George Eliot’s treatment of vocation in Middlemarch
Middlemarch, one of the Victorian classics and George Eliot’s masterwork, is a socio-realistic novel. What distinguishes Middlemarch from its predecessors and contemporaries is the impassioned pursuit of vocation. It presents a series of intertwined storylines with a large cast of people. Women’s rights, marriage’s nature, romanticism, personal characteristics, religion, hypocrisy, political change, and education are all topics that need to be addressed. While the previous publications focused on love, religious objectives, and ideals, Middlemarch emphasized the importance of vocation in a man’s life and investigated the various elements linked with it.
She serialized it between December 1871 and 1872, just a few years after the Second Reform Bill. Considering its comedic parts, Middlemarch employs realism to depict historical events like the 1832 Reform Act. It examines nineteenth-century medicine as well as conservative viewpoints in an established society confronting unexpected change. According to Neale authors, she started working on the book in July 1869, but it was merely the story of Lydgate, the Vincys, Featherstone, and the Garths.
The story of Middlemarch is driven by two key life decisions. The first is marriage, and the second is vocation. Both options are taken seriously by Eliot. The story’s protagonists are on a quest for idealistic identity, which progresses the plot of the story. Dorothea, who is continuously driven by the desire to do good, is dissatisfied with the possibilities presented by Middlemarch. Meanwhile, Casaubon is looking for the ‘Key to all Mythologies’, while Lydgate is looking for the basic biological tissue that makes up all of our bodies. Their quest for their objectives is what put the novels in action.
The story strongly criticizes society’s limited opportunities for intellectual and ideological satisfaction for women. Dorothea, gripped by a desire to achieve something great, marries Casaubon and seeks to find fulfillment via his goal, but is saddened to discover his shame. Her infant school is the only way she can make a small contribution. Even her ideas to create cottages for renters are frowned upon by society. Dorothea marries Will Ladislaw at the end of the story, and she is exercising her satisfaction for big actions through him establishing parliamentary reforms. ‘It’s a pity that such a substantial and rare creature should be absorbed into the life of another and known as a wife and mother in certain circles’. Thus Eliot concludes Dorothea’s biography and, in doing so, delineates the experience of many such Victorian ladies who, tamed by society, were unable to develop their grandeur. She narrates the stories of many such Dorotheas who went to unvisited tombs and had their identities concealed. Eliot depicts the consequences of making the incorrect decision. She also goes into great depth about the effects of restricting women solely to the home realm.
Marriage is also portrayed in the novel as a career in which the conjugal partners support and motivate each other. Dorothea’s fervent desire for social improvement is never achieved. She ends up in a happy marriage, but there is a sense that her life as a wife and mother was a waste. Rosamond’s astute talents devolve into ego and deception. She is restless in the home, and her thwarted goals only lead to dissatisfaction for both herself and her spouse. By the virtue of marriage, Fred Vinci is freed from his squandered life and false profession, Dorothea from her self-deluded idealism, and Will Ladislaw from his hesitation. Eliot may have demonstrated the actual vocational notion of marriage by illustrating the marital lives of Caleb and Mary Grath. Vocation is an inherent component of one’s personality. The subject of vocation is so inextricably linked to the man’s character that it may appear to be an essential extension of oneself. “To say you love me without liking the medical man in me is like saying you love eating peaches but not the flavor,” Lydgate eloquently puts it. Eliot’s work is very experimental in structure and substance for her period, especially given that she was a woman writer. The work also goes into the issue of real versus false vocation. It appears to indicate that Causabon’s failure and Farebrother’s discontent are the consequence of a misguided profession, one which doesn’t motivate one to pursue high thoughts and deep joy. Fred is spared from the clergyman’s profession, which he has been not suited for, and finds a job under Caleb Garth.
The impact of society on one’s career choice is substantial. Middlemarch stubbornly refuses to behave like a regular novel. The story is centered in provincial England amid the stormy period of reform acts and industrialization developments. The society maintained its old conservatory image and was wary of adopting new ideas. The same may be seen in the way it affects the lives of its characters.Some of the characters disagree with Lydgate’s decision to study medicine and pursue a career as a doctor. Mr Vinci disapproves of him because of the pitiful salary he receives as a doctor. Similarly, Fred’s social ambitions urge him to contemplate becoming a clergyman and following in the footsteps of Farebrother, as cleric is regarded as a prestigious career deserving of a gentleman.
There are moral values in vocation as well. While Dorothea and Lydgate are motivated by charitable principles in their pursuit, Bulstrode is motivated by selfish objectives and adopts unethical ways to accumulate his fortune. Raffles brings about his fate later on, as revenge for his evil crimes. As a result, Middlemarch is a work that addresses the issue of vocation in a broad character and motivates readers. Readers might see themselves in the idealistic objectives pursued by Dorothea and Lydgate, or the pragmatism demonstrated by Forebrother; in the self-satisfaction of Garths, or the incorrigible Fred striving to alter his ways, and the indecisive Ladislaw.
Work Cited
E. George (Mary Ann Evans), Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life, 1871–1872
W. Joseph, Middlemarch: The Language of Art, 1982,
