Middlemarch discussion

Ok. I'm going to be crude... I know this book was written during Victorian times, and no one talked about S-E-X. But honestly, is there anyone who believes Dorothea and Mr. Casaubon consummated their marriage? I don't think so - in fact, I sort of hope not!

I agree! Although, Casaubon does talk about Dorothea not really fulfilling his desires...... do these desires go further than just a female companion? Hard to say!

LOL.

I added a quote to the database from Middlemarch used to describe Casaubon:


“He has got no good red blood in his body," said Sir James.

"No. Somebody put a drop under a magnifying-glass and it was all semicolons and parentheses," said Mrs. Cadwallader.”
― George Eliot, Middlemarch

So it wouldn't surprise me if Eliot really was hinting at the lack of a a physical relationship between the two.

I don't know. George Eliot didn't hesitate in Adam Bede to be clear when S-E-X was being had. I'm still in Rome with the Casaubons on their honeymoon, and it's such an obviously ill-fated relationship that I hate to speculate. Dorothea, in all her agonies over what she can bring to his life, has not had a word on the topic. She's a country girl, you know, so she must know the facts of life. But I have been wondering what I was going to learn as pages went by. No spoilers!! But that's my responsibility.

I suspect they are both foolish, each in their own way, about what constitutes human relationships. Casaubon, when he decided a wife would add a dimension to his life, never seemed to ponder an heir.

I adore the book. I'm afraid they both have their heads in the clouds. Rather, ahem, then where they belong...

So, I haven't read Adam Bede - I'll have to add that to my list.

semicolons and parenthesis. wink wink. ;) Love it!

I reckon they had awkward and difficult sex out of a sense of duty, at least initially.

Although the thought of Casaubon and Dorothea having S_E_X is more embarrassing to me than 50 Shades of Gray, I agree with Ian that out of duty to God and the Queen, it must have taken place. Besides (I don't feel like looking it up), didn't Casaubon mention Dorothea's possible children in his infamous will?

The general feeling is that Dorothea and Casaubon DID NOT consummate the marriage. Of course, George Eliot, for all she lived a non-conformist life (living "in sin" with Lewes who was married to someone else) was not going to spell out a failed bedroom scene. But there is enough in there for the alert-to-innuendo Victorians to be sure they did not.

1. In a very good wordpress essay, the writer points out the symbolism of the stag on the tapestry in Dorothea's boudoir at Lowick. (Masculinity and potency, but described as shrunken, faded and frozen in the tapestry.) Do we need more? No but we get more.
2. The "no red blood" passage pointed out above; very good!
3. His suspicion and jealousy of Ladislaw (a young male) who could supplant him in the bedroom.
4. Casaubon's unfinished book and inability or reluctance to finish it, then his attempt to tie Dorothea to it after his impending death AND ban her marriage to the cousin (perpetual virginity, if I can't have her, no one can AND...protect the secret that he couldn't consummate the marriage.) The unfinished book is symbolic of impotence. It is his "baby" but it's not even gestating yet. Dorothea offers to "help" and initially he rejects that help (you need a woman to provide the womb and ovum for creating a baby. )
5. Lowick = low and wick, wick being a euphemism for the male member and for male desire and potentcy.
6. Casaubon's abandonment of Dorothea on their honeymoon. A time where people are spending their time away from work and daily life to have a romantic interlude. Is he cuddling her in a private carriage or in a hotel room? Nah, he's off at the library leaving her alone. This is Geoge Eliot fairly shouting at the reader "Hey, LOW WICK, get it? He's a DUD, people."

Clearly the failed marriage failed not because of strife but because Casaubon was not able to man up. And his heart condition was another veiled hint; heart failure is often accompanied by erectile dysfunction, in fact it is an early indicator.