This document provides an analysis of feminine aspects in George Eliot's novel Middlemarch. It discusses the ideal Victorian woman and the separate spheres of men and women during this time period. Three major female characters from Middlemarch - Dorothea Brooke, Mary Garth, and Rosamond Vincy - are examined in more detail. Dorothea Brooke initially marries for ideals but finds the marriage stifling, while Mary Garth and Rosamond Vincy take very different approaches to marriage based on practicality versus social status respectively. The document questions Eliot's portrayal of women's limited options and fate being centered around marriage in Victorian society.

1. Welcome
Everyone

2. Name: Jayti R. Thakar.
Paper no. 6
Subject: Victorian Literature.
Assignment Topic: Feminine
Aspect in ‘Middlemarch’.
Sub Topic: In reference to
‘Womanhood in Victorian
Britain’.
Roll. No: 34
Department Of English
M.K. Bhavnagar University.

3. Feminine Aspect in
‘Middlemarch’- George Eliot
In reference to ‘Womanhood in
Victorian Britain’

4. George Eliot- Originally Mary Ann
Evans
• Born- 22 of Nov, 1819
• Place of Birth- Chilvers
Coton, England
• Occupation- Author and
Journalist
• Death- 22 Des, 1880.
• Wrote books exploring
human psychology
• Her works noted for its
realism.
• Influenced by Jane Austen.

5. Womanhood in Victorian Britain
 Ideal Woman
Her place in two
different spheres
Her suggestive
‘Dressing’
Her social
functions.

6. Ideal Woman
Ideal
Woman
pious
respectable
Busy, no life
of leisure
devotional

7. Two different spheres
Two Spheres
Private Sphere
For women- at
home for
household.
Public Sphere
For men- at
workplace business,
commerce and
Politics.

8. Dressings of women
•Women’s clothes began to mirror women’s
function.
•In 19th century women’s fashion became more
sexual.
•By wearing dresses that resembled their furnishing.
•Thus, the female body was dressed to emphasize a
woman’s separation from the world of work.

9. Her Social Function
Wife
• Being a wife she
knows her
husband’s need.
Mother
• Motherhood was
woman's highest
achievement.
• The childless single
woman was a
figure to be pitied.
Domestic
Manager
• sexual hierarchy
doesn’t allow woman
at work sphere.
• But, can manage
house well.

10. Middlemarch

11. Three major couples- around whom the story revolves.
Dorothea Brooke Edward Casaubon
Tertius Lydgate Mar Rosamond Vincy
Mary Garth Fred Vincy
Dorothea Brooke Will Ladislaw
First
marries
Maries
Maries
Second
Marries

12. Major Female Characters.
• Dorothea Brooke.
• Mary Garth.
• Rosamond Vincy.

13. Mary Garth
• The practical, plain, and kind daughter of
Caleb and Susan Garth, she works as Mr.
Featherstone's nurse.
• She and Fred Vincy were childhood
sweethearts, but she refuses to allow him to
woo him until he shows himself willing and
able to live seriously, practically, and sincerely.

14. Rosamond Vincy
• Is vain, beautiful, and shallow woman. Rosamond has a
high opinion of her own charms and a low opinion of
Middlemarch society.
• She marries Tertius Lydgate because she believes that
he will raise her social standing and keep her
comfortable.
• When her husband encounters financial difficulties,
she thwarts his efforts to economize, seeing such
sacrifices as beneath her and insulting.
• She is unable to bear the idea of losing status in
Middlemarch society.

15. Dorothea Brooke
• Is an intelligent,
wealthy woman
with great
aspirations.
• Dorothea
avoids
displaying her
wealth.

16. Cont…
• She marries the
elderly Reverend
Edward Casaubon,
with the idealistic idea
of helping him with
his research project.

17. Cont…
• However, the marriage
was a mistake, as
Casaubon does not take
her seriously and resents
her youth, enthusiasm,
and energy.
• Dorothea becomes friends
with Casaubon’s relative,
Will Ladislaw. Some years
after Casaubon's death she
falls in love with Will and
marries him.

18. Different matrimonial Concerns
• Money
• Social Status
• Freedom
• Love
• To help (from outer perspective)

19. Why Matrimony is the only thing which can
give static life to the Woman?
• She was not
independent.
• ‘Intelligent’, though
domestic life remains
her world.
• She remains fully
dependent on first
father and then the
husband.

20. Eliot’s concern about ‘What’?
• ‘To help’ was the only purpose of Dorothea to
Marry Casaubon?
• Did Eliot try to criticize patriarchal society of
her time?
• What is the prime concern of Eliot to portray
woman in subjugated way in her novel?
• Why matrimony remains the ‘only fate’ of a
‘Woman’?

21. Summing up…

22. Resources
• Biography.com
• Sparks note.com
• Wikipedia.

23. Submitted to
• Department of English
• M.K. Bhavnagar University

24. Thanks for visit us….Farwell