You Can't Outrun Your Fate

As we talked about earlier in class, there is always “something” going on in Middlemarch. Eliot consistently describes “something” happening within her characters that changes their perceptions of their lives and those lives around them. In particular, I noticed that Eliot writes, “And yet he felt as if something had happened to him with regard to her” (123). This quotation explains how Will begins to feel attached to Dorothea. Later in the novel, Eliot writes, “Something was keeping their minds aloof, and each was left to conjecture what was in the other,” in regards to Will and Dorothea (337). What is this something that Eliot keeps writing about? How is it that a narrator that can penetrate the minds of characters cannot pinpoint this something?

A character or theme that we tend to overlook is Fate. Eliot delicately balances self-determination and fate. She represents this balance through the theme of gambling throughout the novel, especially with Fred, who loses everything, and Farebrother, who gambles but still makes an honest living. Each character has their own motivations, but Eliot illustrates that not everything can be planned. This something that keeps drawing Will and Dorothea together is fate. Their paths inevitably intertwine although they cannot bring themselves to be honest with each other. They try to stay away based on their own reasoning, but Eliot proves that fate has different plans for them.