Middlemarch: the Voice of a Cyborg

Middlemarch: The Voice of a Cyborg
      This Victorian drama “Middlemarch” is one that presents a historically accurate perspective on the times in which it was written.   Typically, light-hearted dramas were imbued with transparent, almost idealistic, characters of the time, yet “Middlemarch” is far from such a work.   Its name, perhaps almost prophetic and anticipatory, provides the ideal backdrop for the events that follow; yet all of this stands in the midst of great change.   In”Middlemarch” the narrator carefully weaves and constantly reaffirms an intricacy of dramatic events and dates to ensure an accurate and chronological sequence.   In a similar manner, the narrator illustrates the social values and ways related to Georgian and earlier periods that are replaced with the industry, career minded middle class ethic of the Victorian age.   The transition from landowning to career building, from the old ways with the new, from the idealistic to the stark realism, finds the characters in the novel with much uncertainty confusion.   The narration in “Middlemarch” is difficult to categorize however, she provides great success to the novel as a voice that omnisciently trails a web of characters all intertwining through political means or family ties.   Evidence proves the story teller comes from the standpoint of a cyborg; where the flesh and the organic parts of a man are replaced piece by piece with machination-like parts.   This cyborg narration has a dramatic effect on the characters in “Middlemarch”, which serves as the impetus behind its dramatic force.
The narrator comes from the standpoint of a learned apparatus, familiar with the social norms and historical events surrounding England.   Eliot begins chapter 19, “When George the Fourth was still reigning over the privacies of Windsor, when the Duke of Wellington was Prime Minister and Mr. Vincy was major of the old corporation in Middlemarch…” (Eliot 176).   In this passage the narrator speaks on historical...