PROSE ANALYSIS OF AN EXCERPT FROM MIDDLEMARCH
BY GEORGE ELIOT
“Heaven is under our feet as well
as over our heads.”
-- Henry David Thoreau
THEME/“WHAT”
According to the narrator, religion and lofty
ideals act as both Dorothea’s greatest strength
and her greatest weakness. These ideals are
responsible not only for her best
characteristics, but also her rashness that
could lead to a future unintentional martyrdom.
LITERARY ELEMENTS
Tone shifts
Diction
Syntax
Imagery
Irony
Allusions
Sentence structure
TONE
Overall: condescending
Tone shifts
Diction
Syntax
Imagery
Irony
CLOTHING
“Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems
to be thrown into relief by poor dress. 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 painters” (Eliot 2-
5). • Irony: attractive even without fashion sense• Blessed Virgin reference (religion=strength)• Diction: “beauty,” “finely,” “relief”• Tone: reverent
HORSE RIDING
Horse riding diction: “charm,” “unaccountably,”
“bewitching,” “loved,” “glowed,” “pleasure” (Eliot 50-59)
“Most men thought her bewitching when she was on
horseback,” (Eliot 52-53)• Shows perception of others • Tone: reverent
“Riding was an indulgence which she allowed herself in
spite of conscientious qualms,” (Eliot 56-58)• Positive action caused by Dorothea’s outward personality
MARTYRDOM INFERENCE
“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” (Eliot 23-
30)• Syntax: long, compound sentences• Long style of narration gives off a prediction effect• Makes lofty inferences about her future (condescending) • Diction: “theoretic,” “yearned,” “lofty,” shows her martyrdom will be
caused by outward capacity
COMPARISONS TO CELIA
“Miss Brooke’s large eyes seemed like her religion,
too unusual and striking” (Eliot 45-46) • Large eyes: child like imagery• Religion makes her inferior to Celia
“Poor Dorothea! Compared with her, the innocent
looking Celia was knowing and worldly wise” (Eliot
46-47) • Younger sister being wiser-condescending
MARRIAGE TONE
“Dorothea, with all her eagerness to know the truths of life, retained very
childlike ideas about marriage” (Eliot 70-72)
Childlike both explicit and implicit
Takes on Dorothea’s perspective when intellectual marriage is shown
positively : “She felt,” “If she had,” “her remarks,” “affect her,”
Last line: “The really delightful marriage must be where your husband was
a sort of father, and could teach you even Hebrew, if you wished it” (Eliot 80-
82) • Hints of sarcasm• Shifts away from Dorothea’s perspective-denotes sarcasm• Shows that her outward capacity will lead to an unhappy marriage
(martyrdom)
RELIGION
Goes both ways
Numerous allusions
R E L I G I O N I N T H E P I E C E I S U S E D T O A C C E N T U AT E T H E G O O D A N D B A D A S P E C T S
Religious allusion to the Virgin Mary in first 8 lines
of excerpt throw her beauty “into relief”; she “could
wear sleeves not less bare of style than those in
which the Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian
painters,” relates her with a sort of glorified iconic
religious image with “the impressiveness of a fine
quotation from the Bible”
RELIGION (CONT.)
Line 17 References to Blaise Pascal’s Pensées
(famous work espousing Christianity)
Line 25 A “parish in Tipton”
Line 73 Richard Hooker(Oxford theologian)
Line 74-75 John Milton(famous religious author)
Shows mix of religious and high intellectual ideas
RELIGIOUS MARTYRDOM
Line 28 “Likely to seek martyrdom, to make retractions, and then
to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought
it”
Connection to sort of martyrdom in marriage in last paragraph
Martyrdom has a Christian connotation, referring to venerated
people that died for the sake of God, refusing to renounce their
religion and thus facing severe persecution and then death.
Not something one should “seek”, and her seeming disposition to
seek it in marriage is petty in comparison.
MARRIAGE (IN DEPTH)
Tone
Irony
Contrast
MARRIAGE
Lines 70-72: “Dorothea, with all her
eagerness to know the truths of life,
retained very childlike ideas about
marriage.” • Eagerness in and of itself is a childlike trait• Irony: “truth” versus “childlike ideas” • Ideas of marriage not the same as the truth of
it
MARRIAGE
Lines 79- 82: “The really delightful marriage must be
where your husband was a sort of a father, and could
teach you even Hebrew, if you wished it.” • Doesn’t understand marriage should be out of love
rather than a thirst to further knowledge • Irony: “marriage” versus “father”
• “Marriage” typically is a symbol of love • Not looking for a lover…. “father” symbolizes
someone to look out for her and teach her rather than someone to love her.
MARRIAGE
Line 72-77: “She felt sure that she would have
accepted the judicious Hooker…. Or any of the
other great men whose odd habits it would have
been glorious piety to endure.’• Ironic: “glorious” versus “endure”• If something is glorious, there shouldn’t be a
need to “endure’ because it should be something you want to do
• If not happy after enduring….. Would she be martyring herself?