Middlemarch Analysis

analysis
#1

So I’ve started reading Middlemarch by George Eliot for the first time, and Holy Guacamole, it is so good! Every page has plot, and I’ve been really tempted to try and figure out the storyform(s) as I go. I’m only about a quarter of the way through the book, but my guesses are as follows:

Storyform 1: Dorothea Brooke’s Marriage Prospects

MC: Dorothea Brooke’s marriage to Mr. Casaubon (Universe)
IC: Will Ladislaw (Mind)
RS: Will and Dorothea Falling in Love (Psychology)
OS: (Physics)

MC resolve: Change
MC Growth:
MC Approach: Do-er?
PS-Style: Holistic

Driver: Decision
Limit: Optionlock
Outcome:
Judgement: Good

MC problem: (very preliminary) Trust
MC solution: Test

Storyform 2: A Doctor Comes to Town

MC: Tertius Lydgate and the no good, very bad marriage. (probably in Mind)
IC: Dorothea Brooke? (Universe)
RS: (Still too early to tell). (Physics)
OS: Town Politics of some kind (Psychology)

MC resolve:
MC Growth:
MC Approach: Be-er?
PS-Style: Linear

Driver:
Limit:
Outcome:
Judgement: Bad

If anyone has any feedback or ideas, please throw them out there!

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#2

Okay, I have finished Middlemarch twice over and WOW. This is the most perfectly structured story I have ever read ! It is mind-blowing how all the pieces fit together. If you haven’t yet, please, please, please do yourself a favor and check it out!

There are three complete storyforms in Middlemarch, and all of them are illustrated down to the last storypoint. Seriously, George Eliot did not miss a BEAT in this novel.

I’m currently filling out DSE documents for each of the storyforms, and the accuracy of Eliot’s writing is REMARKABLE. I’ll post them here soon as I can, but in the meantime here’s a preview:

Storyform 1: Dorothea Brooke and the Marriage to Mr Casaubon:

OS: Dorothea Brooke’s duty to Mr. Casaubon (Universe)
MC: Dorothea Marrying Twice (Physics)
IC: Will Ladislaw’s Becoming a Man (Psychology)
RS: Will and Dorothea’s Mutual Love (Mind)

MC resolve: Change
MC Growth: Stop
MC Approach: Do-er
PS-Style: Holistic

Driver: Decision
Limit: Optionlock
Outcome: Failure
Judgement: Good

Storyform 2: Tertius Lydgate and the Bulstrode Affair

OS: Bulstrode’s efforts to maintain his dignity in the wake of scandal (Mind)
MC: Tertius Lydgate’s struggles to maintain his practice in Middlemarch. (Physics)
IC: Dorothea Brooke’s efforts to convince Lydgate to remain in Middlemarch (Psychology)
RS: THE WORST MARRIAGE IN THE WORLD between Lydgate and Rosamund Vincy (Universe)

MC resolve: Change
MC Growth: Start
MC Approach: Do-er
PS-Style: Linear

Driver: Action
Limit: Optionlock
Outcome: Failure
Judgement: Good

Storyform 3: Fred Vincy and the Inheritance of Stone Court:

OS: The Inheriting of Mr. Featherstone’s Land (Physics)
MC: The Debt of Fred Vincy (Universe)
IC: The Will of Mary Garth (Mind)
RS: The love affair between Fred and Mary (Psychology)

MC resolve: Change
MC Growth: Stop
MC Approach: Do-er
PS-Style: Linear

Driver: Action
Limit: Optionlock
Outcome: Success
Judgement: Good

#3

this is interesting. Why do you think that Dorothea is the Influence Character, but not part of the RS?
And the end of this particular story does not feel like a Personal Triumph to me.

#4

To my view the heart of Dorothea’s influence over Lydgate’s life comes through her effect on Rosamund’s resolve to leave Middlemarch, Lydgate in tow. She successfully convinces Rosamund to soften up and thereby improves her and Lydgate’s shared situation: their unhappy marriage.

This story is a failure/good story primarily because the ending of the overall story in failure (Bulstrode’s failure to remain calm under the pressure of the town’s scrutiny) is marked as a moral good from the author’s POV. You can think of it as just desserts, if you like.

As for Lydgate’s state in the end, I agree that it is very dire. But I think it’s important to remember that the finale wherein she recounts Lydgate’s early demise falls outside the bounds of the story structure. The story’s argument ends before that (once Lydgate and Rosamund choose to remain in Middlemarch in perpetuity). The question we must ask, then, is whether Lydgate’s lot was improved within the bounds of the story’s argument. To my mind, it is:

“Well, Rosy,” he said, standing over her, and touching her hair, “what do you think of Mrs. Casaubon now you have seen so much of her?”

“I think she must be better than any one,” said Rosamond, “and she is very beautiful. If you go to talk to her so often, you will be more discontented with me than ever!”

Lydgate laughed at the “so often.” “But has she made you any less discontented with me?”

“I think she has,” said Rosamond, looking up in his face. “How heavy your eyes are, Tertius—and do push your hair back.” He lifted up his large white hand to obey her, and felt thankful for this little mark of interest in him.

Is this a pretty pitiful end for Lydgate? Yes, but it’s less pitiful than it would have been without Dorothea’s influence on his SS/RS.

This, in turn, echoes the larger point that I believe Eliot is making: that even if all we manage to do for each other is to slightly ameliorate each other’s unhappy circumstances, that still matters greatly and is good from a moral POV. Hence the final paragraph of the book:

Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. 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.

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