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Dorothea Brooke: An Independent Woman? "Dorothea is going to be marrying again, you know, " said Mr. Brooke nodding towards Celia, who immediately looked up at her husband with a frightened glance "Merciful heaven!" said Mrs. Cadwallader. "Not to young Ladislaw?" Mr. Brooke nodded saying, "Yes; to Ladislaw. " -- George Eliot, Middlemarch.
Ch 84, p. 745 Dorothea Brooke's marriage to Will Ladislaw seems out of character for her independent, intellectual personality. George Eliot describes Dorothea as a latter-day Saint Theresa characterized by ardor, energy, and intelligence; she comments that Dorothea has an "inward fire", a burning passion to improve the world. She yearns to break free from the conventional housewife-role, and contribute to Middlemarch. However, when Dorothea marries Mr. Causubon, he stifles her abilities, and causes her to comment that "Marriage is awful" (729). Their relationship shows her that "Marriage is a noose [whose] conditions demand self-suppression and tolerance" (689).
When Causubon dies, Dorothea finally regains her original independence. According to her personality, the reader expects Dorothea to relish in this freedom and use this time productively to fulfill "all sorts of plans" (501). However, this strong heroine with lofty goals commits a non-Dorothea-like act when she chooses to marry her second husband Will Ladislaw. This choice encourages the reader to question: If Dorothea is truly smart, why would she not have learned from her mistake of marrying Causubon? Shouldn't she realize that she needs to remain independent to fulfill her lifelong goals? Does this choice not seem antithetical to the "clever" character that Eliot had so carefully crafted throughout Middlemarch?
Clearly, Dorothea's desire to re-marry shows a break in her normal character as critic Edith Simon comments, "Except in the chapter of her marriages, Dorothea is a perfect woman" (Haight 76). Sir James Chettam furthers this notion by commenting that a second marriage would be "a sort of desecration for her" (501). Dorothea's choice leaves a woman with extraordinary promise to an ordinary end. This heroine who had the potential to break the sexual barrier of the 1800 s confines herself to a role of domesticity as she gives up her career goals to become yet another wife and mother. While in many respects Dorothea seems to be a reflection of George Eliot herself, Dorothea's ending separates her character from the novelist. While Mary Ann Evans adopted the pen name George Eliot and pursued her goal to write novels, Dorothea Brooke sacrificed all her goals for marriage.
Her choice to marry Will Ladislaw not only seems out of character but prevents her from bringing the George-Eliot within her to fruition. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Dorothea Brooke An Independant Woman
