woman's question in Middlemarch, George Eliot

[dia01]

hey guys...i need help with an assignment...the topic is "woman's question in Middlemarch"....pls write in your suggestions....need to submit it within two days....:

[amalia1985]

A little late to answer, but I would like to say that we see the two sides of the way women are portrayed during the 19th century literature particularly, although it is a motiff of any era.

We have Dorothea, who is portrayed as "saintly" in the first place, with her vivid, unquenched desire to help everyone who is in need. However, she rebells at the end, shouting to her sister "I only want not to have my feelings checked every time". I think this phrase is so powerfull, enclosing all of women's desire for the right to decide and act for themselves.

And then we have Rosamond, and Celia. Although I could give some justification to Rosamond, I've always found Celia irritating beyond limits!!! I remember her words to her sister : "Why must you always do what is uncomfortable to others?", "Men know best", etc. This is the woman who submits to society, only caring for appearences, beautiful dresses, and social rank, an attitude much common during the time that Eliot's story takes place, and unfortunately, such attitudes have not disappeared during the 21st century either.

[Michael T]

And then we have Rosamond, and Celia. Although I could give some justification to Rosamond, I've always found Celia irritating beyond limits!!! I remember her words to her sister : "Why must you always do what is uncomfortable to others?", "Men know best", etc. This is the woman who submits to society, only caring for appearences, beautiful dresses, and social rank, an attitude much common during the time that Eliot's story takes place, and unfortunately, such attitudes have not disappeared during the 21st century either.

Hi there amalia1985.
I agree both women can be annoying. However, I would say Rosamond is far less likeable as a character than Celia. Celia is happy just to fit into the social roll that her upbringing and Victorian society in general expects of her, I believe there is evidence to show that she considers herself fortunate to exist within those confines and doesn’t desire or seek any more from her life. Indeed, Celia shows a quite high degree of understanding of just how to act to enable her to fit perfectly into her expected roll in society and she is portrayed as grateful for the advantages her social position has afforded her. She is also portrayed as both kind and caring towards her sister, family and friends. She might be seen as the ideal Victorian woman ‘acting’ out her assigned roll in society to perfection, and with no complaints. We might say she is ‘happily conditioned’ into her roll. She never really develops the sense of self that her sister Dorothea exhibits. It’s this lack of personality that merely playing a roll negates and that perhaps make her a little annoying and less interesting than Dorothea or Mary Garth. The simple fact is that Celia literally cannot understand why Dorothea has not and does not accept the status quo of society that she so readily has.
The same cannot really be said of Rosamond. She, like her brother Fred has been spoilt from birth. Rosamond, unlike Celia, is extremely vain and corrupted by the attention she has received both from her family and the men who attend her. She is fully aware of her beauty, perhaps even obsessed with it and hence lives her life constantly playing the roll of an ‘exhibited’ thing of beauty, always aware of how others are viewing her. The attention lavished on her corrupts her sense of self and she yearns for what she sees as her rightful elevation to the highest ranks of society. She enjoys playing on the affections of those she imagines ‘worship’ her beauty and these ‘games’ she plays in her mind ultimately serve to corrupt and delude her nature further. This almost completely narcissistic nature combined with her selfish expectations from life leaves very little room for the character of Rosamond to appeal to the reader. Elliot finally shows her to have abandoned emotional attachment in exchange for social position and security in a sterile relationship.

That was my take on it as far as I can recall. Anyone else have some views?

[Gladys]

Elliot finally shows her to have abandoned emotional attachment in exchange for social position and security in a sterile relationship.

I doubt that Rosamond was ever capable of emotional attachment or that she sees her ultimate relationship with Lydgate as sterile. She gets more or less what she has been looking for - pathetic though it may seem to us.

[kelby_lake]

I doubt that Rosamond was ever capable of emotional attachment or that she sees her ultimate relationship with Lydgate as sterile. She gets more or less what she has been looking for - pathetic though it may seem to us.

Agreed. The marriage itself is not sterile- I think that Rosamond simply doesn't like the responsibility that comes with marriage and the compromises that have to be made.

[kelby_lake]

Do you think that Eliot's plea for humility was to all people or specifically to women?

[Gladys]

Mr. Caleb Garth, Mary's father, is humility personified!

[kelby_lake]

Mr. Caleb Garth, Mary's father, is humility personified!

I'd say that was Dorothea- or at least, what Dorothea will become.