An Analysis of and excerpt from Middlemarch by George Eliot“Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.” – Groucho Marx

Theme Statement

The narrator’s attitude toward Dorothea shifts from sympathy to criticism as she understands her complex personality but at the

same time is wary of Dorothea’s attitude toward life, much like the relationship a mother would have

toward her child.

Literary Elements

Compound - Complex Sentence Parallelism Juxtaposition Ironic religious imagery Exclamatory Statement Rhetorical Question Loose Sentence Tone

Compound-Complex sentences are used to show the depth and

complexity of Dorothea’s character

Lines 2-10: “Her hand and wrist were so finely formed that she could wear sleeves not less bare of style than those in which the Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian painter; and her profile as well as her stature and bearing seemed to gain the more dignity from her plain garments, which by the side f provincial fashion gave her the impressiveness of a fine quotation from the Bible, - or from one of our elder poets, - in a paragraph of today’s newspaper.”

Lines 23-30: “Her mind was theoretic and yearned by its nature after some lofty conception of the world which might frankly include the parish of Tipton and her own rule of conduct there; she was enamored of intensity and greatness, and rash in embracing whatever seemed to her to have those aspects; likely to seek martyrdom to make retractions, and hen to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought it.”

Parallelism is used to show the sympathetic attitude and

familiar understanding of the narrator

Lines 23-30: “Her mind was theoretic and yearned by its nature after some lofty conception of the world which might frankly include the parish of Tipton and her own rule of conduct there; she was enamored of intensity and greatness, and rash in embracing whatever seemed to her to have those aspects; likely to seek martyrdom, to make retractions, and then to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought it.”

Juxtaposition/Contrast shows the narrator’s awareness of Dorothea’s

complex character

Lines 34-41: “With all this, she, the elder of the sisters, was not yet twenty, and they had both been educated since they were about twelve years old and had lost their parents, on plans at once narrow and promiscuous, first in an English family and afterwards in a Swiss family at Lausanne, their bachelor uncle and guardian trying in this way to remedy the disadvantages of their orphaned…”

Bachelor family vs. Religious family

Swiss vs. English

Orphan vs. Educated

Narrow vs. Promiscuous

Exclamatory statement shows sympathetic

toneLine 46 – “Poor Dorothea!”

Compares her to her sister Playful (sympathetic tone) Exclamation: hint of tonal change

Ironic religious imagery acting as simile

Lines 44-46: “Celia was amiable and innocent-looking, while Miss Brooke’s large eyes seemed like her religion, too unusual and striking.”

Lines 55-56: “when her eyes and cheeks glowed with mingled pleasure she looked very little like a devotee”

Third-person limited point of view gives mother to child

effectWhole passage is third person limited, outside

perspective from mom, but doesn’t know Dorothea’s thoughts

Iron-etorical question is used to contrast Dorothea’s modesty with her arrogance

Line 79: “How could he affect as a lover?” Irony in Dorothea’s personality makes the

author also feel conflicted toward her Narrator, therefore, see’s her as a child

Loose Sentence with satirical elements shows how the narrator

downplays her criticism of Dorothea’s childlike ignorance

Lines 80-82: “The really delightful marriage must be where your husband is a sort of father, and could teach you even Hebrew, if he wished it”

Tonal change represents author’s attitude – from praise

to criticismLines 2-10: comparison between Dorothea

and Virgin Mary, having more dignity from wearing plain clothes, impressiveness and grandeur

Line 71: Dorothea “retained very childlike ideas about marriage”

Selection of detail shows change narrator’s attitude of

Dorothea

Changes from addressing her as “Ms. Brooke” to “Dorothea

How I can relate

Debate (humble arrogance) -> complex attitudes among those who struggle, work hard, and are talented

Tiger mom – (extreme criticism) – Amy ChuaRegina’s mom – (extreme caring) – Mean Girls