Education in perception

I just finished reading Middlemarch. I think this is my favorite novel? The narrator has an extraordinary range in the novel that I haven't seen before. I genuinely wish that this is how God talks about us or narrator our stories? No judgment. Lots of attention, understanding, and wisdom.

I'll refer to the narrator as 'she' because the author is also 'she'. But I don't think there is a specific gender in the voice. Her ability to move seamlessly from the neighbor gossiping at tea to Casaubon's contemplating existence (and treat both as equally important to understanding life). It made the novel feel so complete and true.

I came to Middlemarch seeking specific themes and wanting to follow certain characters. But the narrator had other plans. The narrator wanted to educate me on perception. The novel is far more expansive than just one character or one theme.

I'm sharing some of my favorite quotes below. This is part 1. I don't want to overwhelm you.

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This is perhaps the most beautiful description of compassion.

Dorothea's religion, her protection of her pure religious thoughts: religion is what helps you, not what you know about it.

Relationship's tragedy. We enter them knowing little and believing much about our lovers. And we sometimes end up inverting the quantities. This is true of most marriages and families. This is a lesson that will stay with me.

Her gentleness in approaching Dorothea.

Dorothea reminds me a lot of myself. "Whose quick emotions gave the most abstract things the quality of a pleasure or a pain". This is both wrong and yet also true of any sensitive person.

We often think of our partner as our army of one against the world (even when the world has nothing against us??). I have been in situations where a person I loved deeply questioned my intentions or distrusted me. And I think I got a sense of why/how that is through the dynamics between Dorothea and Casaubon.

Being generous and loving towards those closest to us is a big theme in the novel. But many people's love and generosity have the opposite formula: "A man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance".

Spiritual emptiness as a headache?

The heartache and longing between lovers

The healing power of someone thinking highly of us. Seeing us for who we are, who we aspire to be