‘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.’

‘What is that?’ said Will, rather jealous of the belief.

‘That by desiring what is perfectly good, even when we don’t quite know what it is and cannot do what we would, we are part of the divine power against evil—widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness narrower.’

‘That is a beautiful mysticism—it is a—‘

‘Please not to call it by any name,’ said Dorothea, putting out her hands entreatingly.

(Chapter XXXVII)

Why does Dorothea push against Will’s characterisation of her life as “a dreadful imprisonment”? How does her response to that, especially about her religion and moral belief, reflect the transition in her life?

While Will talks about the physical and mental states of Dorothea’s imprisonment, Dorothea replies by saying that she does not think of it that way and moves on to talk about her indeterminate moral view. The fact that she does not necessarily disagree with him hints that she might not fully accept the imprisonment she has chosen for herself. There is a sense of denial and that can be the reason for her to seek a moral worldview to accommodate the restricted life that she is enduring. 

It is interesting that Dorothea refuses to name her moral worldview as it says a lot about her transition in life. Her refusal in naming her belief shows that she resists the idea of being in an organized religion with fixed and rigid rules. Instead, the indeterminate moral worldview allows flexibility and a constant sense of change, which makes it more personalised to Dorothea. Compared to Dorothea from the beginning of the novel when she is very religious and faithful to Christianity beliefs, Dorothea in this stage moves towards an indeterminate moral belief where she desires things that are “perfectly good” even when she does not fully comprehend them. There is an ambiguity lying in her belief. The ambiguity here can be seen as a shift in Dorothea’s idea of religion, which is parallel to her growth. She is in that transitional state that instead of focusing on drawing architectural designs and planning for cottages for the tenant farmers, which implies Dorothea’s desire for social progress and a positive impact for the world, Dorothea now focuses more on finding things that are “perfectly good”, which might represent a slow and gradual change in a restricted space. With the phrase “we are part of the divine power against evil,” it suggests that divinity is no longer a sign for God but people. “Divine power” is a term used to describe God, a representation of authority in Christianity, the fact that Dorothea now uses it to describe herself and the others implies her exploration of humanistic ideology. The humanistic take on her suggests that she no longer complies with authority as much as she did at the beginning of the story. This might be related to Dorothea’s growth and realization of the mismatch of expectation and reality. By popping her bubble of the romanticised marriage ideology which she saw Mr. Casaubon as this superior and even authority figure that could inspire and teach her in the field of academic study on Christianity, Dorothea sees more clearly of Mr. Casaubon for who he truly is - a failed and miserable scholar. 

This part of the bildungsroman features the transitional state of Dorothea, and perhaps her ambiguous response to Will’s depiction of “a dreadful imprisonment” sheds light on the growth and possible transformation of Dorothea.