Essay Database

Rosamond Revisited In Middlemarch, George Eliot presents a complex web of characters and bonds that cannot be classified into distinct categories. Dorothea and Casaubon, Lydgate and Bulstrode, and Fred and the Garths represent a wide spectrum of human relations. Rosamond Vincy and Tertius Lydgate encompass one such relationship. The relationship seems transparent on the surface, but closer inspection reveals a more complex core. Eliot creates a new depth to Rosamond using the layers of her …

…nature, or perhaps cultivated from society or family. At the same time, completely excusing Rosamond leads to a mistake in judging her, as Lydgate discovers. Therefore, the reader must come to a conclusion, neither condemning nor excusing, which Eliot leaves ambivalent. As the narrator, she never directly dictates what the reader should feel about Rosamond, but by presenting opposing perspectives on her character, El! iot successfully attempts to show the reader “poor” Rosamond. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**