Essay on Middlemarch

Prompt: Read the prompt carefully. The write a well-developed essay in which you analyze HOW Eliot PORTRAYS these two characters and their COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP as HUSBAND and WIFE. You may wish to consider such literary devices as NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE and SELECTION of DETAIL.

1. Find at least three quotations from the prompt which show character. It can be:

Diction: “odious tradesmen” (line 68)

Dialogue which reveals attitude: “Your friends would not wish us to be without money, and certainly these odious tradesmen might be made to understand that…” (lines 67 – 68)

“You can send the men away….” (line 56)

“Shall we go without spoons and forks then?” (line 84)

“I insist upon it that your father shall not know unless I choose to tell him,” added Lydgate with a more peremptory emphasis. (lines 10 – 13)

“It is I who have been at fault….you are so clever that you turn your mind to managing you will school me into carefulness. I have been a thoughtless rascal about squaring prices - but come dear, sit down and forgive me.” (lines 37 – 47)

“You must learn to take my judgement on questions you don’t understand…”said Lydgate angrily. (lines 72 – 73)

Or find others that you like. THEN SHOW HOW THE DICTION/DIALOGUE REVEALS CHARACTER/CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP AND/OR THE UNDERLYING BATTLE FOR CONTROL.

2. Find at least three quotations, which show what each character is thinking:

Some examples:

“But Rosamond had thrown him back on evil expectation as to what she would do in the way of quiet, steady disobedience.” (lines 14 – 16)

“The unkindness seemed unpardonable to her; she was not given to weeping and disliked it.” (lines 17 – 18)

“But he did wish to spare her as much as he could and her tears cuts him to the heart.” (lines 26 – 27)

“That she had chosen to move away from him in this moment of her trouble made everything harder to say, but he must absolutely go on.” (lines 33 – 36)

“His self-blame gave her some hope that he would attend to her opinion…” (lines 52 – 53)

“The thought in her mind was that if she had known how Lydgate would behave, she would never had married him.” (lines 77 – 79)

“She was determined to give no further resistance or suggestion.” (lines 89 – 90)

THEN SHOW HOW NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE REVEALS CHARACTER, CHARACTER AND/OR THEIR COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP.

3. Find at least three examples of what the characters do:

“Rosamond coloured deeply. “Have you not asked Papa for money?”…”No”…”Then I must ask him”, she replied, releasing her hands from Lydgate’s and rising to stand at two yards distance from him.” (lines 1 – 6)

“But Rosamond did not go sobbing; she tried to conquer her agitation and wiping away her tears, continuing to look before her at the mantelpiece.”(lines 28 – 31)

“Try not to grieve, darling,” said Lydgate, turning his eyes up at her.” (lines 32 – 33)

“When he had spoken the last words in an imploring tone, Rosamond returned to the chair by his side.” (lines 51 – 52)

“’Are we to go without spoons and forks then?’ said Rosamond, whose very lips seemed to get thinner with the thinness of the utterance.” (lines 86 - 88)

THEN SHOW HOW THE CHARACTERS’ ACTIONS REVEAL THE COMPLEX

CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS.

4. Find at least three examples of what the narrator reveals about the characters:

Here are some for you to get started:

“Perhaps it was not possible for Lydgate…to imagine fully what this sudden trial was to a young creature who had known nothing but indulgence and whose dreams had all been of new indulgence, more exactly to her taste.” (lines 20 – 26)

“Lydgate was bowing his neck under the yoke like a creature who talons but who had reason too, which often reduces us to meekness” (lines 88 – 90)

Notice the use of diction (“young creature”) in the first quotation and to the use of simile in the second (“like a creature who had talons”) AND SHOW HOW THESE LITERARY DEVICES REVEAL CHARACTER AND RELATIONSHIP COMPLEXITY.