Middlemarch Ch. 43: Unexpected Encounters and

Summary

Two days after the Yew-tree Walk, Dorothea drives into Middlemarch alone to ask Lydgate whether Casaubon has concealed depressing symptoms or insisted on knowing the utmost about his illness. She feels almost guilty seeking knowledge from another, but dread of ignorance that would make her unjust or hard overcomes every scruple. Poor Dorothea needs stores of patience; her husband has begun a new method of arranging his notes and associated her newly in carrying out his plan.

Lydgate is not at home. Dorothea asks for Rosamond and hears a man's voice and piano roulades break off when she is announced. Eliot contrasts Dorothea's thin white woollen pelisse and candid gravity with Rosamond's perfect pale-blue dress, rings, and expensive substitute for simplicity. Will Ladislaw comes forward; Dorothea colours with surprise but greets him with unmistakable pleasure. When he offers to fetch Lydgate at the Hospital, her mind flashes over connected memories and she decides to go herself, leaves hardly conscious of Will opening the door and offering his arm, and drives away in a chill silence.

In the carriage Dorothea grasps that allowing further intercourse with Will she cannot mention to Casaubon would be deception, and her medical errand is already concealment. Will singing with Rosamond in Lydgate's absence returns to her; perhaps she has been mistaken in many things, tears come, and Will's image is mysteriously spoiled. Will, mortified, knows she saw him not supremely occupied with her; he returns to Rosamond, speaks of perfect presence, and leaves pettishly. Rosamond tells Lydgate she thinks Will adores Mrs. Casaubon; he says poor devil and predicts Dorothea may give the New Hospital two hundred a year.

In this chapter:Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Naming Stacked Concealment

One hidden errand often tempts a second silence until the whole day feels like evasion. Dorothea drives to ask Lydgate about Casaubon's health, finds Will singing with Rosamond, and flees because further talk with him would be intercourse she cannot mention at home.

Before you add another private contact to a justified secret, say aloud what you would tell the person most affected.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: Dorothea Brooke

She drives in alone to ask whether her husband has hidden the worst, and the errand feels almost disloyal. Dread of being unjust wins over the scruple. She would rather carry a hard fact than be the wife who failed to see it. Knowledge, for her, is a form of fidelity to a man who will not be known.

Continue this thoughtThe Work That Must Not Be Seen Failing

Coming Up in Chapter 44

Dorothea will walk the hospital grounds with Lydgate, pledge two hundred a year to the New Hospital, and bring the gift home to a husband whose distrust reads her charity as espionage At the New Hospital Dorothea learns from Lydgate that Casaubon's body shows no new change beyond mental anxiety to know the truth about his illness. Lydgate seizes the moment to describe Bulstrode's.

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Chapter 43

Unexpected Encounters and Social Boundaries

LIII. “This figure hath high price: ’t was wrought with love Ages ago in finest ivory; Nought modish in it, pure and noble lines Of generous womanhood that fits all time That too is costly ware; majolica Of deft design, to please a lordly eye: The smile, you see, is perfect—wonderful As mere Faience! a table ornament To suit the richest mounting.” Dorothea seldom left home without her husband, but she did occasionally drive into Middlemarch alone, on little errands of shopping or charity such as occur to every lady of any wealth when she lives within three miles of…

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Theme-by-theme analyses that connect this book to modern life skills.

Deep diving the literary elements.

Unexpected Encounters and Social Boundaries

Summary

Why This Matters