Dorothea as real character

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Dorothea as a real character

Introduction:

          This is my assignment as part of my second semester in M.A. As a student of literature there are some questions regarding any literature. So here I want to clear these many questions as under,

-         What is in the novel ‘Middlemarch’?

-          Is literature reflects some realities?

-         What are the realities in the novel?

-         How Dorothea is real character?

-         Are there some characters like her in other works?

Basic information about the novel

          Middlemarch is the novel written by George Eliot. The novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch.  It is written as a third person narrative. There are three or four plots like life of Dorothea, the career of Tertius Lydgate, the courtship of Mary Gerth by Fred Vincy and the disgrace of Bulstrode. But the main plot is regarding Dorothea Brooke that how her life going on in the novel? There are some major characters in the novel as under,

-         Dorothea

-         Tertius Lydgate

-         Rosamond Vincy

-         Edward Casaubon

-         Arthur Brook, etc.

Some significant themes of the novel are status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. We can find comical elements but it is a work of realism.

Literature reflects some realities:

     Generally we can say that ‘literature is reflection of our life’. And we can see something true in literature. In every literature we can find something which we can say it is real. Sometimes character represents the reality like in our Ramayana, character like Tom in the novel ‘Tom Jones’. In the drama of ‘Hayvadana’ by Karnad, in this work story is like complicated but the portrayal of two main characters is reflect reality. One has powerful mind and another has power of body and in our real life also we can see them. So now let’s know the realities of the novel.

Realities are in the novel:

          In the novel there are many characters that are not complete. They have some positive points and some negatives. And as know that everyone has his/her weak points so everyone is incomplete. We can see variety of characters in this novel like Dorothea, Casaubon, Lydgate, etc. And these types of characters we can see in real life also. Generally in all our Hollywood movies we can see the main character is perfect he has all the things like brain, beauty, body power, helpful, kind, etc. So we can say that those all things are unreal. Because in reality we can’t see such character who has all the good qualities.

   Role of Dorothea in the novel:

                                                                           Dorothea is a kind hearted and honest woman. She is an exceptional woman. She is smart, pious, beautiful and the governing principle of her character is her desire to have the needy .and we can see it in her interest in redesigning the cottages of local farmers. She thinks Casaubon is a great intellectual but it not so. After marriage, she quickly discovers that he is not passionate enough to make her happy. She also learns that she is not as submissive and sacrificing as she had previously thought. Then, he died because of his age and Dorothea refuses to finish the work of her husband and so once again she come back to her life as earlier like before marriage.     She draws plans for comfortable cottages to replace the ramshackle buildings on large estates. She helps Lydgete when he suffers for his connection with Bulstrode. She falls in love with Casaubon’s young cousin, will ladislaw. She defines Casaubon’s machinations and marries will even though it means losing her inheritance as Casaubon’s widow. So, we can say that she choose good person not money to be happy in her life. And because of this decision we can say that she take this step after thinking. Dorothea is major character of this novel.  Now, let’s we define that how she is real character?  As under,

    

   Dorothea as a real character:

      

               Dorothea is a central character in the novel. She is helpful person and she want to help Casaubon and because of this reason she married with him. But there is vast difference between their age and that’s why their life becomes unhappy. He not gives his attention towards Dorothea. Dorothea is an intelligent and beautiful girl she can easily get good life partner but she choose Casaubon. And because of this step she has to suffer in her life. Generally we can see that very human being is incomplete. And in our real society also we can find some examples like Gandhiji. He is great person it not mean that he was not did any mistake in his life. He also stole gold from his brother’s bracelet and also smokes when he was child. So there are many mistakes done by him. And in this novel also Dorothea does some mistake and so she is real character.

            Generally, our mind constructed to watch ideal hero or heroine whether it is movie or novel. Because in our bollywood hero and heroine are always ideal and perfect one like role of Ajay Devgan in the movie ‘Singham’. And because of these kind of movies our mind is constructed that hero is always ideal, honest, kind- hearted, etc. He never does any mistake in his life. But in literature there are many characters that represent the reality of life like Tom in the novel ‘Tom Jones’. By heart he is kind but he has affairs with many women like Sophia Westren, Molly, etc. So according to our society it is not good thing but as individual he may right.

          In this novel Dorothea is a real character because she is not complete. And it’s natural for everybody to do any mistake in life. And there is one Gujrati proverb as under,

          “Manas matra, Bhulne patra”

          So, from this proverb also we can say that everyone did at list one mistake during his/her life. As same Dorothea also committed mistake by marring with old Casaubon. We compare age of their both so its mistake of Dorothea. So, after all we can say that character like Dorothea is everywhere.

Characters like Dorothea in other literatures,

-         Tom from the novel ‘Tom Jones’

-         Victor from the novel ‘Frankenstein’

-         Hamlet from the play ‘Hamlet’

-         Othello from the play ‘Othello’

-         King Lear from the play ‘King Lear’

                 

                These all characters are like Dorothea because some where they all do mistake. So these are some other examples like Dorothea from other literature.

Conclusion:

                She is real character that’s right but so what? Now here I want to say that so what? Everybody is incomplete so there is no need to blame anyone for anything. So rather than blaming to another we have to accept our mistakes. And in our real life there are some wars like war between two nations, war between two brothers, war between two persons, etc. Because some mistake done by someone but point is that if we know that no one is complete. So we can accept mistake of others and try to remove it but then it not transfer in war. Everybody is living happy life and enjoyable life, if we forget the mistakes of others and try to accept mistakes of ours. There is one another Hindi proverb as under,

          “Rat gai so rat gai, bit gai so bat gai”

                                              From this proverb we can understand that don’t remember the mistakes of others try to forget it. And if we are ready to accept the mistake of others then surely somebody is ready to accept ours. Then our relations are developing beautifully if we are behaving like it. So after all I want to say last thing that ‘accept any person with his/her mistake and try to remove those mistakes with understanding.

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