Lydgate's Introduction and an Echo of Dorothea

When I was first introduced to Lydgate, I initially thought Lydgate was unlike any other character in the novel Middlemarch. I was especially interested in thinking and pursuing the idea of the strange in novel as we talked about in class. His presentation into the world of Middlemarch is far from the unknown we see when most characters are introduced in novels. He did not feel like the stranger some would cast him as. The questions (what makes a stranger? how do we distinguish the stranger from the regular cast of characters?) did not seem to relate to him. However, as I dug deeper into the novel I came to the realization that events and the characters in the world of Middlemarch are not as straightforward as they may seem. However, if the reader looks at Lydgate’s character introduction as a mirror of Dorothea the arch he takes in the novel starts to make some more sense.

Lydgate’s character is not unlike Dorothea in that he has moral ideals and the belief that things should and could change. He is an altruistic character that comes from a higher social class, but does not care about money the way other characters in the novel do. In essence, while there is a social hierarchy present in the story, and he could be one of the gentry, he would rather accept a role as someone fighting for the common good.

Lydgate’s character mirrors the maturation of Dorothea in some instances. They are both moralistic characters that want to make change in Middlemarch and they both are interested in finding relationships. In both instances the characters pursuit of their romantic interests send them into the dark downward spiral. What is interesting is the comparison of these two characters. Dorothea knows this community and befalls the same emotional darkness that Lydgate will later in the novel. Once Lydgate engages in his romantic entanglements he loses the shield of the stranger. He is very much in the world of Middlemarch and thus privy to the same gloom that all the characters in the novels feel.

The change from initial introduction of Lydgate to what befalls him later in Eliot’s novel is striking. When somebody as good and morally strong as Lydgate is thrust into the dire circumstances he will be, the reader understands nobody is safe.