Welcome back to Middlemarch! In this episode, Shari and Rhea think long and hard about our narrator: by what tactics is she (he?) getting us to see? Where are our eyes turned? On what do we gaze? And how does this gaze serve Eliot’s purposes for expressing her greater themes? They also talk about the symmetry in the story lines of Book Three, and the elegant arc they make. Of course, they discuss details: Fred Vincy’s extreme self-centerdness, Lydgate’s dunce-headedness, and poor Dorthea’s hopes of matrimonial bliss being popped so soon. They argue over passionately discuss whether Rosamond is manipulative or innocent in her pursuit of Lydgate. They bring up that tricky narrator again, and how we are given the turn in their relationship: from careless flirting to holy matrimony. They continue to scratch their heads over the British class system and where exactly every person and trade fits in. And furniture… What is up with this continual mention of furniture?? Finally, they take in the title of Book Three, Waiting to Die, and consider the full scope of its meaning.
Show Notes:
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, by Daniel Pool. (Rhea referenced)
R&W Outline for Middlemarch, Book Three (Available for a limited time to all subscribers. Will go behind paywall mid-year). Great for use with:
Personal Study
Book Groups
Homeschool Supplement
Upper Level High School Curriculum Supplement
