Middlemarch Lesson Plan

Does the Finale offer a happy ending? Why or why not? How does this affect your enjoyment of the book?

Students will likely think the ending is happy for some characters while unhappy for others. The book does not have a stereotypical happily ever after sort of ending. Fred and Mary have a good life in the Finale, but Lydgate, one of the book's protagonists of sorts, dies young. Even Dorothea, a main figure of the book, doesn't have a fairy tale ending. She doesn't reconcile with her sister until she has a son, and even then Chettam continues to disapprove of her marriage. Did students expect to get a happy ending? Were they let down?

Would Dorothea and Ladislaw ever...