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Name: Vora Kiran Shamaldas.
Class: M.A Sem. 2
Roll no. 13
Paper no. 6 The Victorian Literature
Topic : Characters of Middlemarch
Email Id : [email protected]
Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English M. K. University.
Characters of Middlemarch
• Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life
• A novel by English author George Eliot
• The novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch.
• it comprises several distinct stories and a large cast of characters.
• It is regarded as her best work and one of the greatest novels written in English
Brooke
Vinci
Garth
Cadwallader
Featherstone
Brooke Arthur Brooke Dorothea
Brooke Celia Brooke
Vinci Walter Vinci Lucy Vinci Fred Vinci Rosamond Vinci
Cadwallader Humphrey Cadwallader Eleanor Cadwallader
Featherstone Peter Featherstone Rigg Featherstone
Garth Caleb Garth Susan Garth Mary Garth
Edward Casaubon Julia CasaubonWill Ladislaw
Nicholas Bulstrode Harriet Bulsrode
Sir James Chettam Tertius Lydgate Camden Farebrother Jane Waule Mr. Hawley Mr. Mawmsey. Dr. Sprague Mr.. Tyke John Raffles
Eldest of two daughters. They are raised by
her bachelor uncle, Mr. Brooke. She is an intelligent, wealthy woman with
great aspirations. She is religious. She is well educated but naïve about the
outside world. She marries the elderly man Edward
Casaubon, with the idealistic idea of helping him with his research project.
Casaubon does not take her seriously and resents her youth, enthusiasm, and energy.
She is forced to learn that she can’t make a life through other people, and that she must fulfill her purpose in life through her own effort.
Because of Casaubon's coldness during their honeymoon, Dorothea becomes friends with his relative, Will Ladislaw.
Some years after Casaubon's death she falls in love with Will and marries him.
Dorothea Brooke
Arthur Brooke — Bachelor uncle and guardian
of Dorothea and Celia Brooke.
He is a strong-willed man. But outdated person who
thinks what women should do or not.
He has a reputation as the worst landlord in the county, but stands for parliament on a Reform platform.
Celia Brooke — • Dorothea's younger sister
is a great beauty.• She is more sensual and
more calm than Dorothea and does not share her sister's idealism and asceticism. She is sensible.
• She is too happy to marry Sir James Chettam, a much better match, when Dorothea rejects him.
• He is middle aged husband of Dorothea.
• A selfish, elderly clergyman who is obsessed with his scholarly research.
• Because of this his marriage to Dorothea is loveless.
• His book The Key to All Mythologies integrates his life’s learning but it is unfinished. But his research is out of date because he does not read German
Edward Casaubon
• A neighboring landowner, Sir James is in love with Dorothea and helps her with her plans to improve conditions for the tenants and rural folk.
• He is kind and sensitive man. • When she marries Casaubon,
he marries Celia Brooke. Unlike many men in this novel, he doesn’t subscribe to ideas that women should be weak, and limited in their activities to household affairs.
• this makes his union with Celia a happy one, and cements his friendship with Dorothea.
Sir James Chettam
A young cousin of Mr.
Casaubon he has no property
because his grandmother married a poor Polish musician and was disinherited.
He is a man of great verve, idealism and talent but of no fixed profession.
He is in love with Dorothea, but cannot marry her without her losing Mr. Casaubon's property.
Will Ladislaw
Tertius Lydgate — An idealistic, talented, but
naïve young doctor, and though of good birth he is relatively poor.
Lydgate hopes to make great advancements in medicine through his research.
However, he ends up in an unhappy marriage to Rosamond Vincy.
He ends up sacrificing all of his high ideals in order to please his wife.
Rosamond Vincy — • She is beautiful and
shallow.• Rosamond has a high
opinion of her own charms and a low opinion of Middlemarch society.
• She marries Tertius Lydgate because she believes that he will raise her social standing and keep her comfortable.
• She is unable to bear the idea of losing status in Middlemarch society.
Mary Garth — o The practical, plain, and
kind daughter of Caleb and Susan Garth, she works as Mr. Featherstone's nurse.
o She and Fred Vincy were childhood sweethearts, but she refuses to allow him to woo her until he shows himself willing and able to live seriously, practically, and sincerely.
Fred Vinci — o Rosamond's brother, who
has loved Mary Garth from childhood.
o His family hopes that he will advance his class standing by becoming a clergyman, but he knows that Mary will not marry him if he does.
o Because of his love for Mary, by studying under Mary's father, a profession through which he gains Mary's respect.
Humphrey Cadwallader and Eleanor Cadwallader Neighbours of the
Brookes. Mr. Cadwallader is a Rector.
o Mrs. Cadwallader is talkative woman who comments on local affairs.
o She disapproves of Dorothea's marriage and Mr. Brooke's parliamentary endeavours.
Walter Vinci and Lucy Vinci
o A respectable manufacturing family.
o They wish their children to advance socially, and are disappointed by both Rosamond's and Fred's marriages.
o Mr. Vinci's sister is married to Nicholas Bulstrode.
Caleb Garth — Mary Garth's father. He is a kind, honest, and generous businessman who is a surveyor and land agent involved in farm management.
Camden Farebrother — A poor but clever vicar and amateur naturalist. He is a friend of Lydgate and Fred Vincy, and loves Mary Garth
Nicholas Bulstrode — Wealthy banker married to Mr.. Vincy's sister, Harriet. He is a pious Methodist who tries to impose his beliefs in Middlemarch society;
Peter Featherstone — Old landlord of Stone Court, a self-made man who married Caleb Garth's sister and later took Mrs. Vincy's sister as his second wife when his first wife died.
Rigg Featherstone — Featherstone's illegitimate son who appears at the reading of Featherstone's will and is given his fortune instead of Fred.
John Raffles — Raffles is a braggart and a bully, a humorous scoundrel in the tradition of Sir John Falstaff, and an alcoholic. But unlike Shakespeare's fat knight, Raffles is a genuinely evil man.
Jane Waule — A widow and Peter Featherstone's sister; has a son, John.
Mr. Hawley — Foul-mouthed businessman and enemy of Bulstrode.
Mr. Mawmsey — Grocer.
Dr. Sprague — Middlemarch doctor.
Mr.. Tyke — Clergyman favoured by Bulstrode.
