Epigraphs
Each chapter begins with a small quotation or a few lines
of verse known as an epigraph.
These epigraphs work as a way of summarizing the following chapter
and moving the plot forward. They also work to place Middlemarch into
a larger canon of literary works, as Eliot chooses quotes a variety
of writers such as Shakespeare, Dante, Chaucer, and William Blake.
Eliot was charged with being too intellectual for a woman author
in part because of the learned nature of her chosen quotations.
Gossip and Speaking for Others
Often characters, especially characters of opposite genders,
do not communicate to each other directly, instead using other characters to
speak on their behalf. Carrying messages, sending “diplomats,” and
not speaking for themselves draws attention to the weblike community
of Middlemarch. Part of this web functions to maintain an intricate
social web, but it also works to avoid direct communication. Gossip,
another form of speaking for another person, plays an important
part in the novel as it is often how information is conveyed. Characters
frequently use the fact that the information will eventually come
around to avoid direct conversation.
Debt and Borrowing Money
Debt appears throughout Middlemarch,
and money often indicates elements of a character’s personality.
The plot is driven by characters worrying about money or asking
others for money. Fred Vincy must ask several people for loans,
Lydgate incurs serious debt due to his failure to manage money and
his wife Rosamond’s cultured tastes, and Raffles’s constant begging
and blackmailing for money indicates his threatening role. On the
other hand, Mary Garth’s refusal to take money from the dying Featherstone
proves her good, honest nature. The exchange of money and the passing
of debts ties the characters together in an economic subtext.
