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In the Victorian period, marriages and betrothalsEngagements to be married. were for the most part still treated as sacrosanctInviolable or beyond criticism. It derives from two Latin words, "sacro" and "sanctus", that both have religious connotations.. They were dealt with rapidly and were a permanent commitment. This presented a difficult dilemma for many women, since they had practically no rights enshrined either within the institution of marriage or outside of it. For them, this fraught position meant that marriages could either act as a miracle, redeeming them from difficult circumstances and allowing them to climb the social ladder, or could transpire to be a permanent curse - or both.

In Middlemarch, characters are optimistic about the prospect of their nuptialsWedding., but mismatches are more common than not. Dorothea resolves to marry Edward Casaubon, a cerebral man three decades her senior, because she believes that she can be a partner in his intellectual pursuits and do good with her life in this way. Her miscalculation about his desire for her involvement in his intellectual life is revealed as early as her honeymoon, and with time she also discovers that her passionate nature is incompatible with Casaubon's cold severity. The marriage between Tertius Lydgate and Rosamond Vincy, too, is based on a mismatch: Lydgate's ambition and desire to do good are not matched by Rosamond's vain, decadent nature.

Eliot herself was critical of marriage. She married once at the age of 60, just seven months before her death, to a man 20 years her junior. For 24 years, she lived in a relationship with a man who was in an open marriage, unable to divorce his wife. Her unconventional approach to love and marriage is evident in Middlemarch, which has an evidently critical approach to the potential unhappiness of matrimony.

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Middlemarch's protagonist Dorothea, like George Eliot herself, is a strong-minded, passionate and shrewdShowing good powers of judgement. woman whose desires for her own life do not align with the fate prescribed to her by patriarchalA society in which adult men have a monopoly on power. In these societies, men tend to hold all political positions, and women and children are also expected to obey the men in their families. society. Although she feels occasionally ashamed of her own inability to conform to femininity, she is continually thwarted by her strong, unconventional nature and drive to do good beyond the parameters of what women were permitted, for example her desire to build cottages for better living conditions for tenant farmers. Her marriage to Casaubon, too, though it causes her misery, is an attempt to evade the domestic trap so common for intelligent Victorian women forced into the role of wife and mother. Respecting his lifelong intellectual pursuit, she believes that a marriage to this far older man will grant her access to "those provinces of masculine knowledge", which she sees as "a standing-ground from which all truth could be seen more truly". Cruelly, he does not respect her enough to grant her this, and he views her only as "more troublesome than he had conceived".

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The Victorian period was full of religious, political and social change, and saw the rise of industrialisationA period of social and economic change that transforms an agricultural society into an industrial one. and the middle class. The most significant reforms of the Victorian period included child labour legislation, safety legislation for mines and factories, public health reform, education reform, prison reform and the end of slavery in the British Empire. The characters of Middlemarch are profoundly touched by the air of social reform, and central character Dorothea is passionately dedicated to making some change of her own in her community. One of her earlier pursuits involves renovating buildings that belong to tenant farmers. She hopes to do some more good by assisting Casaubon in his work, but is quickly proved wrong. Her second marriage, to Ladislaw, proves more fortuitous as he later becomes a politician who engages in public reform. The novel suggests that the characters who are deprived of their wealth and who are not members of the aristocracy are better placed to conceptualise such reforms.

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There is a lot of debt in Middlemarch, and debt creates more debt. Characters who are indebted to those around them financially also hold emotional, figurative debt, conveying the vast importance of money in creating power relationships. For example, Ladislaw's debt to Casaubon prevents him for a long time from pursuing the woman he loves due to a perceived accompanying emotional debt. Likewise, Casaubon holds money over Dorothea's head to prevent her from marrying Ladislaw, feeling that the money coming from him means he should be able to control her emotional life. When Lydgate accepts a debt from Bulstrode, it leads to him becoming a society pariah. Likewise, Bulstrode tries to redeem himself for his emotional debt to Will Ladislaw's mother - whom he deprived of her inheritance - by paying a money debt to Will, which the latter refuses as he feels the money is dirty and should not be used to compensate for moral wrongdoing. Whilst money creates power, having money is linked to a failure of morals, and all of the rich and money-grasping characters are of dubious moral character. In this light, Dorothea's decision to renounce her wealth in order to wed Ladislaw is genuinely honourable, both freeing herself of debt and deciding not to be connected with the iniquity of wealth.

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Deprived of the education that a mind such as hers would have received had she been born a man, Dorothea seeks an education in marrying Casaubon. Shortly after marrying him, she realises that she is undergoing a broader education: in love, passion and in life. Ultimately, she finds fulfilment in balance: in being a loving partner to Will Ladislaw whilst assisting his work as an MP. A contrasting character, Rosamond receives all of the education available to a woman, having attended finishing school. The education there was deeply gendered, limited to learning correct feminine manners and artistic pursuits such as music. As an adult, Rosamond is vain, selfish and superficial.

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