# LXXXV explained — Middlemarch

> Chapter companion for Middlemarch by George Eliot.

## What happens

Mrs. Bulstrode, after visiting her brother, urges her husband to make amends to Rosamond and Lydgate. Bulstrode reveals that Lydgate has rejected his help and returned a loan, repaid by Mrs. Casaubon. He proposes instead that Fred Vincy be placed at Stone Court under Garth's management. The chapter also delves into Bulstrode's inner torment, comparing his guilt to Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress,' as he prepares to leave Middlemarch, haunted by his role in Raffles's death and unable to confess fully to his wife.

## Themes in this chapter

### Selfishness and Moral Compromise

Bulstrode's internal torment reveals his moral compromise: he knows he is guilty of complicity in Raffles's death, yet he cannot confess, clinging to concealment and self-justification.

### Money and Economic Pressure

Financial ruin drives the plot: Lydgate's failed practice, the return of the loan, and the proposed Stone Court arrangement all highlight economic pressures on the characters.

### Marriage and Illusion

Mrs. Bulstrode's duteous loyalty masks the painful reality of her husband's hidden guilt; their marriage is sustained by silence and partial truths.

## Character check-ins

### Mrs. Bulstrode

Urges her husband to help Rosamond and Lydgate; grieves over the family's disgrace and her husband's hidden guilt.

### Nicholas Bulstrode

Withers under the weight of his secret regarding Raffles's death; proposes placing Fred at Stone Court as a way to assist his wife's family.

### Tertius Lydgate

Rejected Bulstrode's help and returned the loan; his practice is failing and he must leave Middlemarch.

### Rosamond Vincy

Mentioned as part of the family needing amends; her husband's financial and professional troubles are noted.

### Fred Vincy

Proposed as the beneficiary of the Stone Court arrangement under Garth's management.

### Caleb Garth

Previously considered managing Stone Court; Bulstrode suggests he might accept the proposal if it is for Fred's sake.

## Key lines

> I should like to do something for my brother's family, Nicholas; and I think we are bound to make some amends to Rosamond and her husband.

Mrs. Bulstrode feels a moral obligation to help her brother's family, especially Rosamond and Lydgate, after the scandal.

_Highlights her sense of duty and the social fallout from Bulstrode's actions._

> The pitiable lot is that of the man who could not call himself a martyr even though he were to persuade himself that the men who stoned him were but ugly passions incarnate—who knows that he is stoned, not for professing the Right, but for not being the man he professed to be.

Bulstrode's suffering is not that of a martyr for truth, but of a hypocrite exposed for failing to live up to his own professed principles.

_The narrator contrasts Bulstrode's guilt with the unjust persecution of Bunyan's Faithful._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/middlemarch_se/chapters/lxxxv
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/middlemarch_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/middlemarch_se/chapters