Quitting Middlemarch

Abstract

In Middlemarch, the plot relentlessly moves four main characters toward a single narrative end: they all quit Middlemarch. The essay asks why this mass exodus occurs. The name of the town contains one answer: there are barriers or marches in the middle of the town society. Characters also leave because the town's cultural practices prevent their adaptation to provincial life. Three rural practices that cause this disruption for these characters are gossip, money, and resistance to progressive change the characters are seeking. Alternatively the characters' projects of Bildung are inward, self-centered, and unsuccessful. Both town and characters are at fault. This essay focuses on surface reading of the text through digital searching, the purpose of which is to discover how often keywords and phrases are used, indicating their significance.