‘That is a dreadful imprisonment,’ said Will, impetuously.

‘No, don’t think that,’ said Dorothea. ‘I have no longings.’

He did not speak, but she replied to some change in his expression. ‘I mean, for myself. Except that I should like not to have so much more than my share without doing anything for others. But I have a belief of my own, and it comforts me.’

“But Dorothea was strangely quiet—not immediately indignant as she had been on a like occasion in Rome. And the cause lay deep. She was no longer struggling against the perception of facts, but adjusting herself to their clearest perception; and now when she looked steadily at her husband’s failure, still more at his possible consciousness of failure, she seemed to be looking along the one tract where duty became tenderness.”

In the few chapters we have read, Dorothea is described as a non-conventional woman who has a great pursuit of knowledge and religion. Both Mr Brooke and Celia see her uniqueness as a woman and it is brought up repeatedly in the story. It is hinted that Dorothea knows the unconventionality of her and is somehow proud of seeing things others are not aware of (i.e. the soul of others.) What is the significance of bringing out the notion of someone's soul (e.g. Casaubon's soul) help develop and shape Dorothea's personality and the readers' impressions of her?