The Best Match for Dorothea Brooke, A Study on the Literary Use of Marriage in Middlemarch

Abstract

George Eliot’s contribution to the literary subgenre of the Bildungsroman influenced its further development of the genre in England. This thesis will focus on Middlemarch and consequently, on Dorothea’s Bildung, analysing in what it differs from other examples of novels of formation. In particular, the analysis will focus on the innovation in Dorothea’s process of formation which will be delineated through the study of the literary topos of marriage, focusing on its peculiar employment in the novel. Indeed, in English novels of formation, Marriage usually happens once in the narration and it is placed in a final position since it marks the conclusion of the previous process of formation and it enables the youth the access to society since he or she finds the proper collocation in it. Contrarily, Dorothea marries twice in Middlemarch, and her first marriage occurs in a rather initial position in the book. This anticipation allows George Eliot the depiction not only of the marriage itself which was something new at that time in literature, but also the depiction of the consequences of marriage which were totally removed from the previous narrations where marital lives were not taken into account. Youths’ development in Bildungsroman is entirely based on their learning from experience in which their mistakes play a pivotal role. In the case of Dorothea, her first marriage coincides with her first mistake and probably the biggest of hers. By locating her marriage in an initial position in Middlemarch, George Eliot is able to consider the failure of this marriage which becomes a mistake with disastrous consequences in the development the young Dorothea. Moreover, readers by observing these consequences throughout the novel, they can perceive an innovative and more complete characterisation of Dorothea. Indeed, readers are offered a deeper psychological analysis of what is happening inside a female self which is gradually forming whose aim becomes not only that of becoming a good wife, but especially that of becoming a happy woman. This thesis will then focus on the second possibility which is given to Dorothea – that of finding again a right man with whom she can share her happiness. The analysis will then evolve through hypothetic matchmakings of Dorothea’s with the other male characters, in order to understand why Dorothea’s ultimate choice, Ladislaw, is the right one. In fact, by marrying him, she proves to have effectively concluded her process of formation, she proves to have found her place and in society, and most importantly, to have found it happily. Her formation allowed George Eliot’s novel to depict the possibility for a woman to have a second chance of happiness which was not so frequent at that time. The previous considerations will lead to the demonstration of the peculiarity of Dorothea’s Bildung which, nonetheless, proves to be a perfect novel of formation since the heroine will still accomplished her Bildung. George Eliot offers us a different path, undoubtedly richer and deeper in its psychological analysis which proves to be totally successful since it still leads to the accomplishment of a process of formation.