Middlemarch Lesson Plan

Why does everyone seem to have an opinion about what Dorothea should do? What does Dorothea think? What do you think?

No one thinks she should be at Lowick by herself as a widow. People suggest she should marry again soon, but they also try to keep her away from Will. That everyone has their own opinion of what she should do emphasizes the diminished role of women in Victorian society. Certain things are expected of Dorothea as a woman and certain things are deemed unacceptable. But Dorothea has never worried about what other people think she should do, only what she herself believes is right. After her disastrous marriage to Casaubon, she stubbornly overcorrects,...