Two Men One Woman

            Everyone knows the typical 1800’s British novel. Girl usually orphaned and sometimes poor meets rich, arrogant, rude, handsome man. Girl finds some sort of redeeming quality and falls in love with the rude man. Girl and rude man get married. Elliot has a bit of a different idea.

At the beginning of book one Sir James Chettam who is rich, handsome, and can provide for Dorothea Brooke. However Dorothea feels nothing for the man that most Victorian heroines would fall head over heels for. She fell in love with Causabon, because she feels she could have debates and talk with him about more intellectual things with him. Causabon is also equally wealthy however compared to Dorothea he could be her father.

Many people gossip about it and Chettam is hurt by Dorothea’s rejection, but decides to focus on her sister. The sister Celia is more of a stereotypical woman in the novel. She likes Chettam and Chettam is also closer to the girl’s age. Celia also has better taste than Dorothea. Celia wants to live a comfortable life, but she also wants to have a good looking relative and is scared of Causabon due to how old he is.

In most of the books the heroine always ends up with the right man. She always marries the good looking, rich, kind man who at one point that cares for her. Dorothea missed that boat and will probably end up paying for it later. She had to marry the old man that was not good looking. Chettman was a better choice he even gave Dorothea a puppy. The only thing Causabon is going to eventually give Dorothea is misery and boredom and no life. Causabon also seems like he just wants a wife to sit at home all day and take care of him due to his age. Dorothea and Chettam would probably live around the same time and die around the same time.

Dorothea should have also listened to Chettam’s offer. Yes he wasn’t as intelligent in Dorothea’s opinion; Chettam did not look like a cradle robbed with his age. Chettam also likes to listen to Dorothea and listens to her aspirations about improving the cottages, he even put money down to make it happen and Casaubon who is a clergyman and should care about that stuff thought that it was ridiculous and probably thinks Dorothea had no mind since she did not want to change a single thing in his dreary house.

Dorothea also reads too many studies on theology, which could have been the reason she was attracted to Causabon the guy, is a clergyman. She feels he would understand what she was say more than Chettman would understand if she were to have a discussion with Chettman. Chettman also might have been lost if Dorothea were to go off on a rant and she probably felt that Causabon could have followed her rant which no one is really able to follow a rant. I think Dorothea should have picked James Chettam