In the aftermath of Sir James feeling disappointed about Dorothea becoming engaged to Casaubon instead of him, Eliot uses imagery to communicate a broad lesson about disappointment:
We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, "Oh, nothing!" Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts - not to hurt others.
Describing the way that humans “devour” disappointment daily, followed by holding back their tears and looking “a little pale about the lips,” Eliot makes it clear that disappointment is an inevitable part of life—for the people of Middlemarch and for readers, too (as they are also "mortals"). The descriptive language effectively captures the misery of this human fate.
It's notable that Eliot also describes how people “keep back the tears” and tell others who ask about their emotional state that it’s “nothing.” Here she is naming the ways that people hide their real feelings, a pattern that is particularly relevant in a small community like Middlemarch where gossip is rampant and a lot of importance is placed on maintaining appearances.
When capturing Rosamond’s desire to marry Lydgate for his social status, the narrator uses imagery:
Of course, he had a profession and was clever, as well as sufficiently handsome; but the piquant fact about Lydgate was his good birth, which distinguished him from all Middlemarch admirers, and presented marriage as a Prospect of rising in rank and getting a little nearer to that celestial condition on earth in which she would have nothing to do with vulgar people, and perhaps at last associate with relatives quite equal to the county people who looked down on the Middlemarchers. It was part of Rosamond's cleverness to discern very subtly the faintest aroma of rank.
The language “aroma of rank” does not refer to a literal aroma but is Eliot’s way of signaling Rosamond’s elitism—she is so attuned to a person's socioeconomic class status that she can smell the “faintest” aroma.
In addition to activating the olfactory sense, the narrator notes that the “piquant fact” about Lydgate was the fact that he came from a well-off family. “Piquant” refers to a strong or pungent flavor, encouraging readers to engage their sense of taste. Here again, socioeconomic status is a quality that Rosamond is able to intuitively sense. Like most people in the small community of Middlemarch, Rosamond is aware of every single person’s position in the rigid social hierarchy.
When describing Casaubon’s relationship to his intellect, the narrator uses imagery:
Thus his intellectual ambition which seemed to others to have absorbed and dried him, was really no security against wounds, least of all against those which came from Dorothea. And he had begun now to frame possibilities for the future which were somehow more embittering to him than anything his mind had dwelt on before.
The description that Casaubon’s intellectual ambition seemed “to have absorbed and dried him” is evocative—readers can visualize the energetic and physical effects this kind of shriveling can have on a person. The language of “embittering” also communicates the bitter taste of Casaubon’s unrealized dreams (specifically being unable to complete his manuscript, The Key to All Mythologies).
It is notable that of all the “wounds” Casaubon feels, the most painful are those that come from Dorothea. While he acts as if his only priority is scholarly ambition, Casaubon clearly deeply cares for and about Dorothea, and her perception of him. Unfortunately, because he continues to be trapped by his unattainable scholarly goals, he ends up failing to be a good partner to Dorothea. Ultimately, Casaubon ends up disappointed both professionally and personally before passing away.
As Casaubon becomes sicker, the narrator uses a metaphor to capture his imminent death:
And here Dorothea's pity turned from her own future to her husband's past - nay, to his present hard struggle with a lot which had grown out of that past the lonely labour, the ambition breathing hardly under the pressure of self-distrust; the goal receding, and the heavier limbs; and now at last the sword visibly trembling above him!
The image of “the sword visibly trembling above [Casaubon]” is palpable—Dorothea is aware that he has little time left so visualizes a sword hanging above him representing death.
The imagery here is also important—it’s not Casaubon who is barely breathing but his ambition that is “breathing hardly under the pressure of self-distrust.” This passage highlights how frustrated and resentful Dorothea is about the fact that she married Casaubon in the hopes of supporting a brilliant scholar with an ambitious final work (The Key to All Mythologies), only to find that he will not be able to complete his work before his death. In a way, Casaubon’s foiled ambition becomes Dorothea’s foiled ambition—as a woman in a sexist society, she is not allowed to have scholarly ambitions of her own.
During the climax of the novel—when Dorothea and Will finally declare their feelings for each other and kiss—Eliot describes the thunderstorm that accompanies the moment using imagery:
They stood silent, not looking at each other, but looking at the evergreens which were being tossed, and were showing the pale underside of their leaves against the blackening sky. Will never enjoyed the prospect of a storm so much: it delivered him from the necessity of going away. Leaves and little branches were hurled about, and the thunder was getting nearer. The light was more and more sombre, but there came a flash of lightning which made them start and look at each other, and then smile.
The descriptions of the “blackening sky” and “somber” light, followed by “a flash of lightning,” all activate readers’ senses while also building suspense for the moment where, lit up by the lightning, Dorothea and Will smile at each other and decide not to let the darkness separate them. This is one of the only optimistic moments in the novel—instead of prioritizing Dorothea’s fortune or both of their respectability (since being together would strip them of both), Dorothea and Will prioritize each other.
