He had really a movement of anger against her at that moment…Joy came first, in spite of the threatening train behind it…They were parted all the same, but—Dorothea drew a deep breath and felt her strength return—she could think of him unrestrainedly. At that moment the parting was easy to bear: the first sense of loving and being loved excluded sorrow. It was as if some hard icy pressure had melted, and her consciousness had room to expand: her past was come back to her with larger interpretation. The joy was not the less—perhaps it was the more complete just then—because of the irrevocable parting; for there was no reproach, no contemptuous wonder to imagine in any eye or from any lips. He had acted so as to defy reproach, and make wonder respectful. (Ch 62)

Question: What is the idea of love and freedom in the novel?

Love and freedom are themes that recur in the novel inter-connectedly. Cassuabon's codicil to the will has seemingly stifled Dorothea's freedom to marry another man and forced a separation between Dorothea and Will. However, contrary to the pains and vexations experienced by the two characters previously, this passage depicts Dorothea’s sense of relief and joyfulness while Will bids her the last adieu, despite experiencing a mental breakdown in the scene that precedes the passage. The important phrase 'can think of him unrestrainedly' also marks the beginning of Dorothea's regained freedom in love. While the two characters are still bound by the codicil, it makes sense for one to question the paradox between Dorothea’s loss of freedom because of the codicil and her sense of freedom depicted in the passage.

The description of Dorothea’s sense of freedom and delight is detailed in the passage, and it also suggests the transcendence of love. By emphasising absoluteness (irrevocable, no, any) in the narrator’s explanation for Dorothea’s joyfulness, the writer makes a huge contrast between Dorothea’s feelings before and after the parting, emphasising that Dorothea is no longer pained by the reproaches and criticisms that she once received. In addition, upon her pondering, she derives pleasure from being free to think about Will without vexations and ‘felt her strength return’. The description for her relief is also concerned with liberation. ‘As if some hard icy pressure had melted, and her consciousness had room to expand’: the pressure that exerts force against Dorothea and confines her has melted and been replaced by an expansion force. The bitterness with Will’s departure is also made minimal. All of this takes place because ‘the first sense of loving and being loved excluded sorrow’. Thus, Dorothea’s joy suggests the transcendence of love, which holds the power of pushing against constraints and liberating freedom.

However, the notion of love and freedom in the novel is not as simple. What complicates the issue is the sentence that interrupts Dorothea’s stream of consciousness and ends the paragraph: ‘He had acted so as to defy reproach, and make wonder respectful.’ This suggests that their parting is directed by the public views and the codicil’s effect on them, and that parting is merely a means to avoid reproaches. The very cause of the vexation is not ceased. In particular, Cassaubon’s codicil to the will, as a legal document, will still be in effect throughout Dorothea’s life. Hence, Dorothea’s freedom to love in Middlemarch is not fully liberated. The phrase ‘acts to…make wonder respectful’ also portrays Will as a scapegoat. It is with his ‘sacrifice’ to leave Middlemarch that Dorothea could ‘think of him unrestrainedly’ given the codicil. At the end of the day, whether Dorothea’s freedom and happiness is given by sacrifice or love is unclear. The case is not less complicated for Will. The descriptions about Will in this paragraph mark his strong agitations (‘a movement of anger against her’), completely opposite to Dorothea’s delight. On one hand, it can be said that his emotion demonstrates the failure in the power of love. On the other hand, his agitations can be explained by the absence of a clear statement that proposes Dorothea’s love towards him, which could diminish the power of love within him.

With reference to the structure of the passage, rather mixed and entangled emotions are depicted. There is a moment of ‘threatening train’ within Dorothea’s joyfulness, and Dorothea's emotions are encompassed by Will’s agitation. These emotions that intertwine with each other in the passage iconically delineate the conflict between and within these emotions brought by the parting, which can reflect whether a character's freedom in a spiritual sense. Dorothea and Will, while both being the victims of the codicil, have different emotions towards the parting. What is even more complicated is that the reasons for these emotions seem to be divided as well. That is to say, the narration of the passage offers no clear answer as to whether love can triumph over constraints and win freedom. This is in line with D.A. Miller’s article (The Novel and the Police) that Middlemarch shows a deliberate attempt to refuse a ‘key’ to the truth (26).