Book seven was definitely the buildup section to the end of the book and while all the attention was focused on Bulstrode, Lydgate, Dorothea and Rosamund, I was personally appalled at the town’s people.  I know that scandal is a tinder wood for gossip but I felt sorry for those involved in the middle of it.  For the most part, they had no clue for some time.  I also do not understand why the people would take the word of a drifter as truth instead of asking those who have lived among them.

I understand that when Mr. Garth was approached, he kept his word and did not divulge the information, but his attitude was well know.  He did not agree nor disagree to it, and did not expand and the real culprit is Mr. Hawley.  Mr. Hawley approached and questioned Mr. Garth and just like a game of telephone, the statement of Mr. Garth was so misconstrued that it “had quite lost the stamp of inference” (pg 718).  So, this whole situation was made worse by the gossips and appeared that Mr. Garth was the one who started it.  Such a mess.

The town was so upset that Rosamund was wooed and pulled to a newcomer that, as Trudy previously pointed out, was able to “carry off the prettiest girl in town” (pg 639).  Since Lydgate was already under suspicion it still seems strange that he would be automatically deemed an accomplice on the word of a ragged man, Mr. Raffles.  – Side bar: his name is great, he completed ruffled (raffled) up the community.  – But the town’s people took this unknown as truth verses one that was in their company for a while.  Mr. Raffles was even able to get the people on his side in death with the situation calling him a “poor creetur” and a “finer gentleman” than Mr. Bulstrode (pg 724).  If they would have actually encountered him and interacted with the people, I do not believe that Mr. Raffles would have impacted Middlemarch so much with his waggling tongue.

As for Mr. Bulstrode, he too was treated and never told of anything either, but as he stated, people didn’t care for him much of the time anyway because of his business so he was unaware that anything was different in the town gossip. With a completely awful outing at the town meeting, I truly thought that Mr. Bulstrode was going to have a heart attack and collapse.  It probably would have turned out better for him and his family if he had.     I do acknowledge that Bulstrode contributed to Raffles death.  Raffles was a chronic alcoholic and Lydgate never really said what was wrong with him, just what not to give him.  Bulstrode deliberately did not advise his maid to refrain from giving him alcohol and even gave her the key to the cellar.  Contributed only because without that habit, Raffles would have never been sick.  I will fully admit that I wanted Bulstrode to kill Raffles, but would have preferred that it was done by smothering and not being a coward and sending his maid to do it.  Regarding his personal holiness that was in his own mind, he preached at others but he never listened to the sermon of another which would skew his view.  I vaguely wonder if he may have had some mental deficiencies.  But, I think an ending of Bulstrode going to jail / prison would have satisfied me more.

On the same point, Raffles was diagnosed with alcohol poisoning, most likely alcoholism and an ill-functioning liver, which was confirmed by the other doctors.  These same doctors defended Lydgate’s practices and that he did nothing wrong and yet the people still believe Lydgate to be a scoundrel and he lost more patients.  No one bothered to mention to the townspeople that alcohol poisoning creates delirium would could negate the information that Raffles provided as was provided by Lydgate at the initial consultation.

I guess, all the towns people really wanted to have a new scandal.  It created business, as this information “required dinners on it” and any and all ladies “went out to tea” oftener (pg 723).  It seems that there was not this much commotion or business and socializing since the auction earlier.  People and their reactions are very interesting to me. I am also still amazed that no matter what the time or era, people still gossip mongers and how many others are destroyed during chin-wagging.  Mrs. Bulstrode is the largest loser of the group, she lost everything.  Even if she would have submitted and left or divorced her husband, she would then become the divorcee which would have ousted her from the Middlemarch community.  Valerie was right early on in Book Three – maybe they should have all considered moving.

Vickie Culpepper