Volume V – The Dead Hand

The fifth book, “The Dead Hand,” focuses mainly on Dorothea and Casaubon’s marriage, which is continuing to deteriorate.  When the volume opens, Dorothea has decided to seek out Lydgate and find out exactly what he has told Casaubon about the nature of his illness.  Dorothea presents herself at Lydgate’s house, where she does not find the doctor, but she does find his wife entertaining Will Ladislaw.  Confused and dismayed, wondering how many other women (aside from herself and Rosamond Lydgate) have entertained Ladislaw alone, Dorothea flees to the fever hospital, where she finds Lydgate.  Lydgate confirms that he has given Casaubon the full information about his condition, and then solicits a donation to the hospital from Dorothea.

Knowing that Casaubon is aware of his condition, Dorothea devotes her attention to keeping the old windbag as calm and serene as possible.  Casaubon, for his part, has decided that he must involve Dorothea more fully in his work if he is to have a chance of completing his Key to All Mythologies before he goes to see for himself which mythologies are true.  He keeps Dorothea busy, even waking her up in the middle of the night to read and make notes for him.  One night, Casaubon is oddly energized.  He asks Dorothea to promise him that after he departs this life, she will not do anything which he finds “repugnant.”  Basically, he wants to tie her down even as a widow.  Dorothea balks at giving this promise in the middle of the night and assures Casaubon that she will answer him the next day.  She believes that he intends to extract a promise from her that she will carry on his work after he is gone.  Dorothea has started to doubt the genius of the Key to All Mythologies, and she has no interest in being yoked to the project for the rest of her life – even if she would have happily helped a living Casaubon with it as long as necessary.  (My personal feeling is that Casaubon was thinking of Will Ladislaw when he asked for this promise – but such a thought doesn’t enter Dorothea’s somewhat naïve mind.)

The next morning, Dorothea still doesn’t feel ready to give her answer.  Casaubon informs her that he is going for a walk and she can come to find him when she’s ready.  Pitying the old grump, Dorothea decides that she will promise Casaubon whatever he wants.  She hurries out to the yew tree walk, where she finds her husband, but (spoiler alert!) it’s too late for her to promise him anything.

Going through Casaubon’s will, Sir James and Uncle Brooke discover that he recently added a codicil stating that all of the property he was leaving to Dorothea would be forfeit upon her marriage to Will Ladislaw… but not anyone else.  Sir James and Mr. Brooke are shocked and disgusted by the codicil, which they consider ungentlemanly.  They worry that Dorothea’s reputation will be compromised by the imputation, which all Middlemarch will take, that there is something inappropriate between her and Will Ladislaw.  Dorothea, when she learns of the codicil, is shocked as well, and dismayed that Casaubon hid this jealousy from her.  As for marrying Will… well, that hadn’t occurred to Dorothea.  (I’ll bet it will now.)  Will, for his part, feels he can’t marry Dorothea unless he makes something of himself.  So… nothing to worry about?  (Famous last words.)

There are a few side trips in this volume, mainly discussing Mr. Brooke’s continuing political aspirations, which serve as a platform for George Eliot to discuss the economic issues of the day (whilst adding a little bit of humor) and Lydgate’s problems with the medical establishment in Middlemarch.  Lydgate’s well-meaning but thoughtless comments about doctors who run up big bills for “cures,” read as harsh criticism by the newcomer, and the local doctors don’t appreciate it – pitting Lydgate and Bulstrode against the rest of the community, and potentially jeopardizing the fever hospital unless they can drum up some more donations and some more visiting physicians.  Oh, and speaking of Bulstrode, he’s purchased Stone Court from Mr. Rigg Featherstone, and seems to be sitting pretty… until Rigg Featherstone’s stepfather, one Mr. Raffles, appears and seems to have something on Mr. Bulstrode.  What kind of damaging information he possesses, I can only begin to speculate… but I’ll bet we find out soon, because Raffles doesn’t seem the type to let go.

Volume VI – The Widow and the Wife

Volume VI sees Dorothea returning to Lowick to take up her role as single mistress of the estate.  She spends the beginning of her widowhood with her sister, Celia, until she can’t stand to spend any more time ogling Celia’s baby.  Meanwhile, Sir James, Mrs. Cadwallader, and the local gentry scheme to marry Dorothea off to a suitable aristocrat.  Their plotting comes from a good place – Casaubon’s unwarranted suspicion, memorialized in his obnoxious codicil, could compromise Dorothea’s reputation and the sooner she gets married again – and to someone appropriate – the better.  Dorothea, for her part, assures Celia that she has no intention of marrying anyone ever again.

Meanwhile, Fred Vincy is in search of a future, too.  Fred’s hopes of marrying Mary Garth appear to hinge on his finding an appropriate career.  Mary has told him, in no uncertain terms, that she will never marry him if he becomes a clergyman – the career his father has sent him to university for – because, let’s face it, we all know that Fred would be an absolutely abominable clergyman.  Fred asks Mr. Farebrother, a Garth family friend and the new Vicar of Lowick, to find out if Mary has any feeling for him whatsoever, regardless of his career – unwittingly putting the poor Vicar in a very uncomfortable position, because he had cherished hopes of making Mary “Mrs. Farebrother” one day.  Mary, also not realizing Farebrother’s feelings for her, admits that she does have feelings for Fred.  That’s all Fred needs to get himself up and on the job market… and he ends up convincing Mary’s father, Mr. Garth, to hire him and teach him the land management business.  Fred’s family is dismayed, thinking he’s chosen a position that will bring him down in the world, but Fred doesn’t care.  As long as he has the hope of winning Mary, he could dig ditches.  (Am I the only one who is kind of starting to root for Fred and Mary?)

Meanwhile, Rosamond Vincy, who married “up” to become Mrs. Lydgate, is going through a bumpy patch.  While entertaining one of Lydgate’s aristocratic relatives, she goes out riding (against Lydgate’s wishes) and ends up losing her pregnancy as a result.  Lydgate waits until Rosamond has recovered before giving her more bad news: they’re deeply in debt and will have to sell off some of their household furnishings.  Rosamond has a not-very-becoming temper tantrum over this.  When I started this book, I was all set to sympathize with Rosamond, but she is seriously bugging me.  I just have no patience with risky pregnancy behavior.  Rosamond, you are dead to me.

Another Middlemarcher who’s having some serious trouble in this volume?  Mr. Bulstrode.  We finally find out the secret that Raffles has been using to blackmail the banker (spoilers ahead!): back in the day, when he was very young, Bulstrode married a wealthy widow and managed to contrive inheriting all of her property, by hiding the fact from her that her runaway daughter was still alive.  (What a jerk!)  He justified this by casting Sarah, the daughter, as an unrighteous enemy of God, and convinced himself that it would be serving God to keep Sarah’s rightful inheritance from her.  Lovely!  /sarcasm.  Turns out, Sarah had a son, and Raffles knows about him, too.  Bulstrode decides that the only way to protect his righteous tush is to bring Sarah’s son in on it, give him some money (although he has “no legal claim” as Bulstrode repeats over and over) and hope he’s satisfied.  But there’s a little wrinkle: Sarah’s son wants nothing to do with the money.  His inheritance came from the proceeds of a business that was, maybe, on the wrong side of the law, and was certainly unsavory, and this young man doesn’t feel that he could preserve his honor or his reputation as a gentleman if he takes this dirty money.  The name of this principled guy?  Will Ladislaw.

Poor Will.  It’s one thing after another for him.  He’s already miserable enough when La Rosamond lets slip the gossip about Casaubon’s codicil – news to Will.  Given these new developments, he decides that he can’t delay leaving Middlemarch anymore, but he feels he has to see Dorothea one more time, to assure her that he’s never done anything blameworthy.  Will and Dorothea are thrown together when she unexpectedly turns up at Uncle Brooke’s house while Will is searching for something in the library, and they both leave the interview pretty discontented.  Will says more than he is really willing to say about his true feelings for Dorothea, and Dorothea (true to form) misinterprets his statements.  She thinks that maybe Will is saying he cares for her… but he could just as easily be talking about Rosamond Lydgate.  Both feel the gulf widening between them (ah, young love and its inability to just say what it really means!) and the volume ends with Dorothea returning to Lowick and Will quitting Middlemarch – forever, he believes.

Thoughts Thus Far

Ugh, Casaubon.  What a creep!  It’s bad enough that he made Dorothea miserable while he was alive – he has to control her from beyond the grave, too?  Jerrrrrrrrk.  As I tweeted, the lawyer in me immediately started brainstorming ways that Dorothea could get around the codicil.  (“Gift” Will all the property, and then marry him?)  Too bad I don’t know anything about the justice system in 1830s England.  And too bad those two can’t seem to just say what they mean to each other.

And double ugh, Rosamond!  I want to pity her – after all, she’s never known anything but indulgence, so why should she be expected to immediately grasp the necessity of budgeting?  But I just can’t get on board with this spoiled brat.  Rosamond’s selfishness has too many consequences – plunging Lydgate into debt, causing her to lose a pregnancy because she capriciously went riding with Mr. Rich Relation – for me to feel for her.  Even though Lydgate is partially to blame for his financial problems, he has my hearty sympathies for being stuck with this harpy.

Are you following along with #Middlemarch13?  What did you think of Volumes V and VI?  Lots of action here!  Stay tuned for the conclusion of the readalong, coming next Monday.