Dorothea cleanses Lydgate's tainted loan by replacing
it with her own money. Although it doesn't stop Lydgate from leaving
Middlemarch, it removes Lydgate's humiliating relationship with
Bulstrode. His reputation in Middlemarch is damaged beyond repair; the
virtue of Dorothea's act of kindness toward him is that Lydgate knows
that at least one person in Middlemarch has a good opinion of him.
At the last, even Bulstrode himself makes a small step
towards redemption. Through his actions, Fred and Mary are finally
able to marry. Caleb Garth himself is good enough not to lump Harriet
Bulstrode in with her husband's crimes. He doesn't entertain himself with
her misery like some people do.
Dorothea's final situation illustrates again the regrettable
restrictions on access to the public sphere for women. She makes
one independent act by helping Lydgate, and her assistance is a
much-needed balm on the misery and stress of the Lydgates. However,
her marriage to Will signifies her return to the narrow domestic
sphere. The promise she shows as a reforming philanthropist is never
realized independently. She lives her chosen occupation through
her husband. Will becomes the ardent public advocate of reform,
and Dorothea lives in his shadow as his wife and the mother of his
children. Rosamond and Lydgate never really achieve an easy peace
in their marriage, so it is unclear whether Dorothea's help made
much of a difference.
In short, the ending is ambiguous. We have followed two unhappy
marriages to their conclusion. Lydgate's only escape from his unhappy
marriage is an early death. After becoming a widow, Dorothea marries
the man she loves. We are never sure if she is satisfied with the
domestic sphere. The unhappy marriages have failed due to various
personality differences, unrealistic ideals of the respective roles
of husbands and wives, and the processes of self-deception that
seem to mark all human activity.
There is one possible, happy marriage that doesn't happen,
however. Farebrother advised Lydgate to marry a "good, unworldly woman."
This is the opposite of Rosamond. Farebrother was recommending a
woman who doesn't mind waiting through the years it takes to build
a lucrative practice. Moreover, Farebrother was recommending someone
who appreciates Lydgate's passion for his vocation. This advice
clearly suggests Dorothea; the marriage that doesn't happen is,
obviously, the one between Lydgate and Dorothea. She shares his
passion for reform and his human concern for the alleviation of
suffering. She doesn't care for wealth. She also showed a strong
interest in the New Hospital itself. However, they met before each
of them had obtained real life experience. They met before they
had lost their unrealistic idealism about marriage. They were married
to other people before they could appreciate one another.
It is difficult to tell whether Dorothea would have been
able to exercise a public role in the hospital had she married Lydgate,
but there is some indication that she would have. The best wife
for Lydgate would have been a patient, equal, sensible partner.
Dorothea would have been that woman. However, the vicissitudes of
fate worked against their marriage.
