Chapter 41 motivation

However, on the eleventh day, just as Lydgate was about to leave Stone, Coulter, Mrs. Wimsy asked him to tell her husband that Fezer Stone's health had improved markedly, and she hoped he would come that day. a trip.Lydgate could have come to the storeroom, or tore a page out of a note-pad and left it at the door with a note.However, he obviously didn't think about these methods.Therefore, we can judge that he must be willing to visit Mr. Wency when he is out, and personally bring the news to Miss Wency.Men, no matter what the motives are, are not easily tied to others.However, even a saint is not happy if no one else cares about him.Rosamond is against extravagance, he likes to eat long fasts, and even thinks it is wasteful to say too much nice words.For a person like her, it's okay to tease and joke.With new hobbies, old habits cannot be thrown away casually.At the same time, it must be admitted that all the conjectures, some even momentary, as to the cause of Mrs. Balstrode's allusions, were at this moment woven together like loose strands of hair netted into a bun.

George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871) As we all know, the stories told in novels are all "false". In this case, what kind of knowledge do we want to gain from reading novels?For this problem, the traditional view is to get the secrets deep in the human heart.The novelist knows everything about the psychology of his characters that historians, biographers, and even psychoanalysts are powerless about.Fiction, therefore, makes people believe why the characters in the book are what they are.Christians or humanists believe that the self is the root of the problem, and everyone is responsible for what they do, because everyone is different and unique.Postmodernism and poststructuralism take a different view on this.So far, the reason why we still attach importance to novels, especially traditional realistic novels, is that they can bring some enlightenment to people about human motivation.

The motive of a novel like Middlemarch is causation.It aims to make readers believe that the reason why the characters in the book are so is not entirely the need of the plot of the novel, but more importantly the result of the interaction of various factors.These factors are both internal and external.However, as far as the book "Middlemarch" is concerned, in most cases it still serves the plot.If Redgate hadn't gone to see Rosamund Wimsy in Chapter 31, half the book would have been lost.In realistic fiction, motivation, in Freud's words, is often "determined by multiple factors", that is, any kind of behavior is the result of several dynamics or contradictions working together, and the dynamics and contradictions Different levels of human personality.In folktales or traditional love stories, however, one reason is often enough to explain the behavior of characters: the hero is always very brave.Because he is the protagonist, the witch is always evil because she is a witch, and so on and so forth.Lydgate visits Rosamond for a variety of reasons, some utilitarian, some self-satisfaction, some self-deception, and some subconscious.

The background of this paragraph is as follows: In the mid-1830s, a talented young doctor with great ambitions, Lydgate, came to the provincial capital of Midmarch.There, he happily made the acquaintance of Rosamund Wimsy.Rosamond is the daughter of a rich man with a charming face but a simple mind.In her eyes, Lydgate was the most suitable candidate, and she soon fell in love.Her aunt, Mrs. Ballstrode, warns Lydgate that his affection for Rosamond could be taken as courtship.Lydgate, unwilling to let his marriage affect his future, immediately stopped visiting the Wimsys.However, ten days later, he delivered the message himself to the door again.

George Eliot was not like Arnold Bennett.We cited Bennett's work in the previous section.She approaches her characters as a bystander with a somewhat mocking tone.Eliot did not reveal the inner secrets of the characters as he did.Instead, she describes it in a sympathetic way.At least she was sympathetic to Lydgate.It's not hard to see, George, that Elliott has a hard time accepting a beautiful, charming but self-righteous woman like Rosamond.In the preceding paragraph of the quotation, Lydgate has not been seen for ten days, and Rosamond is greatly anxious.However, the author describes her mood like this:

Within ten days, one can grow haggard, become frivolous, and so on and so forth.However, the time of ten days is fleeting, and it is not enough for people to be disappointed by surprise and speculation.If you hold the above point of view, it means that you don't know the heart of an upper-class young woman who has nothing to do. Here, "doing nothing" is a bit mean, a bit contemptuous, and Rosamond's inner tension and pressure are said to be worthless.The analysis of Lydgate's motives is less dogmatic and, from a stylistic point of view, sympathetic. Lydgate passed up the opportunity to use other means of delivering the message because he wanted to see Rosamond, but the author said, "These methods have obviously not occurred to him. Therefore, we can deduce that he must be willing to go out when Mr. Wimsy is out. Go visit when you want to, and bring the news to Miss Wendy in person.” The author has gone full circle, one is to imitate the way people judge other people’s motives in real life, and the other is to imitate the way people try to conceal their real motives.This has the meaning of irony, but this irony is humorous and humane. "Even a saint will not be happy if no one else cares about him." This reveals Lydgate's vanity, which is also a common problem of human beings.The discourse then turns into free indirect speech, presenting to the reader an inner monologue about what impression Redgate wanted to impress on Rosamond. Phrases such as "joking and joking, just kidding" show that he doesn't mean it to her.The last sentence of this paragraph is the author's comment, explaining to the reader Lydgate's deepest motivation for meeting Rosamond: she may be in love with him, although he himself does not admit it.In any case, the thought of him cheered him up and made him very proud.George Eliot finally expressed this idea with the image of "the net in a bun", which is also one of her favorite images.This is perhaps because it suggests the complexity and interconnectedness of human experience.

Lydgate's vanity and curiosity completely broke his defenses.The fact was that Rosamond, who had been quite composed and self-disciplined, could not control herself when she saw Lydgate suddenly appear before her.The meeting took their relationship a step further in a direction he hadn't expected.Both sides are extremely natural and come from the heart.And this kind of behavior would bring serious consequences in the society at that time.Rosamond hurriedly dropped a "small chain" in his hand to the ground.Lydgate crouched down and picked it up.When he stood up, he found tears streaming down her eyes. "This extremely natural moment is the crystallization of the collision between the two minds. From then on, flirting has been sublimated into love." This is how the author described this moment.Soon, Redgate had Rosamond in his arms, and the two were engaged. "He doesn't know where the chain is." The author used a symbolic technique to wrap the chain around his neck.Since then, his career and his future have been bet on a bourgeois marriage.This marriage will bring him neither happiness nor success in his career.This is a very successful "love scene" portrayed in the history of English literature.its success

Part of the credit lies in the fact that Lydgate's inability to withstand Rosamond's huge sexual temptation has long been foreshadowed, but the author's technique is relatively subtle and undeniable.