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Katie Flanders November 18, 2011 Hidden Feeling and the Weight of Society The Victorian Era is seen as time of great elegance and etiquette. It was a time when presence was everything and work wasn’t a major part of a person’s everyday life. This life also included inferiority of women as a natural basis of life, whereas the men were seen as powerful, superior people, much more important than women. The womanly role was to care for the men and to help them to achieve their full potential. In this excerpt from Middlemarch, by George Eliot, Victorian society influences both the characters of husband and wife, giving the superior role to the man and a more inferior role to the woman, effecting their relationship in such a way that it is a struggle to resolve their financial issues.

Rosamond and Lydgate discuss their financial issues in a manner that also brings out their personalities towards one another. Lydgate’s role, as said in society, is to be a superior person, only letting his wife, a woman with much lower status, help him sort out problems as an inspiration. But, both Lydgate and Rosamond secretly want to get out of the shell society has put on their normal human relationship. While

Rosamond struggles to be heard, Lydgate shuts her thoughts down, but not with actual intention to hurt her. Instead, he feels he has an obligation to act like a strong, powerful man: “He did wish to spare her as much as he could, and her tears cut to the heart.” He does not actually think what he is saying makes him powerful, but instead makes him seem powerful in society. Rosamond, on the other hand, feels she is being struck down, when all she wants is to have her voice heard to try to resolve the situation. She continuously attempts to give her husband a resolution she came up with, but he turns each suggestion down and at one point says, “‘You must learn to take my judgement on questions you don’t understand.’” This is basically calling her stupid for even making such a suggestion and tells her that she is unable to comprehend anything about the problem. Instead, Lydgate wants Rosamond to be more “obedient” to him and treat him with more respect than she portrays. She, therefore, cannot say any further suggestions because she has been put down so quickly and feels she must accept the fact that her husband is more likely to figure out the situation than her. She wants to break free and let her reasoning be heard, but also conforms to society and makes sure she knows her place as inferior to her husband.

Their marriage as a whole would be much stronger if the stereotypes of men and women in their society weren’t nearly as strong as they are at this point. Both Lydgate and Rosamond are two people who love each other and are caring for one another. But, they also are trapped by the superior and inferior roles in marriage that society has bestowed. Their behaviors change in such a way that Rosamond feels “if she had known how Lydgate would behave, she would never have married him.” This proves that Rosamond and Lydgate’s feelings for each other may have at one point been more loving and caring, but are shifted when put into a marriage during the specific time period.

In this work, George Eliot portrays the life of a basic married couple going through a time of trouble during an era with inequality in gender roles. This financial difficulty brings these two people to a point where their true feelings are expressed. They love one another and strive to keep what they have alive, yet society weighs them down and a new form of dealing with problems comes into effect. No longer are they discussing resolutions to the problem. Instead, one is superior and powerful and the other is scrounging for her say in the matter.