Dorothea Brooke
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.
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Tertius Lydgate
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.
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Rosamond Vincy
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.
Read an in-depth analysis of Rosamond Vincy.
Walter Vincy
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
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.
Fred Vincy
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.
Arthur Brooke
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 Brooke
Celia is Dorothea's sister. She marries Sir James Chettam.
Nicholas Bulstrode
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Mr. Bambridge
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.
Mr. Dagley
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
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
Mrs. Farebrother is Camden Farebrother's widowed mother.
Winifred Farebrother
Winifred Farebrother is Camden Farebrother's unmarried sister.
Peter Featherstone
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
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
Susan Garth is Caleb Garth's wife. She is a former schoolteacher.
Mary Garth
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
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.
Sir Godwin Lydgate
Sir Godwin Lydgate is Tertius Lydgate's uncle.
Captain Lydgate
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
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
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
Selina Plymdale is a good friend of Harriet Bulstrode. Her son courts Rosamond Vincy, but he is rejected.
Ned Plymdale
Ned Plymdale courts Rosamond, but she refuses him.
John Raffles
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
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
Borthrop Trumbell is an auctioneer in Middlemarch.
Walter Tyke
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.
Mr. Wrench
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.
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