"Modes of Education" in Middlemarch: Victorian Feminism and the Characters of Dorothea and Rosamond

Abstract

<p>The title of this thesis is taken from a sentence, included in the first edition of Middlemarch, in which Dorothea's mistakes are attributed in part to "modes of education which make a woman's knowledge another name for motley ignorance". The thesis concerns the relationship between the Victorian feminist movement to allow women access to established systems of higher education and George Eliot's characterization of Dorothea Brooke and Rosamond Vincy. Dorothea and Rosamond are discussed with reference to the writings of influential feminists: Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, and Emily Davies. Relevant passages from George Eliot's letters and essays are also considered, as well as comparable characters in other novels by Eliot.</p>