Hey guys! I read Middlemarch for a class and am obsessed. A new favorite classic for me. The whole book I was so annoyed by Rosamund but also recognize a large part of that is internalized misogyny. I was trying really hard to find redeeming characteristics for her (socially smart, knows what she wants, loyal to Dorothea). My class also struggled to the point my professor said “does no one have any nice things to say about Rosamund?” I wanted to know if she was anyone’s favorite character or if people had a different perspective of her. Lydgate has a lot of bad traits too but I find myself way more sympathetic to him.
She’s a huge narcissist, it’s hard to like that. With the way she is introduced to the reader as a character her personality flaws make you super disappointed in her as a person, and betrayed by Eliot. She is introduced in juxtaposition to her brother, who is unlikable from the get go. That makes you as the reader predisposed to like her for disliking her brother, and everyone thinks she’s a pretty flower and so as the reader you do too. But then you learn that Rosamond is objectively worse since she’s not growing as a character, as opposed to Fred, who seems to show at least some initiative to be hard working, and you feel betrayed. You spend the rest of the time trying to find something redeeming about Rosamund for betraying your expectations because surely you werent fooled by a pretty face and manners as the reader.