Middlemarch

Dorothea’s Resolve to Right a Wrong

Dorothea’s Resolve to Right a Wrong

Dorothea reflects that Mr. Casaubon has a debt to the Ladislaws, owing them redress for past wrongs. She turns her attention to the will made at the time of her marriage, which left the bulk of his property to her. Recognizing that this provision was made in her interest, she feels it ought to be altered without delay, and that the recent question of Will Ladislaw’s occupation provides the fitting occasion to place matters on a new and right footing.

A Plan for Will Ladislaw

A Plan for Will Ladislaw

She becomes convinced that her husband, guided by his sense of right, would take the just view if she proposed it. She suspects that her uncle’s scheme is disapproved by Mr. Casaubon, which makes it more opportune that a fresh understanding should be begun. Rather than allowing Will to start penniless and accept the first function offered, she envisions him receiving a rightful income paid by her husband during his life and secured at his death through an immediate alteration of the will. To Dorothea, this vision feels like daylight breaking in upon her previous self-absorbed ignorance of her husband’s relations to others.

The Sleepless Vigil

The Sleepless Vigil

The thoughts she has formed in solitude occupy her throughout the day on which Mr. Casaubon sent his letter to Will. She waits for a suitable opportunity to open her heart to him, mindful of his preoccupation and of her dread of agitating him since his illness. The hours of the night, when she rises to read him to sleep again, offer her the chance she seeks. On this particular night she is from the first sleepless, stirred by her resolves. When Casaubon wakes and asks for a candle, Dorothea obeys, only to ask whether she may talk to him instead of reading Lowth.

Dorothea Pleads Her Case

Dorothea Pleads Her Case

She tells her husband that she has been thinking of money all day, of her always having had too much. She urges that, if one has too much because others have been wronged, the duty to set that wrong right must be obeyed. Pointing to his aunt Julia, who was left in poverty because she married a poor man, and to the education and provision he afforded Will Ladislaw on that ground, she presses her case: Will’s claim ought to be regarded as a far greater one, even to half of the property destined for her. Will ought to be provided for on that understanding, so that any motive for his accepting the questionable proposal is set aside.

Mr. Casaubon’s Sharp Rebuke

Mr. Casaubon’s Sharp Rebuke

Mr. Casaubon, suspecting that Mr. Ladislaw has spoken to her, asks with biting quickness. Dorothea earnestly denies this, reminding him that Will has lately declined everything from him. Her husband pauses and then replies with still greater emphasis, telling her this is not the first occasion on which she has presumed to judge beyond her scope, that she is not qualified to discriminate in such matters, and that he accepts no revision or dictation within the range of affairs he has deliberated upon as his own. He forbids her interference between himself and Mr. Ladislaw and any encouragement of communications from him that constitute a criticism on his procedure.

Dorothea’s Silent Turmoil

Dorothea’s Silent Turmoil

Shrouded in the darkness, Dorothea is overtaken by a tumult of conflicting emotions. Alarm at the possible effect on her husband of his strongly manifested anger checks any expression of her own resentment, and she is not free of doubt and compunction beneath the consciousness that there may be some justice in his last insinuation. Listening to his quickened breathing after he has spoken, she sits frightened and wretched, with a dumb inward cry for help to bear the nightmare of a life in which every energy is arrested by dread. Nothing further passes between them; both remain long awake in silence.