The document summarizes key marriage issues and relationships in George Eliot's novel Middlemarch. Dorothea Brooke makes an unhappy marriage to the elderly Reverend Edward Casaubon, hoping to help with his scholarly work. However, Casaubon does not appreciate her intellect. Against Casaubon's wishes, Dorothea later marries his young cousin Will Ladislaw. Rosamond Vincy marries the idealistic doctor Tertius Lydgate but their marriage becomes unhappy as she loses interest when he loses money. Fred Vincy wishes to marry his childhood friend Mary Garth but her family wants him to become a clergyman instead of the life Mary prefers. Sir James Chettam marries Celia Brooke