The dichotomy between passion and intellect in "Middlemarch" by George Eliot

    The choice the characters made when marrying pictures the dichotomy between passion and intellect. The people that form the couples Dorothea-Edward and Tertius-Rosamond made the decision to bind their lives together based on what they thought they should do, so based on an intellectual intend, while Celia-James and Mary-Fred married on the basis of passion, love, and emotion-driven ideal. Of interest is also, the reasoning behind the wish Mr. Casaubon and Mary Garth have in changing their partners. Casaubon wants Dorothea to restrict her independence because he does not want to deal with her outbursts of passion. Mary wants Fred to have a steady job not only for her wellbeing but also for his own. She uses the power of being loved with a passion in order to change the subject of her love for his own good. Even though Rosamond loved Lydgate at the beginning (“he seemed to her almost perfect”³), her only concerns could only be satisfied with money, which makes it improbable that their relationship would have persisted even if Lydgate had loved her if their marriage was built with passion (“The preposterousness of the notion that he could at once set up a satisfactory establishment as a married man was a sufficient guarantee against danger”³). But passion and intellect can also coexist. Dorothea and Will are both intellectual, the difference between their relationship and Dorothea and Casaubon’s is that theirs is passionate, they did not end up together because their mind told them to, but because their hearts drew them closer.