Social and Spiritual Energy in Middlemarch :: Eliot Middlemarch Essays

Social and Spiritual Energy in Middlemarch I do not believe that it is sufficient to say that Middlemarch explores the shipway in which social and spiritual energy can be frustrated it would be more appropriate to say that Middlemarch explores the ways in which social and spiritual energies (ideals if you will) be completely finished and perverted. One need single look to Lydgate to see an theoretical account of idealism being destroyed by the environment in which it is found. At the start of the novel, we are introduced to the young, poor and ambitious and most of all idealistic Doctor Lydgate, who has great plans for the fever hospital in Middlemarch. Throughout the novel, however, we see his plans frustrated by the designs of others, though in the first place the hypocritical thirsts of Nicholas Bulstrode. The second example of the idealism of the young being destroyed by the old is that of Dorothea. This can be seen by her continuing desire to bear a larger part of th e worlds misery or to chance upon Latin and Greek, both of which are continually thwarted by Casaubon, though this ends after his death, with her disco really of his selfish and suspicious nature, by way of the codicil. The show end who has their ambitions and ideals brought most obviously low is Lydgate. The earliest example is when he has to render the choice between Fairbrother and crank. Both of these characters are rather poor examples of the clergy (Fairbrother because of his gambling, and Tyke because of his rather lazy attitude). Our sympathies are clearly with Fairbrother for a number of reasons he doesnt gamble because he wants to, but because the wage he receives from running his parish unsocial is too small to support him and the various members of his family that rely on him. Lydgate has to show the choice between some one he likes as a person (Fairbrother) and someone who he needs help from (Bulstrode). It is clear that Lydgate is very similar to Fairbrother in a number of ways both are scientists, and both have great hopes for the future. It would therefore seem to be the case that Lydgate would automatically support Fairbrother. However, Bulstrode uses his money and his influence to ensure Tykes success. Bulstrode is another example of a character that has had his idealism and destroyed, though not by Middlemarch.