A Study of the Character of Lydgate in George Eliot's Middlemarch

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The Hebrew University

Faculty of Humanities

Department of English

To Dream the Impractical Dream

A Study of the Character of Lydgate in George Eliot's Middlemarch

Presented to Dr. John Landau

In the course Moral Representations of Courage

By Joe D. Brown

01544696-13


One of the most important aspects of defining a character as courageous in George Eliot's novel Middlemarch is self-recognition. In this novel, one of the keys to such recognition is through an understanding of one's surroundings, the environment in which that character operates. When one looks at the character of Dr. Tertius Lydgate, one discovers that, although he comes close to being considered courageous, he comes shy of the mark. I believe, and I hope this paper shall show, that Lydgate is an idealist who, unlike the protagonist of the book, Dorothea, is too much of a realist to be able to give in to one of the most material aspects of the real world - money. Another way of putting it would be to say that through the character of Lydgate, Middlemarch explores a junction of spiritual and social forces which can produce horrendous results.

In Chapter 15, the text presents Lydgate as someone who "felt the growth of an intellectual passion" and as "an emotional creature, with a flesh-and-blood sense of fellowship which withstood all the abstractions of special study." This is a seemingly heroic portrait, of an aspiring scholar who maintains feelings for his fellow man. However, the text is framed by two interesting quotes. Before this portrait appears the following: "he had no more thought of representing to himself how his blood circulated than how paper served instead of gold". In addition, it is followed by the following sentence: "He cared not only for "cases," but for John and Elizabeth, especially Elizabeth." The irony rings loud here, and the reader may even laugh aloud when reading this, but when looking at the character of Lydgate, this shows one of his "spots of commonness", as the texts calls them. Although he may be a man of great learning, he cannot understand a simple aspect of life - money. And this spot, I believe, is that which blocks Lydgate from seeing himself, much to the same degree as it blocks him from seeing truths about the world. To wit, the ambitious Lydgate, who may be able to see the embodiments of illnesses in others, cannot see the problems within himself. (Middlemarch, pp. 138-140)

Interestingly enough, most of Lydgate's dealings with money involve the character who can easily be considered the one with the lowest moral stance on anything, and the one who controls the most money - the banker, Mr. Nicholas Bulstrode. When the young physician has to make a choice regarding someone else's money - to choose who will receive the position of hospital chaplain - he chooses the person Bulstrode prefers, Tyke, and not his friend, Farebrother, who has explained why he needs the money quite clearly to him. Lydgate has to make the choice between some one he likes as a person, and who needs money and someone who he needs help from, who has plenty of money.

Interestingly enough, in comparing these three men, an interesting tension can be seen. On the one hand, there is Farebrother, who is at once a realist and an idealist, for he gambles in order to make up for the poor wages from the clergy. He needs money in order to pursue the science he loves (his bug collection), and to fund those dependent on him. On the other hand you have Bulstrode, who has forsaken his position of minister, honor and trust combined, in favor of the lure of money, which he then employs as he wishes. These two are, it seems, at the opposite polar points of a binary system, wherein the theoretic beliefs of the former are superior to his desires, and the latter places desire over beliefs. And by placing Lydgate between these two, the novel portrays the tension between these two aspects of human life.

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And in looking at this tension, one must ask the role of money in the novel, as a theme. And truly, the question of money as controlling one's life and choices is quite obviously central to the novel, as each of the story lines deals with money as well, such as Fred Vincy's betting problem, Lydgate's debts, Dorothea's choice to relinquish Casaubon's property and Mr. Featherstone's will. As J. Jeffrey Franklin states:

Almost every character in novels such as Middlemarch…is connected to other characters by specified and publicly observed monetary relations. In Middlemarch, for example, Fred Vincy is connected to ...

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