“But Dorothea was strangely quiet – not immediately indignant as she has 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 at her husband’s failure, still more at his possible consciousness of failure, she seemed to be looking along the one track where duty became tenderness.” (400) 

Both Dorothea and Casaubon are caught up in pursuing their own idealistic and ambitious goals for their lives. What does this passage suggest about Dorothea’s reckoning of her husband’s unfulfilled potential and how does this affect her perception on her own ideals?

Many of the characters in Middlemarch grapple with the shortfalls in their lives, where their expectations and perceptions of the future and self are unable to be materialised in reality. Thus leading to their disappointment and dissatisfaction due to a sense of unfulfilled potential in the consciousness of their own failings. Although we observe this condition in other characters like Lydgate and Fred Vincy, nowhere is this phenomenon more perceptible and persistent than in the cases of Dorothea Brooke and Edward Casaubon. They are each consumed with actualizing their own ideals and ambitions, only to become increasingly aware that they must accept a world in which they are unable to achieve it.

For Dorothea, marriage to Casaubon, an educated and older man, is a means to achieving a life which is above the ordinary preoccupations of other married women and finding a sense of purpose in “doing good” through their partnership (Eliot, 102). She seeks an intellectual partner to further her own intellectual and Christian ambitions, unaware that Casaubon is too engrossed in his own intellectual endeavour of writing a ‘Key to all Mythologies,’ a subject matter that Will Ladislaw explains is as useless and as “changing as Chemistry” (254). Similarly, Dorothea’s attempts at self-actualisation through learning Greek and Latin to match up to and assist her husband in his research are met with resistance from him, and she grows increasingly dissatisfied and lonely in her marriage. However, it is only when she engages in discussions with Will Ladislaw, and in this passage, that she understands the extent to which her husband is unable to be the pathway to her own desires, due to his failure to realise his own potential. 

Since her honeymoon in Rome, Dorothea has become increasingly aware of her husband’s inadequacies, however this passage marks a turning point in both her perceptions of her marriage and her own expectations. This reckoning is provoked when Will Ladislaw divulges that Casaubon will not succeed in his book due to his uncertainty and apprehension for anyone to assist him (400). Instead of jumping to defend her husband, Dorothea is “strangely quiet” indicating that she has grown mature and restrained, a far cry from her passionate and “indignant” responses to criticism in the past. She was often criticized by Celia, in particular, of being out of touch with reality and failing to understand the constraints and nuances of everyday life and society due to her large ambitious ideas (32). However, here we see a Dorothea who is coming to terms with these realities and is “no longer struggling against the perception of facts” (400). This newfound perspective also marks a shift in Dorothea’s perception of her marriage as it allows her then, to find sympathy and therein, tenderness for her husband, and recognize him as being unable to be the means through which she fulfils her own ambitions.

Although this passage reflects Dorothea’s reckoning of her husband’s unfulfilled potential and how that affects their marriage, it also suggests a deeper, self-realization that she experiences. Considering Dorothea’s headstrong and stubborn nature, it would be difficult to believe that it was Ladislaw’s comments about her husband that drew her to this point of clarity and change of heart. Rather, in recognising her husband’s “possible consciousness of failure” she identifies a similarity with her own experiences and consciousness of unaccomplished goals. She recognizes in him the same passion and ambition she possesses, and recognizes the plight of feeling like it is out of reach and unattainable. Hence, when she is “no longer struggling against the perception of facts” it is not only the facts of marriage, but the understanding that material realities and society cannot be overlooked in an attempt to achieve greatness or nobleness. This realization can be seen as an example of Eliot’s bildungsroman narrative where, as Moretti explains, there is a “conflict between the ideal of self-determination and the equally imperious demands of socialization” (Moretti, 15). In same light, the “one track where duty became tenderness” can be read, not only as Dorothea’s path and enlightenment in marriage, rather, that these new perceptions towards her marriage are driven by her re-evaluation of her sense of personal duty to be good and pious (which she attempts to enact through her marriage) and an acquisition of tenderness towards herself, which thus enables her to be tender and sympathetic to her husband (Eliot, 400).

Works Cited: 

Eliot, George. Middlemarch. Penguin Classics. 1985.

Moretti, Franco. The Way of the World. Verso. 2000.