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George Eliot's Middlemarch - 'The Dead Hand' (Lecture Five) (Patreon)

Published:
2022-09-06 17:49:30
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

"The lights were all changed for him both without and within."

In the fifth instalment of George Eliot's masterpiece, we continue to see how extraordinarily difficult it is to bring about personal and societal change as our lives continue to intertwine with those of literature's finest characters.

Timestamps:

  • 0:00 'The Dead Hand'
  • 3:09 the morality of George Eliot
  • 10:45 Rosamond & Lydgate 
  • 16:00 Eliot's complex characters 
  • 19:00 the battle for medical reform
  • 23:00 echoes vs originality 
  • 27:45 Lydgate's hero 
  • 29:30 on unhappy marriage 
  • 35:00 the Shellyean Will Ladislaw
  • 37:00 change, love & self-interest 
  • 44:00 Dorothea's internal change
  • 49:00 on hindering & wills 
  • 55:00 progress being imperfect
  • 57:00 the difficulty of change
  • 1:00:00 the close of this episode

Here is the content to date for our Middlemarch reading journey:

Questions to Consider:

1) George Eliot wanted her work to arouse our social sympathies. Do you feel like Middlemarch does that successfully?

2) Who are your favourite and least favourite characters thus far? Have your opinions about anyone changed?

Happy Middlemarching, folks!

Files

Previews only

George Eliot's Middlemarch - 'The Dead Hand' (Lecture Five)

0:00 'The Dead Hand' 3:09 the morality of George Eliot 10:45 Rosamond & Lydgate 16:00 Eliot's complex characters 19:00 the battle for medical reform 23:00 echoes vs originality 27:45 Lydgate's hero 29:30 on unhappy marriage 35:00 the Shellyean Will Ladislaw 37:00 change, love & self-interest 44:00 Dorothea's internal change 49:00 on hindering & wills 55:00 progress being imperfect 57:00 the difficulty of change 1:00:00 the close of this episode

Comments

Jonathon Glover

It’s getting harder and harder to wait the month before reading the next book. Now that we know the characters, and Eliot has put the time in to making us feel a part of this town, you can see that she is really ramping up the action, and revelling in it too. This has a lot of action in it, from the death of Casubon, the fraudulent Mr Ruffles returning, the hospital, the paper, the election. It could read like a soap opera. But in Eliot’s scope it is much more. Both a pager turner and a rigorous interrogation of the private and public world we inhabit. I’m surprised by how contemporary the public observations about media, politics and industry are. The idea that people who read ‘their paper’ and not the others is the same social issue we talk about today. Add on the exploration of how new ways of thinking are inevitably rejected by the conservative members of society, and it shows that our issues are no different than 200 years ago. It also is reminding me of two important ideas. 1. Be with the person you love. 2. Be open to new experiences and ways of thinking - we don’t have to demonise the other. Loving these series of lectures Ben. Even if I am a year late to the party…

Suz R

I honestly can’t say if I have a favorite or least favorite character for in one way or another there are parts of all of them that I can see in myself. The Doctor wanting to be in charge of his practice the way that he sees fit and also be in charge of his home …. For if he can’t take care of his home then how can he take care of his business. Dorothea being married to a man she never really loved …. but doing it out of a sense of inner duty hoping he would treat her and see her as an equal …. Yet him dealing with jealousy and even hatred because he is unable to deal with his emotions …. So in order to have the last say he goes to the grace attempting to control her. And then the cousin who appears to be turning his life around yet loves the one woman he shouldn’t. Eliot leaves no stone unturned when it comes to the human side of things, and yet it is done in a way that causes you ( or at least me ) to have some depth of feeling for the characters involved. As I have mentioned earlier if this was written when television was at its peek with nighttime drama this would have given Dallas a run for the money.

hardcoreliterature
>>92244391

This is such a profound response to the work, Suz - one with which I completely resonate! George Eliot truly is a master of realism and moral ambiguity. We don't have wholly good or wholly bad characters. All are human, all in some degree relatable, all, as you say, show us parts of ourselves. A brilliant approach for rousing our social sympathies!