As I completed the final chapter of Middlemarch, I couldn’t help but feel as though Eliot had made an excellent case for, if not communism, at least socialism. Given the amount of attention that was provided to the Reform Act taking center stage in Middlemarch’s political realm, it doesn’t surprise me just how political the novel can get even when its focus lays upon the interpersonal issues of the characters.

For example, poor Dr. Lydgate’s misery is explained in part by his stressful marriage to Rosamond, but the bulk of his suffering is contributed to his financial plight. In Book VIII, Eliot states that “[o]nly those who know the supremacy of the intellectual life-the life which has a seed of ennobling thought and purpose within it-can understand the grief of one who falls from that serene activity into the absorbing soul-wasting struggle with worldly annoyances” (701). When I read this passage, all I can think of is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how Lydgate had reached the summit only to topple back down to the base. His need of money detracts from Lydgate’s studies and directly contributes to the source of conflict between him and his wife.

In contrast, Dorothea, who has never needed for anything, often serves as a mouthpiece for both Christian charity and housing reform. While her pious nature certainly explains the driving force behind her housing projects, the nature of her endeavors brings focus to the needs of the less fortunate. When speaking to Lydgate, Dorothea practically encourages wealth distribution when she says “Think how much money I have; it would be like taking a burden from me if you took some of it every year till you got free from this fettering want of income. Why should not people do these things? It is so difficult to make shares at all even” (730). Given how much people seem to revere Mrs. Casaubon, and the way that she is often compared to the Virgin Mary, it would follow then that her ideas should hold greater importance than some other characters.

Mr. Garth, the most venerable character of Middlemarch as well as my personal favorite, seems to embody the importance of hard work, charity, and a distaste for money. As someone who perhaps has cheated himself out of well-earned financial gain, Garth usually has enough business to keep his finances afloat and his family always manages to make due. Caleb’s desire to better the lives of others appears to be the masculine counterpart to Dorothea’s charitable ways. Although Garth’s character doesn’t truly support the ideas of communism or socialism like Dorothea’s does, he appears unlike any other resident of Middlemarch (than Dodo) with his total disinterest in profit.

As the most estimable characters in the novel, Dorothea and Mr. Garth share a love for their fellow man, a detachment from money, and a desire to work for the betterment of their society. Whether or not their actions support a political viewpoint or a religious one, their values are undeniably behind the happy resolution of the conflict in this novel.

Emily Fleischhauer