Why, Susan! It has never occurred to me that Eliot’s literature was influenced by a possibly neglectful marriage! But, I daresay you are on to something! A man with such..arrogance is sure to have such troubles with his wife. What woman, would let her husband not be known of how he sounds or portrays himself. It is our responsibility as wives to level out our men at times! We all know how, shall I say, self-important they can be. Why ask my dear husband, Humphrey, as well! I’m sure he will tell you all about my opinions I relate to him every day of our marriage for the past thirty years! But, like you have said my dear, Mr. Eliot thought he was very superior to those who read his literature. It is a shame to think a marriage could be so unfortunate to lead someone to have no hope for the future and think this way. I daresay that Ms. Dorothea might have been along similar lines if Mr. Casaubon didn’t pass away! God rest his dreary soul! She definitely would have continued to be in an unpleasant marriage if fate didn’t have it’s way. And who knows how pessimistic Casaubon would of gotten to be if he lived! So much similarities to some of our own lives in Middlemarch to your theory about Mr. Eliot.

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