Purposeful matches

George Eliot’s Middlemarch brings to life the intellectual and social ambitions of women who defy the conformist sensibility of a pre-railroad provincial town: the idealistic (and naïve) Dorothea settles on an aristocrat of advanced age to improve her knowledge of the classics and advance her social reform housing projects; the lovely (and tearful) Rosamund aspires to higher social standing expecting to distribute largesse as a doctor’s wife; Mrs. Bulstrode, shocked by her husband’s past secrets, forgives him despite the town’s whispers and ugly gossip. All the while knowing the weaknesses of her childhood friend, Fred, Mary Garth resolves to marry only him.