Lydgate, An Echo of Casaubon

Lydgate to Rosamond: "...To say that you love me without loving the medical man in me, is the same sort of thing as to say that you like eating a peach but don't like its flavour. Don't say that again, dear, it pains me" (Eliot, page 284).

As opposed to Fred Vincy, as the reader learns only shortly before this scene, Lydgate feels a vested interest in his occupation; his life's achievements are defined and marked by his accomplishments in the medical field. This is in sharp contrast to Fred, who is willing, after completion of his training, to drop his future as a clergyman, for love. Lydgate's identity is deeply connected to his career.

This statement of Lydgate's marks the moment at which his relationship with Rosamond figuratively links to the marriage between Casaubon and Dorothea. Unlike the other suitor of the novel, Fred, these two men are more emotionally vested in their occupations than in their marriages. Lydgate's passion for medicine makes him almost a younger Casaubon-esque figure; ultimately, their fates are comparable as neither successfully achieves their ambitious academic goals while their marriages decline.

I believe there is a foreshadowing of their paralleled stories when Rosamond asks Lydgate whether Dorothea is beautiful. Rosamond's inquiries provide the beginnings to a process in which the reader also creates a link between the two marriages.