Middlemarch's Dorothea Brooke and Medieval Hagiography

Authors

Judith Johnston

Date of this Version

1992

Document Type

Article

Citation

The George Eliot Review 23 (1992)

Comments

Published by The George Eliot Review Online https://GeorgeEliotReview.org

Abstract

Saint Theresa's life of achievement is offered as a contrast to the heroine of Middlemarch, Dorothea Brooke, and all that Dorothea fails to achieve. George Eliot examines Dorothea' s life in part through the medium of medieval hagiography, a form which recognises the tensions and crises through which a martyr passes. But George Eliot depends upon the paradox that martyrdom is achieved as readily from submissiveness and ineffectuality as from resistance and effective administration. Thus Eliot offers the reader a heroine whose life passes through a state of metamorphosis which is very like the passage through martyrdom regardless of whether the saint be a Dorothea or a Theresa.

Eliot's discourse in the opening paragraph of the 'Prelude' to Middlemarch seeks for harmony and selflessness on a national scale but offers at the same time that limiting contrast 'domestic reality'. 1 Theresa rejects chivalry and romance for an epic life that is illuminated and strengthened by a staunch religious faith. She symbolises reform that is accomplished not through violent disruptiveness but through hard, consistent work and strong-willed determination.

The second paragraph of the 'Prelude' introduces a new note, the other 'Theresas' who have 'no epic life', and more importantly, 'no coherent social faith' (26) and are finally dispersed.