Introduction

George Eliot opens her complex study of life in the provincial Midlands with a brilliant portrait of Dorothea Brooke in all her strengths and weaknesses. The novel mirrors the complexity and the calm under the storm of a seemingly simple and boring provincial life. Full of colorful characters, rich in satire and suspense, Middlemarch remains the great English novel, a modern tale, a classic which till this day makes us wonder and question ourselves.

Themes

Significant themes include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. The story links the struggles of the individuals with the problems of society as a whole, as it wrestles with the disturbances that are approaching through industrialization and a changing social order.

Plot Structure

The narrative is variably considered to consist of three or four plots of unequal emphasis: the life of Dorothea Brooke; the career of Tertius Lydgate; the courtship of Mary Garth by Fred Vincy; and the disgrace of Nicholas Bulstrode.