Ode on a Grecian URL

It's often a lot easier to see an example of a strong essay than to figure out exactly what I am trying to say in my comments about your writing. Conveniently, this class yielded one of the better student papers I've seen in the past couple years; the author has consented to its publication here.

If you can, read it all through to observe how each paragraph connects to the main claim, and how each subsequent passage adds substantially to the larger analytical arc of the essay. Some particularly landmark moments:

• The thesis at the end of P1 is exactly what theses should sound like in 100- and 200-level English courses: it engages with the specific language of the scene but immediately broadens out to consider the significance of that particular mode of analysis
• The close reading in P4 is the kind of stuff that makes intro lit teachers swoon: language! structure! theme! trope! This paragraph is a thing of beauty.
• The conclusion avoids summary and instead focuses on the significance of the analysis as it points forward to how this analysis changes our reading of Eliot. The last clause is a bit trite, but that's forgiveable.

Note, also, that this essay is far from flawless: the author oversimplifies readings of surface and superficiality, the argument elides Rosamond's role as an agent in constructing (making up) her own appearance, textual evidence is occasionally occluded - to say nothing of the absent citation. An essay doesn't need to be watertight and publishable to get a high grade; it just needs to demonstrate that you have taken to heart the reading processes Prof. Ortiz-Robles and our discussions have modeled this semester, that you can repeat these processes, and that you do so with enthusiasm and insight.

Creating Identity: Rosamond and the Looking Glass

In George Eliot’s Middlemarch, understanding who the characters are is vital in understanding the author’s experiment with English society. In the scene where Rosamond and Mary are talking in front of the looking glass on pages 72 and 73, the author uses the mirror as a symbol to investigate who one of her characters, the fair Rosamond, really is. Eliot’s metaphor of the glass exposes not only what role physical beauty plays for the characters of Middlemarch; more importantly it reinforces the power comparison plays as a constant dependence people have on each other to define themselves. The glass is yet another lens which Eliot holds up to the reader’s eye in order to view the process of forming an identity – the complex inter-workings of outward influences and inward perceptions that create how an individual sees him or herself and the world.

The first meaning the mirror suggests is Rosamond’s vanity. Upon stepping into a room away from men, Rosamond automatically gravitates toward the one place, the looking glass, where she can make sure that what other people are seeing is what she wants them to see, “adjust[ing] her veil” and “appl[ying] little touches of her finger-tips to her hair.” She must know that the men of Middlemarch find her “infantine fairness” and “delicate undulations” angelic. Miss Vincy’s vanity motivates her to affirm Middlemarch’s belief that she is beautiful by any means necessary. She is committed to preserving the illusion of pureness that is associated with her beauty.

The mirror images of Rosamond underline the existence of this façade. As she gazes at herself, the narrator points out that Rosamond and her twin inside the glass have lovely blue eyes “deep enough to hold the most exquisite meanings … and deep enough to hide the meaning of the owner if these should happen to be less exquisite.” Even the syntax of this description exhibits mirror-like behavior, and the two Rosamonds that it exposes are proof that Rosamond is not quite the girl she seems to her acquaintances. When we consider what a mirror does, this concept is clear. When we look into a looking glass, our eyes see two indistinguishable likenesses, yet one has life while the other doesn’t. With Rosamond, it is like she is living as the image in the mirror all the time, devoid of true personality and life. The image she projects is the most important thing, so she focuses on making the outside perfect while neglecting her depth. She has become so concerned with the significance of her beauty that everything else is secondary. Throughout the book, it is clear that the Rosamond rarely gives her real self an opportunity to express itself; she never gives away what she is really thinking. After all, she has convinced herself that the training she received at school outlines the only way to act. If she were to let her true opinions be heard, she might destroy her perfect performance.

Rosamond’s two-sided character is further defined by the comparison between Rosamond and Mary. The language of the passage calls attention to the contrasts between Mary and Rosamond with phrases that force comparison like “on the contrary,” “antithesis,” and “by the side.” In addition, the structure of the narrator’s portrayals consistently mirrors itself. For instance, Mary Garth has the looks of an “ordinary sinner” where Rosamond is an “angel.” Rosamond’s hair is gossamer-blonde; Mary’s is “curly and dark.” Rosamond’s fairness is thoroughly explored in the part of the passage devoted to describing her; Mary’s ‘fairness’ of the “honesty, truth-telling” sort is given due course in her own section. It’s clear that they could not be more different.

The conclusion we are to draw from these comparisons seems clear: if we are informed of something about one lady, we can guess that the opposite is reflected on the other. This provides us with a more reliable tool to understand who the real Rosamond is. Mary is always honest and truthful; Rosamond lies. Mary doesn’t aim to please anyone, but Rosamond molds and shapes every word and look without giving it a second thought. Mary “neither trie[s] to create illusions, nor indulge[s] in them for her own behoof,” where nearly all Rosamond’s accomplishments and affectations are an elaborate structure concealing her middling background. They do have some things in common: cleverness, intelligence, awareness of how they are seen by others, and similar family backgrounds, among other things, but in the most interesting aspects of their characters, they couldn’t be more different.

When Rosamond and Mary catch each other in the mirror, the theme of comparison is continued to reinforce the value Middlemarch places on beauty. Side by side, the two figures reflected in the mirror make it all too plain to each exactly what flat images Middlemarch sees when they weigh the qualities of Mary against those of Rosamond. It’s clear that Rosamond’s “kind” reassurance that “No one ever thinks of your appearance, you are so sensible and useful, Mary. Beauty is of very little consequence in reality,” is not congruent with the way these young ladies have formed their identities. On the contrary, beauty seems to have enormous consequence in the reality of Middlemarch.

First of all, Miss Vincy obviously does not believe her statement because immediately after it comes out of her mouth, she maneuvers to get a better look at her lovely neck. Secondly, beauty is at the root of a chain of implications that good looks carry in Middlemarch society. It all starts where Middlemarch compares Rosamond to the other young ladies in the area and agree that she is the prettiest. In order to satisfy their expectations, Rosamond depends on the ideals of femininity that were ingrained into her as she grew up to both define herself and to provide a frame of reference against which she compares herself to the other girls in the neighborhood. Of course, the standards she uses ensure that she stays on top. These girls, in turn, depend on their perceptions of Rosamond as well as the opinion of the community to identify and rank themselves.

Even Mary, probably one of the least susceptible to this cycle by virtue of her “satiric bitterness” and obvious intelligence, sees herself as a “brown patch” next to Miss Vincy in that all-important mirror. After all, this is what everyone in Middlemarch thinks; Mary accepts it as fact and lets it enter her identity. If Rosamond is the definition of pretty, then the others are plain. If she is accomplished, they are not. Rosamond’s beauty, a mere genetic fluke, takes on massive importance because of the way the people of Middlemarch perceive everyone as relative to his or her neighbors.

Eliot’s symbolic use of the mirror in this passage uncovers Rosamond’s true nature through the comparison of the real Miss Vincy and the image Middlemarch sees, the same image that’s reflected in the mirror – an image which the viewer has the power to connect with any virtues they assume are right, regardless of the truth. By putting Rosamond and Mary in front of the looking glass together, Eliot enables the reader to trace the way beauty has influenced the formation of a sense of self in Rosamond, Mary, and the unnamed others who are undoubtedly caught in the cycle of dependent identification. In the end, Middlemarch traps its inhabitants in roles that may or may not reflect who they are by forcing them into a reliance on each other to characterize themselves. Eliot’s mirror ensures that this study of provincial life leaves the reader with an understanding of the process of creating a sense of self which is not reserved to the fictional characters of Middlemarch; if we pay attention, we can see that every one of us does it as well.