Originally appearing in the December 7, 1872 edition's of The Saturday Review, a review amalgamating Middlemarch with a religious text was made known. The review states that "The carefully elaborated character of Bulstrode, no hypocrite of the common type, but one who sincerely hopes to flatter Divine Justice into condoning the wrong done, and permitting ill-gotten gains to prosper on condition of a certain amount of service done, is a leading instance; but the most of the selfish in Middlemarch shelters itself under an assumed appeal from conscience to religion." (The Saturday Review). The review then goes on to articulate the author characters in Eliot's infamous novel as strong religious figures who should be admired and modeled after event the notorious Rosamond. Published in the Galaxy a year later, Henry James' "George Eliot's Middlemarch" articulates that Eliot's character Dorothea, can be seen as a depiction of St. Theresa. Both contemporary reviews regard Eliot's Middlemarch as either a religious novel, or a novel in which religious characters and aspects are incorporated.
Upon reading Middlemarch, I did not connect the characters nor the plot to religion in any aspect. I understand the idea behind Dorothea representing what is considered to be morally good, in regards to religious ideals, however, with Dorothea not being the main character throughout the novel, and the other characters having aspects that religious ideals would look down upon I can't help but disagree. The Saturday Review uses the prominent characters of Bulstrode as a religious ideals, when Bulstrode commits heinous deeds for the sake of material goods and wealth, albeit having good intentions. Despite good intentions, I fail to see his acts as something that religious advocates would support in any way shape or form. Therefore, the contemporary reviews that articulate the novel as a religious genre is confusing and far fetched when analyzed deeper.
I agree with you in the idea that there is not a lot of religion in the novel. However, by this I see it as there is not a lot of organized religion. Rather, like you suggested, the religion comes in when the characters look to do moral good. Bulstrode in no way looks to do any moral good in my eyes. He thinks he does, however, I believe he is blind to who he really is. I am interested in reading that review now. I just don't understand where they saw enough evidence to decide it was a novel deeply connected to religion.
ReplyDeleteWith the idea that Bulstrode is a character who contains such hypocritical and heinous characteristics, perhaps we could look at him as the character that acts as the devilish character that good religious beings would relate back to when thinking about what not to do and how not to act. In this case, Dorothea would represent the good and pure, and Bulstrode might represent that bad and selfish. Although I agree with you in not seeing the novel as a religious text, some may read it through a different lens, and then these religious portrayals would make a little more sense.
ReplyDeleteIt would not do Middlemarch justice to say that Bulstrode is a character that should be seen as good, however it is not that he is all bad. Many times an author will have characters that are for the direct purpose of contrasting each other. We see how pious and moral characters such as Dorothea are because there are characters in the story like Bulstrode or even Rosamond. It is quite possible that this is just a more watered down religious text than is used to. I agree with Kathryn that it is possible to see the religion through a different lens but as I was reading I did not find that the story was completely saturated with it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we're meant to sympathize with Bulstrode or that The Saturday Review meant to imply that. As I understand your long quote, they're saying that Bulstrode is the most hypocritical of all of the characters in the novel who claim morality or religion.
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