Middlemarch; Level 3

The women are oppressed by the social expectations that prevail in Middlemarch. They are expected to cater to and remain dependent on their husbands. But Dorothea is subjected to some social ideals of what women should be. This is a tale of idealism, disillusion, loyalty and frustrated love. Dorothea and Dr. Lydgate illuminate the condition of English life in the mid-nineteenth century.