Middlemarch - finished

Finally finished Middlemarch last night and I found myself surprised at its relevancy today. Obviously we don't really have the same social situations as we do now, but some of Elliot's ideas regarding marriage and idealism still ring very true today.

The quick summary: Dorothea and Ladislaw end up married, impoverished, but happy. Mary and Fred end up together (yay!) and live a modest life. Lydgate and Rosamond eventually end up financially secure but Lydgate dies at the age of 50 and gave up all the ideals he came to Middlemarch with. Bulstrode goes into exile but his wife stands by him.

Idealism plays a huge part in the novel. Dorothea and Lydgate are the characters with the best intentions. Dorothea only wants to do good in the world. She's really a great character on the border of insufferable if she weren't written as someone with such a pure heart and a desire to help others. Lydgate wanted to make great strides in medicine through his experimentation but ended up getting a small fortune treating rich patients of gout. This is what we find out in Eliot's epilogue and it's very sad. I had conflicting emotions. I appreciated Lydgate's attempt to make it work with Rosamond and his realization that he held both their happinesses in his hands. In the end, however, neither of them was ever really truly happy. And really Rosamond is so awful you want her to get her comeuppance at the end but it never comes.

Marriage and compatibility are also large themes in the novel. Dorothea's marriage to Cassaboun is doomed b/c he's old and crappy and she's young and wonderful. In her attempt to do what she thinks is for the greater good, she ties herself to a man whose work amounts to nothing and who's definitely not as good a person as she is. She finds a better match in Ladislaw who shares her idealism and with her support is able to make something of his life in politics.

My favorite couple, Fred and Mary, end up happily married in a relationship that seems to resemble Mary's parent's marriage. They are well-matched and have similar temperaments, but balance each other out as well. There's a cute part that Eliot puts in where Fred publishes a farming book but everyone thinks Mary did it and Mary publishes a children's book but everyone thinks Fred did it. So they're perfect for one another!

In the end, a good novel. I'm glad I read it and I'll definitely keep it in mind for future courtships.