Book Five The Dead Hand
1) In
Chapter 43, we learn:
Rosamond felt herself beginning to know a great deal of the world, especially in discovering -- what when she was in her unmarried girlhood had been inconceivable to her except as a dim tragedy in bygone costumes -- that women, even after marriage, might make conquests and enslave men. At that time young ladies in the country, even when educated at Mrs Lemon's, read little French literature later than Racine, and public prints had not cast their present magnificent illumination over the scandals of life. Still, vanity, with a woman's whole mind and day to work in, can construct abundantly on slight hints, especially on such a hint as the possibility of indefinite conquests. How delightful to make captives from the throne of marriage with a husband as crown-prince by your side -- himself in fact a subject -- while the captives look up for ever hopeless, losing their rest probably, and if their appetite too, so much the better! But Rosamond's romance turned at present chiefly on her crown-prince, and it was enough to enjoy his assured subjection.
Does this change your opinion of Rosamond? Do you feel it is a commentary on the character of Rosamond, the position of women at the time, both or neither?
2) Lydgate runs into problems in
Chapter 45 establishing his practice and hospital in Middlemarch. How much of it is a reflection of his medial ideas, and how much of it is a reflection of Middlemarch? Do you think his issues are warranted? How does Rosamond play into the issues?
3) In
Chapter 46 we see both an increase in interest in politics in Middlemarch:
By the time that Lord John Russell's measure was being debated in the House of Commons, there was a new political animation in Middlemarch, and a new definition of parties which might show a decided change of balance if a new election came. And there were some who already predicted this event, declaring that a Reform Bill would never be carried by the actual Parliament
and further revelation of Ladislaw’s personality as it intertwines with the current politics of the age, and his involvement in the
Pioneer. Eliot states:
This dangerous aspect of Ladislaw was strangely contrasted with other habits which became matter of remark. He had a fondness, half artistic, half affectionate, for little children -- the smaller they were on tolerably active legs, and the funnier their clothing, the better Will liked to surprise and please them. We know that in Rome he was given to ramble about among the poor people, and the taste did not quit him in Middlemarch…and further: Mrs Bulstrode felt that his mode of talking about Catholic countries, as if there were any truce with Antichrist, illustrated the usual tendency to unsoundness in intellectual men.
What do you think about the increasing political awareness of Middlemarch? What do you think about the character of Ladislaw, and of his “European ways” showing in Middlemarch?
4) In
Chapter 48, Casaubon’s jealousy of Ladislaw comes to a head, and he makes a request of Dorothea :
"Before I sleep, I have a request to make, Dorothea."
"What is it?" said Dorothea, with a dread in her mind.
"It is that you will let me know, deliberately, whether, in case of my death, you will carry out my wishes: whether you will avoid doing what I should deprecate, and apply yourself to do what I should desire."
Dorothea was not taken by surprise: many incidents had been leading her to the conjecture of some intention on her husband's part which might make a new yoke for her. She did not answer immediately.
"You refuse?" said Mr Casaubon, with more edge in his tone.
"No, I do not yet refuse," said Dorothea, in a clear voice, the need of freedom asserting itself within her; "but it is too solemn -- I think it is not right -- to make a promise when I am ignorant what it will bind me to." Whatever affection prompted I would do without promising."
"But you would use your own judgement: I ask you to obey mine; you refuse."
"No, dear, no!" said Dorothea, beseechingly, crushed by opposing fears. "But may I wait and reflect a little while? I desire with my whole soul to do what will comfort you; but I cannot give any pledge suddenly -- still less a pledge to do I know not what."
"You cannot then confide in the nature of my wishes?"
"Grant me till to-morrow," said Dorothea beseechingly.
"Till to-morrow then," said Mr Casaubon.
Discuss Mr. Causabon’s request, and Dorthea’s anguish as she makes a decision.
5) Dorothea never gives her answer to Casaubon, at the end of the same chapter we read:
"He exhausted himself last night," Dorothea said to herself, thinking at first that he was asleep, and that the summer-house was too damp a place to rest in. But then she remembered that of late she had seen him take that attitude when she was reading to him, as if he found it easier than any other; and that he would sometimes speak, as well as listen, with his face down in that way. She went into the summer-house and said, "I am come, Edward; I am ready."
He took no notice, and she thought that he must be fast asleep. She laid her hand on his shoulder, and repeated, "I am ready!" Still he was motionless; and with a sudden confused fear, she leaned down to him, took off his velvet cap, and leaned her cheek close to his head, crying in a distressed tone,
"Wake, dear, wake! Listen to me. I am come to answer."
But Dorothea never gave her answer.
Later in the day, Lydgate was seated by her bedside, and she was talking deliriously, thinking aloud, and recalling what had gone through her mind the night before. She knew him, and called him by his name, but appeared to think it right that she should explain everything to him; and again, and again, begged him to explain everything to her husband.
"Tell him I shall go to him soon: I am ready to promise. Only, thinking about it was so dreadful -- it has made me ill. Not very ill. I shall soon be better. Go and tell him."
But the silence in her husband's ear was never more to be broken.
Discuss Dorothea’s decision, and her reaction to her husband’s death.
6)
Chapter 49 opens with a revelation about Causbon’s will, and the desire of James and Mr. Brooke to protect her from learning about the change he made in the will. What do you think about the will? What do you think about the reaction of those who love Dorothea to have read it, and what do you think of Dorothea’s reaction (in
Chapter 50)
7) In
Chapter 52 , Fred makes the decision to enter the church, so that he can ask for Mary’s hand. What do you think about his reluctance to enter the church, and of his opinion as to why he wouldn’t be a good clergyman:
Merely that I don't like it. I don't like divinity, and preaching, and feeling obliged to look serious. I like riding across country, and doing as other men do. I don't mean that I want to be a bad fellow in any way; but I've no taste for the sort of thing people expect of a clergyman. And yet what else am I to do? My father can't spare me any capital, else I might go into farming. And he has no room for me in his trade. And of course I can't begin to study for law or physic now, when my father wants me to earn something…
Discuss Fred’s decision, the Vicar’s reaction, and Mary’s reaction to the Vicar when he tells her of Fred’s decision.
8) The book ends with a focus on Mr. Bulstrode (
Chapter 53) What do you think of this character, and why does Eliot focus on him as we end this section?
9) Why do you think the Book was named “The Dead Hand”?
10) Anything else I have missed?
