Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews April 4, 2023 March 28, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Bambridge is a Middlemarch horse dealer. Fred Vincy sinks into his debt; Raffles meets him at a horse-fair and tells him everything about Bulstrode's past.
Dorothea is a kind-hearted and honest woman. She longs to find some way to improve the world. She thinks Casaubon is a great intellectual, but after she marries him, she quickly discovers that he is not passionate enough to make her happy. She also learns that she is not as submissive and sacrificing as she had previously thought. She draws plans for comfortable cottages to replace the ramshackle buildings on large estates. She helps Lydgate when he suffers for his connections with Bulstrode. She falls in love with Casaubon's young cousin, Will Ladislaw. She defies Casaubon's machinations and marries Will even though it means losing her inheritance as Casaubon's widow.
Brooke is Dorothea and Celia's bachelor uncle. He is a bumbling man who can never stick to an opinion, always wanting to please everyone. He hires Will Ladislaw to write for his paper, the Pioneer. He runs for a seat in Parliament on the Reform platform, but he lets his own tenants live in poverty and squalor. The scandal resulting from his hypocrisy prompts him to improve conditions on his own estate, Tipton Grange.
Celia is Dorothea's sister. She marries Sir James Chettam.
Nicholas Bulstrode is a wealthy Middlemarch banker. He is married to Walter Vincy's sister. Bulstrode professes to be a deeply religious Evangelical Protestant, but he has a dark past: he made his fortune as a pawnbroker selling stolen goods. He married Will Ladislaw's grandmother after her first husband died. Her daughter had run away years before, and she insisted that Bulstrode find her daughter before she re-married, because she wanted to leave her wealth to her only surviving child. Bulstrode located the daughter and her child, Will Ladislaw, but he kept her existence a secret. He bribed the man he hired to find her, John Raffles, to keep quiet. John Raffles blackmails him with this information. When Raffles becomes ill, Bulstrode cares for him. However, he disobeys Lydgate's medical advice, and Raffles dies as a result. When the scandal about his past and the circumstances of Raffles's death become known, Bulstrode leaves Middlemarch in shame. He purchases Stone Court from Joshua Rigg Featherstone.
Harriet Bulstrode is Walter Vincy's sister. She is a kind, honest, religious woman. No one in Middlemarch blames her for her husband's misdeeds. She resolves to stay with her husband even after she learns of his wrongdoing.
Elinor Cadwallader is the wife of the Rector at Tipton Grange, Brooke's estate. She was born to a good family, but she married down and angered her friends and families. She is a practical woman who is forever trying to play matchmaker to unmarried young people, including Dorothea, Celia, and Sir James.
Humphrey Cadwallader is the Rector at Tipton Grange, Brooke's estate. Unlike his wife, he doesn't believe in meddling in other people's affairs.
Edward Casaubon owns a large estate called Lowick. He is a scholarly clergyman. His lifelong ambition is to write the Key to all Mythologies, but he is insecure and uncertain about his own abilities. He marries Dorothea because he thinks she is completely submissive and worshipful. Her stubborn independence frustrates him, and he mistakenly believes that she is constantly criticizing him. Casaubon is Will Ladislaw's cousin. His mother's sister was disowned by her family for running away to marry a man they didn't like. Her own daughter, Will's mother, also ran away to marry. Casaubon offers financial support to Will because he feels obligated to make amends for his aunt's disinheritance. He becomes jealous of Will's relationship with Dorothea. He includes an addendum in his will stating that Dorothea will lose his wealth and property if she ever marries Will Ladislaw. He dies before finishing his Key.
Sir James Chettam is a baronet. He owns a large estate called Freshitt. He courts Dorothea, but she chooses to marry Casaubon. He later marries her sister. He enacts Dorothea's cottage plans on his own estate.
Dagley is one of Brooke's impoverished tenants. His son is caught poaching on Brooke's lands. He refuses Brooke's request that he chastise his son.
Camden Farebrother is a Vicar, but he doesn't consider himself to be a very good clergyman, though many people like his sensible sermons. He becomes fast friends with Lydgate and supports his mother, sister, and aunt on his small income. He must gamble to make ends meet and to pursue his scientific hobbies. He loses in the election for the chaplaincy at the New Hospital. He receives the Lowick parish after Casaubon's death. Fred Vincy enlists his help in courting Mary Garth. He himself loves Mary, but he does his duty.
Mrs. Farebrother is Camden Farebrother's widowed mother.
Winifred Farebrother is Camden Farebrother's unmarried sister.
Peter Featherstone is a wealthy, manipulative old widower. He owns Stone Court. He married twice, but had no legitimate children. His first wife was Caleb Garth's sister. His second wife was Lucy Vincy's sister. He hints for years that he plans to leave his entire estate to Fred Vincy, his nephew by marriage. He even writes two separate wills. Mary Garth refuses to burn one of them. He leaves his property to his illegitimate son, Joshua Rigg.
Caleb Garth is a poor businessman. He earns his living managing large estates. He co-signs a debt for Fred Vincy. When Fred is unable to pay, Garth's family suffers. He receives new business, overcomes the loss, and hires Fred Vincy to work for him. He declines to manage Stone Court for Bulstrode after Raffles reveals Bulstrode's dark past.
Susan Garth is Caleb Garth's wife. She is a former schoolteacher.
Mary Garth is the daughter of Caleb and Susan Garth. She loves Fred, but she refuses to marry him if he becomes a clergyman and fails to find a steady occupation.
Will Ladislaw is the grandson of Casaubon's disinherited aunt. Bulstrode tries to give him money to atone for hiding his existence from his grandmother. He refuses the money because he knows it came through thievery. He worships Dorothea. He doesn't care for money and loves everything that is beautiful.
Tertius Lydgate is the orphan son of a military man. He chose the medical profession at a young age, much to the chagrin of his wealthy, titled relatives. He comes to Middlemarch hoping to test new methods of treatment. He marries Rosamond Vincy, whose expensive habits get him into debt. He takes a loan from Bulstrode and becomes embroiled in Bulstrode's scandal. Dorothea aids him in his darkest hour. He hopes to find the tissue that is the most basic building block of life.
Sir Godwin Lydgate is Tertius Lydgate's uncle.
Captain Lydgate is Tertius Lydgate's foppish cousin. He takes Rosamond out riding. She suffers a miscarriage as a result of an accident on horseback.
Naumann is Ladislaw's painter friend in Rome. He uses Casaubon as a model for Thomas Aquinas as a ruse to draw a sketch of Dorothea.
Miss Noble is Mrs. Farebrother's sister. She steals small items of food to give to the poor. She becomes fond of Will Ladislaw.
Selina Plymdale is a good friend of Harriet Bulstrode. Her son courts Rosamond Vincy, but he is rejected.
Ned Plymdale courts Rosamond, but she refuses him.
John Raffles is an old business partner of Bulstrode. Bulstrode bribed him to keep the existence of the daughter and grandchild of his first wife secret. He comes back to blackmail Bulstrode. He is Joshua Rigg Featherstone's stepfather. He dies at Stone Court because Bulstrode interferes with Lydgate's medical treatment.
Joshua Rigg Featherstone is Peter Featherstone's illegitimate son. John Raffles is his stepfather. He inherits Stone Court. He sells it to Bulstrode because he wants to become a moneychanger.
Borthrop Trumbell is an auctioneer in Middlemarch.
Walter Tyke is an Evangelical Protestant minister. Bulstrode is a supporter of his. He wins the election for the chaplaincy at the New Hospital, beating out Farebrother.
Rosamond Vincy is the daughter of Walter and Lucy Vincy. She grows up accustomed to an expensive lifestyle. She marries Lydgate because she thinks he is rich and because he has titled relatives. She dreams of leaving Middlemarch and living an exciting, aristocratic lifestyle, but her expensive tastes get Lydgate deeply into debt.
Fred Vincy is the oldest son of Walter and Lucy Vincy. His father sends him to college because he wants Fred to become a clergyman, but Fred doesn't want to work in the Church. He gets himself into debt by gambling. He is accustomed to a lavish lifestyle. He causes financial difficulty for the Garths because he cannot pay the debt on which Caleb Garth co-signed his name. He wants to marry Mary Garth, but she won't have him unless he finds a steady occupation other than the Church. He hopes to inherit Stone Court from his uncle, Peter Featherstone. These hopes are disappointed, so he works for Caleb Garth.
Walter Vincy is a modestly well-off businessman in manufacturing. He is also mayor of Middlemarch. Fred and Rosamond's expensive tastes infuriate him. He refuses to lend Rosamond and Lydgate money to pay Lydgate's debt. He is Harriet Bulstrode's brother.
Lucy Vincy is Walter Vincy's wife. She is the daughter of an innkeeper, much to Rosamond's chagrin. She dotes on her son and doesn't want him to marry Mary Garth. She is the sister of Featherstone's second wife.
Mr. Wrench is a Middlemarch doctor. He misdiagnoses Fred when Fred catches typhoid fever. Lydgate treats Fred's illness, and the Vincys fire Mr. Wrench. Mr. Wrench becomes Lydgate's enemy as a result.
Please wait while we process your payment