#mary lydgate

[kazoosandfannypacks]

We need to talk about Killian Jones, specifically his actions in Season 6, Episode 4: The Strange Case.

At the climax of the episode, Belle is trapped on the Jolly Roger with Dr. Jekyll, who is bent on killing her to make the Dark One pay. Said Dark One watches helplessly as it all goes down, and just when it seems like all hope is lost, Killian Jones swoops in and kills Jekyll, saving the day and Belle.

At first glance, this story sounds pretty similar, doesn't it? Someone on the Jolly Roger trying to kill Belle to make Rumplestiltskin pay for what happened to the woman he loved? Sounds like something a certain Killian Jones did way back in season 2.

And that's part of what makes this moment so important. Killian Jones has gone from trying to kill her to saving her life from people who want to kill her for the same reason he once did. This is development. This is growth. This is looking at the man he once was and being disgusted by him, horrified by him, not wanting to see any trace of him left in the world. This is proof of redemption.

But it goes so much deeper than that too, because Jekyll's story is not meant to parallel Killian's. Jekyll's story was never about "Rumplestiltskin killed the woman I love." No, Jekyll's story was "the woman I loved chose someone else, and I killed her for it." Jekyll's story didn't parallel Killian's- at least, not nearly as closely as it paralleled Rumplestiltskin's.

Killian Jones never got justice for what Rumplestiltskin did. He never avenged Milah- but, whether or not he knew it, he avenged Mary Lydgate, who died for the same crime Milah died for- who was murdered because she wanted to love whoever she chose.

So when I think of what Killian did in this episode, I know he didn't just do it for Belle- and he didn't just do it for himself, or for his family, or even for Hyde or for Mary- I think, in avenging Mary's death, he finally got to bring honor to Milah's name as well.

Because even though Milah's blood was never avenged, Mary Lydgate's was.

[emilyrox]

ouat for the ask game?

OUAT!!!

Favorite Male: Killian Jones. There's no contest. Just Killian.

Favorite Female: Emma Swan. There's no contest. Just Emma.

Favorite Pairing: Ok I'm gonna list both my favorite main pairing and favorite side pairing.

Favorite Main Pairing: Captain Swan. You all knew this was gonna be my answer don't lie. Finally watched the Captain Swan wedding for real and it is the best thing ever. Also started season 7 officially and THEY'RE HAVING A BABY!

Favorite Side Pairing: Mr. Hyde x Mary Lydgate (I don't know what the ship name is someone plz help). Gonna be honest I don't exactly know why I think about them as much as I do. Maybe it's because Hyde is also a favorite, or because of their dynamic in general, or because I wish we saw more of them, but I just think about them a lot and what they meant to each other. I'm attached to a pairing that was together for ONE episode??? It's more likely than you think.

Least Favorite Character: uhhhhhhhhhhhh I got a few

Fiona "The Black Fairy". I did not like her. Yeah she's a villain so she's meant to be rooted against but other villains in the show are at least ENTERTAINING. Regina was an entertaining villain (and the og). Zelena was fucking hilarious (and still is as a hero I'm glad they kept that part of her). Cruella de Vil is a cruel dog murderer but I was always interested when she was on screen. But Fiona? She was just a bitch, and not an enjoyable one. I just wanted someone to finally end her. Was so satisfied when Rumple killed her for good.

Mother Superior/"The Blue Fairy". Just because I don't like Fiona and she and Blue were foils doesn't mean I like the Blue Fairy. I agree with the rest of the fandom that she was shady as fuck. She does some good things but also a lot of rude and shady ones. The way she treated Tinkerbell was awful, and her overall "I art holier than thou" attitude was just unpleasant. I could never really tell if she actually wanted to help the heroes or not, which would have been an interesting thing to think about during the show if not for her over-the-top self-righteousness.

Rumplestiltskin (Season 4, Season 5B-Season 6A. Season 7 TBD). He has had many opportunities to redeem himself and be a good person, which he claims he wants to be, but over and over again he kept clinging to "muh power." He is entertaining as a villain overall, and I do like Rumbelle, but not when he is being borderline abusive and possessive of her. I specified specific seasons where I don't like him because those are where he fucks up the most imo. 5A could have been his perfect redemption arc, and he was finally free of the Dark One Curse, but he willingly chose to take that power back. Which makes his actions more irritating in 5B. 6A Rumple was god awful. However, I am glad that by 6B he got his shit together (most of the time) and ultimately did the right thing. *I will say that I enjoy Rumple the most when he is in full-on Dad mode. Which is part of why I like him again in 6B. He genuinely cares about his sons, and I believe him when he says he would do anything for them.* Rumple in Season 7 has yet to be determined as I have not finished it yet.

Who's Most Like Me: Ok imma be completely honest I don't actually know. I feel like my answer, if i have one, would just be me projecting myself onto the character and not actually looking at canon.

Most Attractive: Killian is the obvious choice but ngl more than half of the entire cast slays. The costume department is a big reason why. I agree with the idea that most of the budget went towards the costumes and honestly that is 100% valid of them to do.

Three More Characters I Like: Here ya go:

Elsa. Fuck y'all the Frozen arc was great and Elsa was great and she cares about Anna and Kristoff and becomes besties with Emma and doesn't understand talking phones with Killian and she's great and I may or may not have shipped her with Liam (the first) at one point even though there is literally no way that could ever happen but consider this: it'd be cute.

Zelena (Season 5B and onward. Season 7 TBD). I mentioned how she was a very entertaining villain but ngl I think she's even more entertaining when she's on the heroes' side. She still has 100% of her sass, it's just now directed at people who deserve it. Like Fiona for example :D. I also love when she and Regina work together and help each other. I also believe, like Rumple, that she genuinely cares about her daughter, and seeing her go mom-mode is great. Overall, I think she became a much more likeable and enjoyable character after 5A, and especially by mid 6A. Zelena in Season 7 has yet to be determined as I have not finished it yet.

Lily Page. So from what I've seen online I'm not the only one that was hoping to see more of her after Season 4, right? I thought she was an interesting character, and I'm happy she finally reunited with her mom, Maleficent. Lily being her daughter was a plot twist I don't think anyone expected, but I really liked it! I would have honestly loved to see an episode where Lily and Emma, and maybe a few others, go searching for Lily's dad. They introduced that arc for Lily in the Season 4 finale, but then it didn't go anywhere. (Ok so I have been spoiled that it's revealed in Season 7 at the very end but I wish we got more than that ngl). I like Lily, I just wish we got to see more of her.

[guiltyonsundays]

In defence of Will Ladislaw

George Eliot's characterisation of Will Ladislaw is one of the few aspects of Middlemarch that is not universally praised, with no less a person than Henry James commenting in 1873 that he lacked “sharpness of outline and depth of color”, making him the novel’s “only eminent failure.” And while Will's character is certainly not as clearly defined as some of the other characters in the novel, I believe that this was absolutely intentional on Eliot's part. Middlemarch is full to the brim of characters who believe they know exactly what they want—not least among them, our two protagonists, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, whose ardent ambitions and inflexible attitudes lead them into catastrophic errors of judgement and unhappy marriages.

By contrast, Will's lack of strongly defined goals and his changeability are almost his defining character traits. He's aimless and pliable, prone to rapid mood swings and drastic career changes, with even his physical features seeming to "chang[e] their form; his jaw looked sometimes large and sometimes small; and the little ripple in his nose was a preparation for metamorphosis. When he turned his head quickly his hair seemed to shake out light."

Will’s inscrutability is closely tied to his ambiguous status within the rigid class structure and xenophobic society of Victorian England, with his Polish ancestry and “rebellious blood on both sides” making him a target for suspicion. He is repeatedly aligned (and aligns himself) with oppressed, marginalised, and outcast populations—Jewish people, artists, and the poor.

He serves as a narrative foil for characters like Lydgate and Edward Casaubon, who prioritise specialist expertise above all and are consequently incapable of broad knowledge synthesis. He critiques Casaubon's life's work as being "thrown away, as so much English scholarship is, for want of knowing what is being done by the rest of the world." By contrast, Will serves as Eliot's defence of the value of a liberal education. One of the first things that we learn about him is that he declines to choose a vocation, and instead seeks to travel widely, experiencing diverse cultures and ways of life. He has broad tastes and interests, trying his hand at poetry and painting before eventually pursuing a career in politics.

He also functions as a narrative foil for Dorothea. Will is initially apathetic to politics, whereas Dorothea initially professes herself to be disinterested in art and beauty. This is perfectly encapsulated in their exchange in Rome, when Dorothea declares, "I should like to make life beautiful—I mean everybody's life. And then all this immense expense of art, that seems somehow to lie outside life and make it no better for the world, pains one", to which Will replies, "You might say the same of landscape, of poetry, of all refinement [...] The best piety is to enjoy—when you can [...] I suspect that you have some false belief in the virtues of misery, and want to make your life a martyrdom.”

By the end of the novel, Dorothea unlearns some of her puritanical suspicion of sensual pleasure, whereas Will becomes more serious, compassionate, and politically engaged, dedicating his life to the accomplishment of humane political reforms. They are both flawed individuals, who ultimately become more well rounded through their relationship with each other. Admittedly, Dorothea's influence on Will is more significant than his on her—and once again, I believe that this was intentional on Eliot's part.

In my opinion, the negative response to Will Ladislaw at the time of Middlemarch's publication (and in the centuries since) was and is profoundly informed by gendered expectations of masculine dominance in romantic relationships. Will's marriage to Dorothea has often been described as disappointing, with many readers and critics viewing the ambitious Lydgate as the embodiment of the ideal husband that Dorothea outlines at the beginning of the novel—a talented man engaged in important work for the betterment of humanity, to whom she can devote herself.

However, one of the central themes of the novel is that people are often mistaken in their beliefs about what they want, and Dorothea's marriage to Edward Casaubon certainly demonstrates that she would not in fact be happy living her life in submission to a man who does not respect her opinions. I firmly believe that Lydgate's misogynistic attitudes and expectations would have made it impossible for him to be happy in a marriage of equals with a woman like Dorothea. He is explicitly drawn to Rosamond Vincy because she has "just the kind of intelligence one would desire in a woman—polished, refined, docile."

By contrast, George Eliot made a deliberate choice to pair Dorothea with a man who is not ashamed to be influenced by her, and indeed looks up to her as his moral superior. Through Dorothea's influence, Will discovers his life's work. In turn, by marrying Will, Dorothea is able to pursue her true passion. As a result of their influence on each other, these come to mean the same thing—reform. Thus, George Eliot grants Dorothea Brooke a subversively feminist, politically progressive, and profoundly cathartic ending: a life of companionate marriage, sensual pleasure, and meaningful work, in which Dorothea can devote herself (within the limited means available to her as a woman in the 19th century) to the achievement of just and compassionate reforms that "make life beautiful" for everybody—herself included.

[clios-purls]

going absolutely feral for the final chapters of middlemarch

"I never had a preference for her, any more than I had a preference for breathing"

!

And then Dorothea immediately rallying herself to help Rosamond!

!!!!

[apenitentialprayer]

The Annunciation, an image from a 14th century English Psalter (x)

Blissed Gabriel, wich broughtest first tydyng On-to Marye, knelying on thy kne, Touchyng þe berthe of that hevenly kyng, Of his conseyvyng and his natyvyte, And how Maria, in pure virgynyte Sholde bere a child, to socoure us alle, For which, O Gabriel! geyn all aduersyte Be thow our help whan we to the calle.

John Lydgate, Minor Poems. Modernization below.

Blessed Gabriel, who brought first tiding Onto Mary, kneeling on thy knee, revealing the birth of that heavenly King, — of His conception and His nativity, And how Mary, in pure virginity, should bear a child to succor us all. For which —O Gabriel!— against all adversity Be thou our help when we to thee call. Amen.

[grendelsmilf]

middlemarch modern au is so fucking funny to me because literally all of them would be so insufferable if they had access to the internet, and yes that includes dorothea and mary (tumblrinas), lydgate and ladislaw (redditors), celia and sir james (unhinged tweeters), casaubon (posts on substack like it's his job), rosamond (aspiring influencer), and even bulstrode (uses the linkedin status update feature for some godforsaken reason)

[une-sanz-pluis]

A Complaint for My Lady of Gloucester and Holland

As if in recognition of the contextual irony of this reference to Humphrey, whose affections were fixed elsewhere, the poem turns immediately to identify the villain of the story […] This "myrmade," a figure traditionally associated with sexuality and pride, is patently a reference to Eleanor Cobham, whose alliance with Humphrey had already become a public scandal. In resorting to the convenient fiction of witchcraft, Lydgate exonerated his patron for his inconstancy. Thus it was no self-indulgent luxuria which had occasioned the Duke's shameful marital mores, but witches who had worked to "bowe and tenclyne [bend and turn], / The prynces hert ageynst al right" (ll.53-4), disturbing his "noblesse," his nobility, making his heart "double," or fickle, in his loving (ll.55-6). Eleanor, a "fals Circe" (l.57), had bewitched him, sugaring the "galle" of that inappropriate liaison (l.60). Her potions had turned Humphrey "agaynst al lawe/ Frome his promesse … (ll.69-70), in a line echoing Jacqueline's letters of complaint. Significantly, the poem points to the consequences of this enchantment, "wher thorough his name and fame are lorne [/os/]" (l.73). Against this sorceress the Solitarye calls for vengeance: "… whoo supplaunte the, of equytee,/ By processe shal supplaunted be" (ll.62-3). —C. Marie Harker, “The Two Duchesses of Gloucester and the Rhetoric of the Feminine”, Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques, 30.1 (n.b. the authorship of the poem is debated, it is sometimes attributed to John Lydgate).

Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (1873), Mermaid | Henry Fuseli (c. 1788), Prince Arthur and the Fairy Queen | Luis Ricardo Falero (1878), Vision of Faust

[talesofpassingtime]

He would have made, she thought, a much more suitable husband for her than she had found in Lydgate. No notion could have been falser than this, for Rosamond’s discontent in her marriage was due to the conditions of marriage itself, to its demand for self-suppression and tolerance, and not to the nature of her husband; but the easy conception of an unreal Better had a sentimental charm which diverted her ennui. She constructed a little romance which was to vary the flatness of her life:

— Mary Ann Evans, Middlemarch

[gutzy-artz]

Forever sad over the fact Mary Lydgate only had one episode appearance

[aforcedelire]

Middlemarch, George Eliot

C’est avec un immense soulagement (on va pas se mentir) que j’écris ENFIN cet avis, parce que ça y est, après un mois j’ai enfin fini cet énorme et foisonnant roman ! (Par contre, la prochaine fois que j’ai la brillante idée de commencer un livre de 1 000 pages en pleine rentrée littéraire, stoppez-moi)

Dans Middlemarch, on suit plusieurs personnages et plusieurs intrigues. Il y a d’abord Dorothea Brooke, qui n’attend qu’une chose, c’est de se marier — et elle est bien décidée à épouser M. Casaubon, un homme de sciences qui s’intéresse à « la clé de toutes les mythologies » et qui aurait l’âge d’être son père. On découvre également Rosamond Vincy, fille de manufacturiers, qui elle, souhaite se marier pour s’élever socialement (et aussi changer de décor). Heureux hasard, elle rencontre le docteur Lydgate, médecin de son état, nouvellement arrivé à Middlemarch. Enfin, il y a Mary Garth, une jeune fille sans le sou forcée de tenir compagnie à un riche vieillard imbuvable, qui flirte avec son ami d’enfance.

Tu l’auras compris, on a de très nombreuses intrigues (je passe volontairement sous silence les intrigues secondaires sociales), et de non moins nombreux personnages. Au début, le style est assez compliqué à appréhender : on sent que George Eliot a voulu faire la chronique sociale de son époque — et c’est très bien réussi. Sans aucune surprise, le mariage reste au centre de ce roman, et j’ai vraiment apprécié de voir les différentes façons dont c’était traité. Entre Dorothea qui se fait constamment passer en deuxième plan face à son mari, et le cousin de ce dernier qui tombe raide dingue de Dorothea, entre Rosamond et Lydgate qui vivent un mariage malheureux fait de mépris et de soucis d’argent, tandis que Fred essaye tant bien que mal de conquérir Mary, il y en a à foison ! Plusieurs passages m’ont fait sortir de mes gonds, notamment l’avis de certains « gentlemen » sur le mariage : ces messieurs cherchent une femme très belle et très jeune, parce que bien plus malléable et soumissible (Casaubon on te voit), quand ce n’est pas carrément un chien qu’ils veulent…

Il y a tellement à dire sur ce monument de la littérature anglaise, et si peu de place ici. Dans l’ensemble, j’ai vraiment apprécié ma lecture ; même si j’étais plusieurs fois frustrée de ne pas avancer très vite. Comme je l’ai dit, le style est assez exigeant, et certains passages m’ennuyaient (tu vois Guerre et Paix, quand tu skippes les parties sur la guerre parce que c’est long et compliqué et pas très intéressant ? ben pareil avec les intrigues sociales). Le sous-titre de Middlemarch est « Étude de la vie de province », et on le sent bien ! C’est foisonnant, c’est parfois compliqué, mais c’est vraiment vraiment bien, et je suis très contente de l’avoir enfin lu !

09/09/2022 - 13/10/2022

[readingeliot-blog]

Middlemarch: Book VIII: Sunset and Sunrise

So we are finally at the sunset of Middlemarch (and sunrise?). All the storylines finally come together. Dorothea finally ends up with Will, and they kissed in a dramatic way. (Is that the only kiss in the book?) It's so bizarre to think that anyone would marry someone without having proper courtship. Kiss, and let's marry in a few weeks - is what people used to do it seems. Seems to work out for Dorothea however, and at the end she has a baby boy, for which reason Celia and husband finally soften and the family comes back together.

Lydgate dies young. Rosamond marries again, and has only bitter memory of her first husband. Lydgate never really achieved what he wanted to achieve professionally, even though he made a decent living in London, and his marriage never achieved a new high. Possibly the harshest treatment of a character by Eliot.

Bulstrode gives Stone Court to the wife, who then hired Mr Garth, who in turn recruits Fred Vincy to take care of it. Fred and Mary marry and live happily ever after, with three boys. The Bulstrodes leave Middlemarch. There doesn't seem to be any proper resolution financially to Bulstrode's past indecencies (?), apart from being forever shamed. But maybe that's the toughest punishment of all in Middlemarch.

It's quite interesting to see how Eliot treats all these characters. I guess not all marriages could end up happy, especially in this book, but Lydgate seems to be the most unlucky of them all. His decision to marry Rosamond seems to be his downfall for the rest of his life, that can never be recovered back. Rosamond herself seems to be doing well, and hardly learns a lesson. Fred Vincy, who is not as hardworking and skilful as Lydgate, obtains happiness in the end. What is Eliot trying to tell us, I wonder?

[lacebird]

“When you walked into the parlour the other night, I saw the way the others looked at you. They were afraid, but I wasn’t”

[redbone135]

"One's self-satisfaction is an untaxed kind of property which it is very unpleasant to find has depreciated."

- George Eliot, Middlemarch

[thestrangegirl091200]

A moodboard for Middlemarch by George Eliot.

Pictures not mine, except for the one in the middle: it was taken by me and that is the copy of the novel which I own.

[viviansilverkartrait-blog]

Mr Hyde and Mary Kiss 2