Middlemarch Book Seven: Two Temptations #EliotReadalong

_{It is curious what patches of hardness and tenderness lie side by side in men’s dispositions.}

I’m a little behind with these end-of-volume posts, considering I finished reading Middlemarch last weekend. It is tempting to combine the final two books into one post to be done with it, but I’ve gone this far, so onward I say. And given that book seven is titledTwo Temptations I will, like Fred Vincy before me, avoid the tempatation to lapse into bad habits! (I did actually write most of this a few weeks ago; I just haven’t had the time to come back to it for the final edit.)

Book seven consists of chapters 63-72 and was first published in November 1872. During this section, Rebecca Mead in The Road to Middlemarch (2014) reminds us that, ‘Eliot is the great artist of disappointment. Her characters, even the good ones, stumble, fall, and fail.‘

Two Temptations is full of such fallings and failings.

Character flaws are poked and prodded by Eliot to see which way each one might be tempted. Money is at the root of the problem for many. And fear. Lydgate’s debt is making him desperate, while his wife’s blindness and assumptions around money are building irrevocable walls in their marriage. Fred is tempted to have a little flutter until he sees Lydgate in action at the gaming table and realises what he must look like. A timely chat with Mr Farebrother seems to confirm his path along the straight and narrow.

Lydgate is then tempted by the idea of a loan from Bulstrode, at the same time that he is confronted by his past and the tainted money that has been the foundation of his life in Middlemarch. Bulstrode is tempted into contemplating negligence in his care of Raffles and Mr Farebrother is tempted to not ‘save’ Fred. While Caleb Garth refuses to be tempted and leaves the employ of Bulstrode as soon as he learns about his past.

Caleb is the only one to have spoken directly with Raffles, but he refuses to gossip or spread the story further. Yet it doesn’t take long for the court of public opinion to take over. Speculation and heresay quickly take hold, ensnaring both Bulstrode and Lydgate.

_{…this unhappy man, who had for years longed to be better than he was…}

Gambling and chance are not viewed favourably by Eliot; her most unsavoury character is even called, no doubt very deliberately, Raffles. Those who are tempted to push their luck too far are not rewarded at all (Raffles, Bulstrode) while those who are tempted but pull back in time are allowed to be redeemed by degrees (Fred, Lydgate). The town meeting where Bulstrode is lambasted in public, sees Lydgate do the right thing both professionally and morally in helping a man in need, despite the detrimental appearance that many ascribed to it. The reader is given hope that Lydgate’s affairs may take a turn for the better eventually.

It is also interesting to note the role of the women during these upheavals.

Rosamond abandons all hope, and her man, failing to see her role in the way things have panned out. Her woe-is-me attitude is adversely contrasted to her aunts far more admirable conduct in standing by her man in his time of troubles. Mrs Garth may quietly question some of the choices that her husband makes, but she knows that his heart is in the right spot when it comes to the important stuff. Likewise, Dorothea’s support of Lydgate is unwavering, feeling positive that there is more to the story than the rumours would indicate.

_{“You don’t believe that Mr Lydgate is guilty of anything base? I will not believe it. Let us find out the truth and clear him!”}

Assumptions and impressions about others is not part of her make-up (although the assumptions and impressions she has about her life are less reliable). This section sees many Middlemarchians making false assumptions about other people – Mr Farebrother’s assumption about the Lydgate’s ‘happy’ marriage, Rosamond’s assumption about being in the right and Raffles miscalculation on how far he could push Bulstrode.

_{…It did not occur to him that Lydgate’s marriage was not delightful: he believed, as the rest did, that Rosamond was an amiable, docile creature, though he had always thought her rather uninteresting—a little too much the pattern-card of the finishing-school.}

The various temptations, fears and assumptions that make up this volume are all part of the ‘civil war within the soul‘ that Eliot explores with relish. The reader senses that matters are finally coming to a head for many of the characters; with revelations, crisis-points and long dark nights of soul-searching. Furthermore, we are now beginning to see how all the various strands and threads from the previous volumes are coming together. As Eliot has been showing us all along, the lives and fates of the inhabitants of Middlemarch are interconnected, or tangled, in ways beyond our first imaginings.

How will she pull it all together in the final volume, Sunset and Sunrise?

Caleb Garth Philosophy:

_{‘It is not for me to make your life harder to you.’}

Posts:

• Sweet-apple | Sappho
• Miss Brooke
• Old and Young
• Waiting For Death
• Three Love Problems
• The Dead Hand
• The Widow and the Wife

This post was written on the traditional land of the Wangal clan, one of the 29 clans of the Eora Nation within the Sydney basin. This Reading Life recognises the continuous custodianship & connection to Country of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for the lands, seas & skies on which we live. They are this nations first storytellers.