Middlemarch
Middlemarch
by George Eliot

Middlemarch Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

Sometimes, there’s more to Lit than meets the eye.

Portrait of Will's Grandmother

The portrait of Will's grandmother comes up again and again. Dorothea associates it with Will, because it looks like him, but it could also be seen as a symbol for unhappiness in marriage. It seems...

The Haunting of Raffles

The portrait of Will's grandmother isn't the only symbol of history coming back to haunt the present. Bulstrode's dodgy history comes back to haunt him in the form of Raffles. Raffles is the only o...

Horseback Riding

So many characters discuss horseback riding that it just has to be important. Dorothea gives it up at the beginning of the novel, even though she enjoys it, because she wants to concentrate on more...

Lending, Spending, and Debt

There's an awful lot of debt, both literal and figurative, in Middlemarch: Fred Vincy gets himself into trouble by persuading Caleb Garth to co-sign a loan that he isn't able to repay, Lydgate fall...
Questions
Characters