tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post2917621206249811659..comments2024-03-28T18:38:59.308-07:00Comments on The Adventures of Notorious Ph.D., Girl Scholar: Rethinking Things (Middlemarch book 3, chs. 28-33)Notorious Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08700875559325201086noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post-56849867651773491512018-03-06T21:34:15.444-08:002018-03-06T21:34:15.444-08:00Chapter 28:
The opening where Dorothea returns to ...Chapter 28:<br />The opening where Dorothea returns to Lowick is fascinating! I love how the narrator spends extended time on Dorothea’s perception of the rooms after her disappointing honeymoon. They have grown smaller and more ghostly (the ghostly stag in the tapestry). (See your first quote above.)<br /><br />Her sorrow and disenchantment contrast with the news of Celia’s engagement to Chetham.<br /><br />Last line: Celia regards “Mr. Casaubon’s learning as a kind of damp which might in due time saturate a neighboring body.” He is quite a drip!<br /><br />Kudos to Eliot for a great use of a cliffhanger at the end of Chapter 33--we get the nice closure of Featherstone dying (after so much description of the dreaded relations hanging around, descriptions that prolong the inevitable death), and yet THE WILL! And OBSTINATE MARY!<br /><br />She seems so sure of her decision to resist Featherstone's orders. I can see how it is a self-protective move--no one can accuse her of meddling if everything's still locked up--but I'd have been tempted to burn one and lock the other back up just to eliminate the possibility of a drawn out legal proceeding. I suppose because Mary (in her humility) doesn't expect nor care about money from Featherstone, she doesn't expect to be present for any legal proceedings.<br /><br />The Lydgate-Rosamund engagement: poor clueless Lydgate. Thank goodness for a matron who is willing to spell things out for him. It does seem as if neither one will actually get what they want.<br /><br />On Casaubon's heart problems: good luck to Dorothea nursing this one back to health-ish! She still seems a somewhat self-conscious martyr. I suppose I mean she does good things not for the sake of the things themselves, but for the way they contribute to her self-perception as a humble wife (and earlier as a humble maid).<br /><br />I like your idea of every 2 weeks. I hope the trip went well!<br />Amstrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15288210594697010215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6648409483330236099.post-79476291240585773312018-03-06T10:52:24.046-08:002018-03-06T10:52:24.046-08:00How did your travels go?How did your travels go?Dame Eleanor Hullhttp://dameeleanorhull.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com