The Women in George Eliot's Middlemarch

Abstract

Despite the great amount or research and criticism concerning George Eliot's Middlemarch there has never been an adequate discussion of the women in the novel. The novel is most importantly' concerned with women and their problems in adapting and relating to their society. Many or the critical "seem to miss, or to dismiss, this aspect of the novel. Dorothea Brooke, as the most important character, and as an individual rather than a woman, is the only' female character concentrated on by the critical the only' other feminine character .treated in any depth is Rosamond Viney, but since her character is fairly obvious, their discussion or her does not appreciably enlarge our understanding or Eliot'ss novel.