Book three is very interesting to me.  I finished it quite quickly and have pondered over my post for the last two weeks trying to decide how to approach this section of Middlemarch.  Characteristics of Fred remind me greatly of some of my own family members who try to get themselves out of a predicament only to find themselves in deeper.  With the end result often being the same – why didn’t they just ask someone for some guidance?  Granted, pride and other notions of adulthood seem to supersede Fred’s reasoning but it strikes me how Fred is so juvenile at his age, where I would assume to find such actions more likely from a naïve teenager between the ages of 14-16.

Although, I should not be too surprised by the actions in this family.  Fred’s relationship with his mother is very similar to many other families – their relationship is not a Freudian Oedipus way but rather in how his mother does not see his glaring faults.  Many mothers have one child that they do favor, while they say that that they love each one the same amount I do not doubt, but often the baby or the eldest sometimes is doted on a bit more than the others which results in mothers being blind to the fact that their children can do nothing wrong.  In my own personal experience, I deal with this fairly often.  My mother in-law refuses to see that her baby (my brother in law) can do anything wrong, regardless of how bad it is and argues with anyone and all evidence to the contrary.  In addition, an acquaintance refuses to accept her son’s prison conviction and has sacrificed everything – her marriage, home, retirement and own wellbeing – to fight against the evidence, even when he admitted to his mother that it was true and he did it.

Familial love is such a complex and twisted relationship that it is a treacherous path.  Just as Fred’s mother dotes on him, Fred is aware of this and uses it to his advantage to manipulate his parents.  I do commend his actions regarding giving the money to his mother to hold onto, but not seeking the advice of his father regarding his gambling debts is a little ridiculous.  I, personally, would rather have the wrath of my father and request his assistance rather than depend upon strangers in which you lose much more than an hour of being yelled at.  And, in turn, he still had to go and come clean about everything and loose the opportunity with the girl he loves as well and looking more of a fool.  If he would have just been straightforward in the beginning, his mother would have certainly intervened between him and his father if there was any attempt to throw Fred out.  But in the end, the stupidity of this child, stuck in a man’s body, pouted, whined and caused so much unnecessary pain to others.  His actions caused pain to Mary, the entire Garth family, his father when he had to ask for the ridiculous letter (obviously Featherstone was fully aware of the gambling problem), disappointment to his family and the loss of his favorite horse.  I think there is more to see of Fred in the coming chapters, but his own foolishness created larger issues that he will need to contend with.  In the end, Fred is a very silly child.

Vickie Culpepper