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Douglas LaNier's avatar

I was absolutely mortified by Rosamond's behavior, but we are under a hurricane and flood watch, so must pack and run!

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Amanda Ghest's avatar

Re the reference to Mrs. Lemon's in Mona's post - Rosamond was her star student if I remember, the one who did everything perfectly. She modulates all her movements as she does her thoughts and molds them to fit her desires. Lydgate is soothed by her perfection, then he is frustrated by it, as in blocked by it. He judged her wrongly, or saw only what he wanted to and didn't use his scientist's ability to observe Rosamond in her natural surroundings and come to the obvious conclusions. This is excused by his being so in love with her, his attraction to her that is purely physical. He wanted her for no more than an ornament to adorn his pleasant and self-protecting home life. His regard for her when pushed to his limit is condescending, he thinks she must stay in her place and obey him subserviently. Because he can't figure out how to control her.

He does a lot of thinking. He loses hope (his pride) and starts gambling. Then he takes money from Bulstrode.

Rosamond's love for him is dependent on her mental image of him. When she cannot mold him as she did before when she knew nothing about him as a person and merely projected onto him her desires, he loses all attraction for her. All attraction.

A blow-by-blow demonstration by Eliot of how mental activity determines even more than reality does. Whatever reality is!

A similar thing seems to happen with Bulstrode, his mental activity dictates his actions and he is not present except in his strongest desires.

"But of course intention was everything in the question of right and wrong." And, "Does anyone suppose that private prayer is necessarily candid - necessarily goes to the roots of action! Private prayer is inaudible speech, and speech is representative: who can represent himself just as he is, even in his own reflections?"

Whoa.

Bulstrode is obsessed with secrecy and will slice and dice a million ways to come up with the right answer: keep hiding. This is how he derives a sense of power.

Like a man trying to outrun an avalanche.

And still, still Eliot does not openly flatly condemn him, not in so many words. Though she also leaves no doubt of his guilt! I don't really know how she accomplishes both of these things at once, except that she has shown us his thoughts every step of the way, and then insists on there being other possible reasons that we can't really, know.

A very wide and generous view.

I found it odd that Lydgate did not at the time question more the circumstances of Raffles' death. I think that is the one place where I felt Eliot cutting her cloth to fit her argument. But that's all right, she more than earns her cuts, I feel. And they are not unbelievable, only a bit convenient, perhaps.

Book 7 was so absorbing once I dedicated my mind to it that I really forgot about Dorothea and only recalled near the end of the Book that she had been gone a long time. And then I only felt admiration for Eliot for doing that. Talk about confidence! She must have known she could make her disappear and not lose any readers because of it but they would stay the course with her with the great reward coming .. maybe.

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