Middlemarch Science Quotes

Lydgate is interested in the way things are put together. He's more interested in how and why things work than in what they do. The same is true of his view of people. He's more interested in looking at why you're feeling the way you are than in offering a sympathetic shoulder to cry on.

There are relatively few passages in the novel that describe science from the point of view of a non-scientist. This is one of those few. Rosamond thinks that her husband's obsession with anatomy is "morbid" and "vampir[ic]." This wasn't uncommon at the time – in the 1830s, there was a lot of anxiety about the passage of a law called the Anatomy Act, which allowed certain human bodies to be dissected. Some Middlemarchers are afraid that Lydgate is just waiting for them to die so that he can dissect their bodies. That desire to "feed" off of human bodies (metaphorically speaking, of course – he's no cannibal) might be related to Rosamond's opinion that Lydgate's scientific pursuits reflect a "morbid vampire's taste."