Have you seen this version of Middlemarch?Or maybe you’ve read the book. If either of these apply to you, then please HELP ME!
If you have a Netflix account, you can find this 1994 miniseries from BBC among the “watch instantly” options. You can find a plot summary here.
Did I like the film? Yes. I liked it very much. It had all the classic elements of our favorite English-novel-turned-period-drama. Beautiful language. Beautiful people. Virtuous people. Selfish people. And about every theme on the planet: Wealth, Class Distinctions, Reform, Education, Religious Hypocrisy, and Marriage. Only this time we don’t get the Happily Ever After we are accustomed to with Jane Austen. This time, George Eliot, aka Mary Anne Evans, left me with something more to think about. Dang it!!!
Okay, I was moderately satisfied with the outcome for these guys:
Mr. and Mrs. Casaubon
She marries him, despite the fact that he is decades her senior. She thought to be able to help him with his life’s work, A Key To All Mythologies. Not. He turns out to be a jerk. Fortunately he is dead by the end of episode 3. Sadly, he stipulates in his will that if she decides to marry this guy:
Will Ladislaw
Will Ladislaw
….she will automatically be disinherited of Mr. Casaubon’s fortune. Cruel. Well, she doesn’t care and by the end she marries Mr. Ladislaw anyway. An ending I can be satisfied with.
Life also seems to turn out okay for these guys:
Fred and Mary Vincy
They grew up as childhood sweethearts, but Mary refuses to give Fred any encouragement to pursue her until he can manage to prove himself capable of providing a decent living. He suffers the pains of being an idle, debt-ridden lug, disappointed of his expected inheritance from his rich uncle. However, by the end he seems to find his way and they marry happily.
Okay. I can accept that.
Fred and Mary VincyThey grew up as childhood sweethearts, but Mary refuses to give Fred any encouragement to pursue her until he can manage to prove himself capable of providing a decent living. He suffers the pains of being an idle, debt-ridden lug, disappointed of his expected inheritance from his rich uncle. However, by the end he seems to find his way and they marry happily.
Okay. I can accept that.
Here’s the one that is still bothering me:
Dr. Tertius and Mrs. Rosamond Lydgate
Dr. Tertius and Mrs. Rosamond LydgateI had every hope that these two were going to turn out to be the idyllic couple. He is an extremely ambitious, optimistic, talented, and well-educated doctor with high hopes of making great medical discoveries and turning Middlemarch into the town that forges the way in the medical world. I like him a lot. He’s self-confident and competent, and not afraid to be his own man.
She is beautiful. I guess that’s really all I can say about her now.
On first viewing I thought they really did have the adoring relationship we all aspire to. However, I’m slowly coming to grips with the fact that while he adores her, she really only admires him superficially, counting on his “high connections” (which he, sadly for her, despises) to elevate them in the classes.
Things go well for them at first, except that she speedily drives him into debt which he allows in an effort to please her. But then when he steps back and tries to make efforts to economize, she thwarts those efforts and turns their marriage south. Turns out that while maybe she loves her husband kind of, she apparently loves material wealth and her image in society even more.
I keep hoping that once the debt gets resolved, which it does, they will be able to repair the damage to their marriage and reinstate the adoration. However, that never happens and it still bugs me. In fact, this is what Wikipedia says about his demise:
She is beautiful. I guess that’s really all I can say about her now.
On first viewing I thought they really did have the adoring relationship we all aspire to. However, I’m slowly coming to grips with the fact that while he adores her, she really only admires him superficially, counting on his “high connections” (which he, sadly for her, despises) to elevate them in the classes.
Things go well for them at first, except that she speedily drives him into debt which he allows in an effort to please her. But then when he steps back and tries to make efforts to economize, she thwarts those efforts and turns their marriage south. Turns out that while maybe she loves her husband kind of, she apparently loves material wealth and her image in society even more.
I keep hoping that once the debt gets resolved, which it does, they will be able to repair the damage to their marriage and reinstate the adoration. However, that never happens and it still bugs me. In fact, this is what Wikipedia says about his demise:
He quickly falls out of love with his wife and ends up sacrificing all of his high ideals in order to make a living that will please Rosamond.
Aargh!! No!! Please, someone, just tell me it isn’t true.
Aargh!! No!! Please, someone, just tell me it isn’t true.
Actually, that IS what Weston keeps trying to tell me. It’s fiction, Em.
I’m trying to recreate a different ending in my head. The one where they really do have a happy marriage, despite the arguments over money. That’s what forgiveness is for after all, right? And the one where she realizes that being a doctor is what makes him. What he loves. And that he is able to go on in that profession and accomplish his dreams.
It has lead me to a quandary of what really makes a happy marriage. Is good marriage vs. bad marriage really so cut-and-dried? Is it so easy to slap a label on two people and conclude that their relationship is happy or miserable? What of the fact that no two people are perfect, hence, no marriage is really perfect. What about the fact that people can grow and change, and that especially in a marriage, the process of learning how to communicate and love and give and forgive takes time?
In a pragmatist sense, maybe it’s just because we don’t see what happens to the other couples after they marry. It just so happens that they marry at the end of the movie. Just because we don’t see the challenges that they face, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t have them. This is true of any and every happily-ever-after story we’ve all known and loved these many years. At first I thought relieved to see a film in which the story doesn't end with the wedding...but if it's not happily ever after, maybe I just can't take it.
Discuss.
I’m trying to recreate a different ending in my head. The one where they really do have a happy marriage, despite the arguments over money. That’s what forgiveness is for after all, right? And the one where she realizes that being a doctor is what makes him. What he loves. And that he is able to go on in that profession and accomplish his dreams.
It has lead me to a quandary of what really makes a happy marriage. Is good marriage vs. bad marriage really so cut-and-dried? Is it so easy to slap a label on two people and conclude that their relationship is happy or miserable? What of the fact that no two people are perfect, hence, no marriage is really perfect. What about the fact that people can grow and change, and that especially in a marriage, the process of learning how to communicate and love and give and forgive takes time?
In a pragmatist sense, maybe it’s just because we don’t see what happens to the other couples after they marry. It just so happens that they marry at the end of the movie. Just because we don’t see the challenges that they face, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t have them. This is true of any and every happily-ever-after story we’ve all known and loved these many years. At first I thought relieved to see a film in which the story doesn't end with the wedding...but if it's not happily ever after, maybe I just can't take it.
Discuss.
