Hope you had a good week, Middlemarchers! A lot of intense stuff happened in these chapters, so I’m really curious to see what y’all think. Discussion questions are in the comments like always.

Summary

At the beginning of Chapter 48 we have another instance of Eliot rewinding the same scene from another character’s perspective. In this case, we learn that Dorothea is not angry that Will has come to the Lowick church; she’s actually upset with Casaubon for refusing to reconcile with Will, who she believes has come to the church in a good faith attempt to repair the relationship.

When they return home, Casaubon asks her to help him organize his notes on The Key to All Mythologies. Dorothea suspects that his declining health has given him renewed urgency to try to finish the book. They go to bed and both wake up in the middle of the night when Casaubon is restless and cannot sleep. Casaubon asks her to carry out his final wishes in case he dies. Dorothea is hesitant to make a promise without knowing what he is actually asking of her. Casaubon bristles at this but agrees that she can have some time to think about it.

Dorothea worries that Casaubon is going to ask her to finish his book after his death. Based on Will’s comments about scholarship and her own knowledge of her husband’s work, Dorothea now recognizes the book for what it is: a bloated and self-aggrandizing project with little academic merit. She dreads spending the next several decades of her life as a widow yoked to a project that she does not care about. However, she pities her husband for wasting his life and does not want to deny his last wish. In the morning, Dorothea seeks out Mr. Casaubon and they agree to have a discussion about his request. But when she goes to him, she discovered that he has died suddenly.

In Chapter 49 we get a brief scene with Sir James and Mr. Brooke. We find out that Casaubon revised his will so Dorothea would lose her inheritance from Casaubon if she marries Will. Chettam is enraged on Dorothea’s behalf, believing that the codicil implies that she was having an affair with Ladislaw. He thinks Will should be sent away immediately to quiet these rumors. Mr. Brooke advocates for keeping the matter quiet. He thinks that sending Will away will only cause more gossip. In the end, Chettam concedes, but he’s clearly not happy by this turn of events. We also learn that Dorothea is not doing well after her husband’s death, and her family plans to send her to stay with the Chettams so she can spend time with Celia and her new baby.

References

A foison is a plentiful supply.

Eliot uses a metaphor about the fanciful practice of alchemy leading to the birth of Lavoisier. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier is considered the founder of modern chemistry.

There’s a footnote that says that in Eliot’s original manuscript, chapter 48 ended with this sentence: “When she went down she felt sure that she should promise to fulfil his wishes; but that would be later in the day - not yet.” This sentence was then followed by the following motto:
“Vale, vale, nos te ordine quo natura permittet sequemur.” This translates to “Farewell, farwell, we shall follow you in the order that nature allows,” a quote from Sir Thomas Browne’s Urn Burial.

Mr. Brooke describes Casaubon’s work as “Thoth and Dagon” - Thoth is the Egyptian god of wisdom and Dagon is a Philistine fertility god.

Mr. Brooke mentions that if they sent Will to Norfolk Island, it would only make things worse for Dorothea. Norfolk Island was a penal colony near Australia.