic" life, and wasn't able to because of conditions outside of her control. But then again, the narrator says that Dorothea still had an "incalculabl[e]" "effect" on the people around her. Just because her life was "unhistoric" (i.e., she didn't do anything noteworthy enough to be included in history books about the lives of kings and queens) doesn't mean that she didn't have an impact on people.
So are the final lines of the novel suggesting that women should be satisfied with leading lives full of "unhistoric acts"? Maybe. But since the final words are the melancholy "rest in unvisited tombs," perhaps we're supposed to close the book with more sadness about the direction of Dorothea's life. It's ambiguous.