tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861127753744077469.post6968437885037628735..comments2024-03-28T03:26:57.183-04:00Comments on Romance Around the Corner: Heroine Week, Day 6 – An Un-Heroic Heroine: Dorothea of Middlemarch by Amara RoyceRomance Around the Cornerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11204919057662563713noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861127753744077469.post-50102397770643597842013-07-14T16:35:13.624-04:002013-07-14T16:35:13.624-04:00I loved Dorothea and MIDDLEMARCH when I read them ...I loved Dorothea and MIDDLEMARCH when I read them as a teen-ager and still feel great affection and admiration for the novel. However, when I tried to re-read it, it did not touch me in the same way. Dorothea's idealism seemed youthful, naïve, maybe quixotic. At the same time, neither of the men she married were worthy of her and the great sadness and regret I feel for her and Lydgate is that, together, they could have rocked the world and each other. Lydgate and Dorothea remain the HEA-that-should-have-been; this is why I've always thought of Eliot as an anti-romantic and I cannot count her in the romance novel tradition. <br /><br />Nevertheless, the final paragraph about the "unvisited tombs" never fails to make me burst into tears, as do the last 50 pages of THE MILL ON THE FLOSS.Miss Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17728640346939007988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861127753744077469.post-19157524897022518012013-07-14T14:03:27.553-04:002013-07-14T14:03:27.553-04:00I feel the same way...it's a very complicated ...I feel the same way...it's a very complicated middle space--celebrating a conscious, active agency in domesticity but risking the implication that this is the best one can do. I find myself haunted by this line, also in the concluding chapter: "Many who knew her, thought it a pity that so substantive and rare a creature should have been absorbed into the life of another, and be only known in a certain circle as a wife and mother. But no one stated exactly what else that was in her power she ought rather to have done."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10138229043900728507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861127753744077469.post-72136605100901417142013-07-14T00:53:37.664-04:002013-07-14T00:53:37.664-04:00In the almost 30 years that I have "known&quo...In the almost 30 years that I have "known" Dorothea Brooke, my feelings about her and the ways I identify (or don't) with her have changed. But she's still one of my heroines and one of my favorite fictional characters.<br /><br />I think part of what I love about her is that the whole trajectory of her story is that there can be something "heroic," something that makes the world better, about an ordinary domestic life. A stereotypically feminine life. At the same time, I (and I think Dorothea) worry that celebrating that kind of heroism can become an excuse for not doing more. The complexity of her portrayal, her human-ness, the questions this character raises about what it means to live a good life, all of them have made her a touchstone for me for many years.<br /><br />Thanks for this post!Liz Mc2https://www.blogger.com/profile/06791468134387620449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861127753744077469.post-29819746978343656102013-07-13T17:12:52.215-04:002013-07-13T17:12:52.215-04:00Regarding that fear of Casaubon-ian failings, I...Regarding that fear of Casaubon-ian failings, I've absolutely been there and thought that. <br /><br />She's also so determined to sacrifice herself and deny her worldly desires that it's finally a relief when she accepts that part of herself. I'm eternally fascinated by the various contrasts among the female characters.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10138229043900728507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861127753744077469.post-82224673531438483062013-07-13T17:05:43.663-04:002013-07-13T17:05:43.663-04:00Yes! It raises the question of what is truly heroi...Yes! It raises the question of what is truly heroic!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10138229043900728507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861127753744077469.post-12503583938484407652013-07-13T08:46:26.313-04:002013-07-13T08:46:26.313-04:00I love Middlemarch so much and Dorothea is a huge ...I love Middlemarch so much and Dorothea is a huge part of the reason why. I love that she is so determined to make her life count, even if she chooses the wrong way to go about it, or at least the wrong man to support. As an aside, I have been haunted by the spectre of Mr Casaubon in my academic work for years. What if there is some book in German that I haven't read which contradicts my entire argument? Help!!!! I'd forgotten that last paragraph you quoted but it's exactly right. In the end, for all of us, what makes our lives count is the effect we have on those around us. Poor Mr Lydgate knows that, from the effects of Rosamond Vincy on his life. <br /><br />I need to read it again, I think!Roshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02669423378438380019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861127753744077469.post-3486956999471948182013-07-13T08:38:41.080-04:002013-07-13T08:38:41.080-04:00I love this book, and thank you for this really co...I love this book, and thank you for this really considered and sensitive examination of Middlemarch. The part you quoted is always a punch in the gut:<br /><br />"But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts<br /><br />"Kick-ass" heroism is so often male-gendered. I like to think that Eliot's argument at the end was maybe an attempt for us to consider more empathetic/female-gendered talents as valuable as the male/flashy kinds.<br />Rubehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06989489327723225652noreply@blogger.com