Middlemarch

Middlemarch Questions and Answers

Discuss George Eliot's Middlemarch as a Victorian novel.

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How did George Eliot use social history as the background of Middlemarch? 

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Describe some parallels between the stories of Dorothea and Lydgate in George Eliot's Middlemarch.

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What role does social class or birth play in Middlemarch by George Eliot?

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Describe the character of Dorothea as a conventional victorian heroine in George Elliot's Middlemarch.

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What are the major themes and concerns that run through Middlemarch?

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In Middlemarch, discuss the relationship of Casaubon and Dorothea in terms of feminism.

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How does Dorothea justify wearing the emeralds?

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What are the names of Dorothea's two suitors?

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In what sense, if any, may Middlemarch be called the tragedy of provincial life?

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Examine the portrayal of authority figures in Middlemarch.

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How does the structure of Middlemarch show contrast and assessment by weaving separate strands into an evergrowing tissue of relations and connections?

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Middlemarch is a highly unusual novel. Although it is primarily a Victorian novel, it has many characteristics typical to modern novels. How does Eliot's dislike for the tropes of conventional romance influence her treatment of marriage in the novel?

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What are the major themes and concerns that run through Middlemarch?

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Describe how Middlemarch is not just Dorothea's story, but also a web of interpersonal and societal relations.

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While in Rome, Casaubon is asked to sit for a portrait of which renowned philosopher?

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Discuss determinism in 'Middlemarch'.

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How does one moment in Book One set up a conflict to be faced in a moment in Book Two? Which quotations connect?

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Why might George Eliot have written such a detailed novel about provincial llife?

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What are Dorothea’s aspirations, hopes, and dreams, and how does she express sorrow or anger after losing something she valued or didn’t know she had? How do Causabon, Ladislaw, and Will, in chapters 20–22, provide Dorothea with further challenges or comfort?

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To what extent is Dorthea’s background and education tied up with her community idealism in Middlemarch?  

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What narrative strategies or techniques does Eliot use in Middlemarch that show literary realism? Can you use text from Middlemarch to show examples?

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What are the double standards in Middlemarch?

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What 2 moments or quotes connect in book 5 of Middlemarch, and how do they connect?

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What are Dorothea’s hopes and expectations, and how are they shattered in chapter 20 with Casaubon, chapter 21 with Will Ladislaw, and chapter 22 with Will, Casaubon, and Naumann? What has she lost or gained, and how does she respond to the sorrow and anger at her loss?

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What is the significance of Henry James' and Walter Besant's arguments in their essays "The Art of Fiction," and how does their debate influence the understanding of and relate to George Eliot's narrative techniques in Middlemarch?

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What are some common elements between The Portrait of a Lady and Middlemarch?

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What are two quotations that connect in book 5 of Middlemarch, and how do they connect?

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