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Please post here your thoughts about Book Five - The Dead Hand.

I said I would read Middlemarch with you all and then discovered that I had already read it. However, I am very much enjoying everyone's comments. Please keep up the good work.

Peg wrote: "I said I would read Middlemarch with you all and then discovered that I had already read it. However, I am very much enjoying everyone's comments. Please keep up the good work."

Ha ha, I've done that in the past too, Peg! Please feel free to add any comments if anything you read brings something to mind.

In this Book, Eliot enlarges on the social themes that interest her. She begins by reminding us of the class difference between Dorothea and Rosamond - Dorothea is "one of those county divinities not mixing with Middlemarch mortality" . Will too worries that by working on the newspaper for Mr Brooke he has lowered himself socially in Dorothea's eyes. Bulstrode's connections with trade are one reason for his unpopularity.

Then we meet the wider themes of reform, both medical and political. Lydgate's 'new' ideas are meeting mixed views from the public - some are grateful for his intervention, but others don't trust a doctor who doesn't dole out medicines. More seriously, he has made enemies of the existing doctors who "implied that he was insolent, pretentious and given to that reckless innovation for the sake of noise and show which was the essence of the charlatan".

Lydgate sees himself as a Vesalius, fighting a battle against ignorance, and he's ignoring the warnings of Farebrother. Surely he is going to find himself in trouble? Another instance of being shortsighted or blinkered I feel.

Another theme is political reform, and we have a rather hilarious scene when Mr Brooke goes to give his political speech. This is no civilised political discourse, it's a jeering mob and turns into a riot. The effigy of Mr Brooke being pelted with eggs and the ventriloquist mocking his words are both funny and quite terrifying. Anyway it all proves too much for both Mr Brooke and Will.

Back at the micro level of life in Middlemarch, we learn of Casaubon's death. How clever the scene was when we learn of the codicil to his will - not through the omniscient narrator but through a conversation between Brooke and Sir James. Gradually it becomes clear that Casaubon has added conditions that will harm Dorothea and Will's reputations if they do not obey. Here is the meaning of The Death Hand maybe, Casaubon keeps his hand over Dorothea by controlling her even after his death.

Fred and Mary's relationship is receiving a helping hand from Mr Farebrother, even though he has feelings for Mary himself, and Mr Farebrother finally gets a break when Dorothea gives him Mr Casaubon's living at Lowick.

And then Mr Raffles turns up - what is the secret he has over Mr Bulstrode? It seems to involve Will as the name Ladislaw comes up. This is intriguing - and it doesn't bode well for Lydgate either as he is relying on Bulstrode's support. The plots lines are beginning to be pulled together very skilfully.

The suspense leading up to finding out what Casaubon had said in the will was awesome. I didn’t see it coming that he would openly share his jealously in his will like that.

I also really like the momentum of the story. For example, Eliot was leading up to the wedding between rosamond and lydgate with such detail. There was furniture shopping and handkerchief sewing. Then in book five, they are already married with no detail of the actual wedding.

The story just moves along to the details regarding the new hospital and lydgate’s struggle to establish himself as a doctor. I think it will take a little while longer to think of how this contributes to the overall theme of the story because removing the emotion of the scene that she was leading up to has to be intentional to the theme of the overall story I would imagine.

I am also intrigued by mr. raffles and mr. bulstrode’s encounter and I’m wondering when or how Ladislaw is going to run into mr. raffles since he is in town and planning on leaving soon as well.

I was also wondering whether this world called Middlemarch is a little bit of a 19th century matrix or a world that can be seen by another world without being seen as a reality itself. I do like science fiction. Maybe Middlemarch is a subtle science fiction with this parallel world that Eliot created. That is the most silly thought I had this week while reading this section.

Chapters 43-50
I’ll admit, this was was the first time I felt overwhelmed by the dynamics at play between characters. We have the Casaubon, Dorothea, and Will triangle; but, with Rosamund in the picture, her visiting Dorothea for the first time…I was being pulled in too many directions. This ability of Eliot's, in conveying the interactions between characters while getting inside the human psyche, is done with such great precision, the words leading up to or following those moments at times, cutting like a knife. Lydgate’s words for Rosamund referencing a eating a peach but not liking its flavor comes to mind. Again, why did he marry her? Lydgate, finding the dispensing of medicine for money to be medically unethical…while I find him to be the medical outlier of his time, I’m curious about his idea of not capitalizing on healthcare. There are some movers and shakers in this novel (Will, Lydgate, perhaps even Mr. Brooks too), Eliot using these men as a vehicle for influential societal change.

I do not think I realized how insecure Dorothea is until now, until I read her to want to throw her life away in the act of Christian martyrdom. She does not realize her own worth in her world anymore. I remember her ego from the initial chapters where she wanted to be part of creating something great, something of splendor, something to benefit mankind� what happened to that woman…has this time spent with Casaubon been too affecting, has he killed her spirit to an extent? Regarding Casaubon, he too, as much as I find him to be pitiful since he was first introduced into the narrative; it is at this time, i find him completely self serving and gross. Death is around the corner and it is death that motivates Casaubon to finish his book and finally use Dorothea in the capacity of more than just a secretary. However, he is using her for his benefit, not seeing the true value of her presence, even now. Apparently, Dorothea is not the only character who suffers from being shortsighted. Dorothea, in Chapter 50 comes upon the codicil, and it was to until this moment that Dorothea finally sees the light in regards to Casaubon. Finally! She no longer has to feel the guilt of her marriage and is it not curious that the codicil also cements a future relationship between Will and Dorothea� something Casaubon had not intended, considering the codicil’s prohibition of Will’s inheritance?

51-53
Great, feel good chapters here; especially, after what has transpired in the previous reading. Ugh. I am happy for Farebrother and Will, that fortune is smiling upon them; but, Bulstrode experiences a major reversal in fortune. God giveth and taketh away� no?

Pamela wrote: "In this Book, Eliot enlarges on the social themes that interest her. She begins by reminding us of the class difference between Dorothea and Rosamond - Dorothea is "one of those county divinities ..."

In this Book, Eliot enlarges on the social themes that interest her. She begins by reminding us of the class difference between Dorothea and Rosamond
I was troubled by the distance between them because of their class differences, even when in close proximity to one another. It was overtly evident. This was also quite noticeable in Book 3, Chapter 34, during Featherstone's funeral, the gentry was read to be looking down from great heights at the rest of those living in Middlemarch. The distance between the upper echelon of society and the rest of Middlemarch is both figurative and metaphorical.