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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Key Examples in Middlemarch
Prelude
Explanation and Analysis—Saint Theresa:
In the “Prelude” to the novel, Eliot includes an allusion to the story of Saint Theresa, a Catholic saint who lived in the early 1500s in Avila, Spain. Eliot tells Saint Theresa’s life story, describing the saint’s idealistic nature and also how, at times, her intentions were thwarted by everyday concerns and family members who underestimated her. In order to tie Saint Theresa’s story to the novel to come, Eliot concludes the Prelude in the following way:
Here and there a cygnet is reared uneasily among the ducklings in the brown pond, and never finds the living stream in fellowship with its own oary-footed kind. Here and there is born a Saint Theresa, foundress of nothing, whose loving heart-beats and sobs after an unattained goodness tremble off and are dispersed among hindrances, instead of centring in some long-recognizable deed.
Related Themes:
Book 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Casaubon's Comparisons:
In an effort to capture Casaubon’s philosophical and studious nature, Eliot has characters allude to several important historical figures when describing Casaubon. For example, in the following passage Dorothea compares Casaubon to Pascal, a 17th century French philosopher who was also a physicist, mathematician, and inventor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"I should learn everything then," she said to herself, still walking quickly along the bridle road through the wood. "It would be my duty to study that I might help him the better in his great works. There would be nothing trivial about our lives. Every-day things with us would mean the greatest things. It would be like marrying Pascal.”
Related Themes:
Book 4, Chapter 37
Explanation and Analysis—Catholic Relief Act:
At several points throughout the novel, characters reference “the Catholic Bill” or “the Catholic question,” allusions to the Catholic Relief Act of 1829. For example, when discussing which newspapers Middlemarch residents tended to prefer, the narrator alludes to the bill:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Buyers of the Middlemarch newspapers found themselves in an anomalous position: during the agitation on the Catholic Question many had given up the "Pioneer"—which had a motto from Charles James Fox and was in the van of progress—because it had taken Peel's side about the Papists, and had thus blotted its Liberalism with a toleration of Jesuitry and Baal.
Related Themes:
Book 5, Chapter 46
Explanation and Analysis—The 1832 Reform Act:
There are many different references to the 1832 Reform Act throughout the novel as Middlemach is set in the years immediately before its passage (when it was being thoroughly debated). It comes up, for example, in the following conversation between Dorothea’s uncle Mr. Brooke and Will Ladislaw:
Unlock with LitCharts A+"Quite right, Ladislaw; we shall make a new thing of opinion here," said Mr. Brooke. "Only I want to keep myself independent about Reform, you know; I don't want to go too far. I want to take up Wilberforce's and Romilly's line, you know, and work at Negro Emancipation, Criminal Law—that kind of thing. But of course I should support Grey."
Related Themes:
Book 8, Chapter 83
Explanation and Analysis—Epigraphs:
Every single chapter of Middlemarch opens with an epigraph, specifically a quote from another work of literature that has informed Eliot’s own writing. The epigraphs hint at the content in the chapter to come.
For example, the epigraph at the start of the chapter that includes the climax of the book—when Dorothea and Will declare their love for each other and kiss—is an excerpt from a John Donne Poem called “The Good-Morrow” and is about the beauty of romantic love:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And now good-morrow to our waking souls
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room, an everywhere.
Related Themes:
Finale
Explanation and Analysis—Like the River Gyndes:
In the final paragraph of the novel, Eliot uses a simile to compare Dorothea’s nature to the River Gyndes:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth.
Related Themes:
