The Theme of Inheritance in Middlemarch

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George Eliot's Middlemarch is one of the greatest novels of Victorian period, although it contains many of characteristics typical for modern novel. It covers wide range of themes; marriage, education, social mobility, women position, money and inheritance. The theme of inheritance plays an important role in the character developing in Middlemarch. Their actions are greatly guided by various thoughts concerning money and inheritance. In this essay I will explain how exactly does it influences them and why it is so important. First of all, it's necessary to explain why inherited money was more valued than earned in Victorian England. Inherited money was seen as „clean money“ that came from apparent and unmistakable source, whereas earned money couldn't always be „traced to its origins“. It is worth noting that this concept greatly changes with industrialization and the rise of the middle classes, when work begins to be valued also. Inheritance was seen as a way of reaching independence. While in Jane Eyre Jane gains her independence through the means of her inheritance, in Middlemarch Fred Vincy gains his by losing it. Mary inadvertenly contributes to this, when she refuses to burn the will as Featherstone instructs her. At first she thinks she is the reason why he won't be able to live indepently as he wishes, that he will have to become a clergyman, but the loss of inheritance actually provides him life independent of constraints. He gets a rude awakening when this happens, and has to change his way of living. He was used to extravagant life and having to provide for himself is something new to him. After he loses his inheritance he starts working for Mary's father, Caleb Garth, and in that way he gets something that's more valuable to him than money: the trust he once lost. Mary didn't think well of his fantasizing of inheriting land and idle style of
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