Narrative Technique in George Eliot’s Middlemarch

The plot of Middlemarch (1871-72) has a complex narrative flows where there are many multiple plots. These plots exists independently and integrated in different ways. There are four important characters which seems that they are the main active agents in the novel including Dorothea, Dr. Lydgate, Fred and Bulstrode. The narrative technique is quite complex in many of Eliot’s novel because it gives a distinctive quality to many of the contemporary writers of the age. In her narration, she is critical of the age she lives in and a sense of history is subtly exposed for instance the Reform Bill of 1832 which gave equal representation of the people. Eliot focuses on the lives of the rural ares of England and much of the lives and conditions of the lowest strata of society. The certain depths of political upheaval is asserted subtly in a way that it interrogates the structure of political , social and economic spaces.

The first narration is about the life of Dorothea who is a very young intelligent woman and has dreams and aspirations. She is very much religious and have a project of building a cottage for the peasants. The subtle exposition of the Reform Bill of 1832 is seen where the condition of the peasant is seen and Dorothea is trying to represent the peasants in the social and economic space. Dorothea saw that Mr. Casaubon shares the similar project like hers and wanted to marry him. Casaubon was older to her in age yet she marries him only to realize that she made a big mistake since he do not want to involve her in his project. It made her disappointed in him since she was reduced to marriage and household work and when Casaubon died he is selfish enough not to share any money and property to her instead giving away the property to James. The most important development is that though she did not inherit anything from Casaubon yet she married Will Ladislaw since she saw the same spirit of ambitions in him.

The second narration of the story is the story of Dr. Lydgate and Rosamond. Dr. Lydgate is introduced as the man who has a “spot of commonness”. It is quite important to notice that even though he is a genius man who is capable of achieving greater things in life yet he also engages and waste his time on matrimony and social spaces which is quite peculiar to some geniuses. This makes him a “spot of commonness” character. He fell in love with Rosamond and wanted to bring forth the science of medicine and physiology to middlemarch yet the people were skeptic of the new ideas being introduced to the society. The political exposition of Darwinism and Marxism were also the new ideas coming to the Victorian society and since politically and scientifically the society were unable to cope up with the new changes and hence Eliot novel gives spaces to such uncertainties of human life in the narration of Dr. Lydgate’s story. This also reflects the Reform Bills of the Victorian age where the characters like Dorothea and Dr. Lydgate symbolizes the social reforms in terms of society and science to the society but fails since both the characters failed miserably in marriage. Dr. Lydgate married Rosamond yet the marriage ruined him and died tragically leaving his ambitions of physiology and New hospital he wanted to build in middlemarch.

The third narration of the story is the story of Fred who is the brother of Rosamond. Eliot give spaces to characters who were engaged in superficial things and can grow with the help of the active agencies. Mary is the active agent in the life of Fred where Fred was engaged to gambling and other superficial stuffs. Mary encouraged him and hence he was able to pass the university and got a job in the church. He still was unable to marry Mary since he needs to have a proper job and hence he decided that he will inherit the property from his uncle Featherson but his uncle leaves his property to his illegitimate child Joshua Rigg. Critically, the story gives a meaning of failure to optimism and a sense of disillusionment at the end. All the characters started their life with an ambition to pursue something and bring reforms to the society but ends with a strike of disillusionment which Eliot as a novelist tries to create due to the uncertainty and complexity he wanted to portray about the human life.

The fourth narration is the story of Bulstrode who is a wealthy banker but he has a secret to keep and he meets Raffles. Raffles knows the dark past of Bulstrode and though Raffles dies yet he told Mr. Bambridge about his dark past. Though a sense of optimism is seen for Bulstrode but ends with a sense of disillusionment since the entire middlemarch knew about his dark past and secret and leaves his house to Fred to settle.