PROSE ANALYSIS OF AN EXCERPT FROM MIDDLEMARCH

BY GEORGE ELIOT

“Heaven is under our feet as well

as over our heads.”

-- Henry David Thoreau

THEME/“WHAT”

According to the narrator, religion and lofty

ideals act as both Dorothea’s greatest strength

and her greatest weakness. These ideals are

responsible not only for her best

characteristics, but also her rashness that

could lead to a future unintentional martyrdom.

LITERARY ELEMENTS

Tone shifts

Diction

Syntax

Imagery

Irony

Allusions

Sentence structure

TONE

Overall: condescending

Tone shifts

Diction

Syntax

Imagery

Irony

CLOTHING

“Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems

to be thrown into relief by poor dress. Her hand and

wrist were so finely formed that she could wear

sleeves not less bare of style than those in which the

Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian painters” (Eliot 2-

5). • Irony: attractive even without fashion sense• Blessed Virgin reference (religion=strength)• Diction: “beauty,” “finely,” “relief”• Tone: reverent

HORSE RIDING

Horse riding diction: “charm,” “unaccountably,”

“bewitching,” “loved,” “glowed,” “pleasure” (Eliot 50-59)

“Most men thought her bewitching when she was on

horseback,” (Eliot 52-53)• Shows perception of others • Tone: reverent

“Riding was an indulgence which she allowed herself in

spite of conscientious qualms,” (Eliot 56-58)• Positive action caused by Dorothea’s outward personality

MARTYRDOM INFERENCE

“Her mind was theoretic, and yearned by its nature after some lofty

conception of the world which might frankly include the parish of Tipton

and her own rule of conduct there; she was enamored of intensity and

greatness, and rash in embracing whatever seemed to her to have those

aspects; likely to seek martyrdom, to make retractions, and then to incur

martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought it” (Eliot 23-

30)• Syntax: long, compound sentences• Long style of narration gives off a prediction effect• Makes lofty inferences about her future (condescending) • Diction: “theoretic,” “yearned,” “lofty,” shows her martyrdom will be

caused by outward capacity

COMPARISONS TO CELIA

“Miss Brooke’s large eyes seemed like her religion,

too unusual and striking” (Eliot 45-46) • Large eyes: child like imagery• Religion makes her inferior to Celia

“Poor Dorothea! Compared with her, the innocent

looking Celia was knowing and worldly wise” (Eliot

46-47) • Younger sister being wiser-condescending

MARRIAGE TONE

“Dorothea, with all her eagerness to know the truths of life, retained very

childlike ideas about marriage” (Eliot 70-72)

Childlike both explicit and implicit

Takes on Dorothea’s perspective when intellectual marriage is shown

positively : “She felt,” “If she had,” “her remarks,” “affect her,”

Last line: “The really delightful marriage must be where your husband was

a sort of father, and could teach you even Hebrew, if you wished it” (Eliot 80-

82) • Hints of sarcasm• Shifts away from Dorothea’s perspective-denotes sarcasm• Shows that her outward capacity will lead to an unhappy marriage

(martyrdom)

RELIGION

Goes both ways

Numerous allusions

R E L I G I O N I N T H E P I E C E I S U S E D T O A C C E N T U AT E T H E G O O D A N D B A D A S P E C T S

Religious allusion to the Virgin Mary in first 8 lines

of excerpt throw her beauty “into relief”; she “could

wear sleeves not less bare of style than those in

which the Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian

painters,” relates her with a sort of glorified iconic

religious image with “the impressiveness of a fine

quotation from the Bible”

RELIGION (CONT.)

Line 17 References to Blaise Pascal’s Pensées

(famous work espousing Christianity)

Line 25 A “parish in Tipton”

Line 73 Richard Hooker(Oxford theologian)

Line 74-75 John Milton(famous religious author)

Shows mix of religious and high intellectual ideas

RELIGIOUS MARTYRDOM

Line 28 “Likely to seek martyrdom, to make retractions, and then

to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought

it”

Connection to sort of martyrdom in marriage in last paragraph

Martyrdom has a Christian connotation, referring to venerated

people that died for the sake of God, refusing to renounce their

religion and thus facing severe persecution and then death.

Not something one should “seek”, and her seeming disposition to

seek it in marriage is petty in comparison.

MARRIAGE (IN DEPTH)

Tone

Irony

Contrast

MARRIAGE

Lines 70-72: “Dorothea, with all her

eagerness to know the truths of life,

retained very childlike ideas about

marriage.” • Eagerness in and of itself is a childlike trait• Irony: “truth” versus “childlike ideas” • Ideas of marriage not the same as the truth of

it

MARRIAGE

Lines 79- 82: “The really delightful marriage must be

where your husband was a sort of a father, and could

teach you even Hebrew, if you wished it.” • Doesn’t understand marriage should be out of love

rather than a thirst to further knowledge • Irony: “marriage” versus “father”

• “Marriage” typically is a symbol of love • Not looking for a lover…. “father” symbolizes

someone to look out for her and teach her rather than someone to love her.

MARRIAGE

Line 72-77: “She felt sure that she would have

accepted the judicious Hooker…. Or any of the

other great men whose odd habits it would have

been glorious piety to endure.’• Ironic: “glorious” versus “endure”• If something is glorious, there shouldn’t be a

need to “endure’ because it should be something you want to do

• If not happy after enduring….. Would she be martyring herself?