Middlemarch: Book 4, Chapter 40 Summary & Analysis

Mary is now back home with her family, waiting to begin another job. She is sewing a handkerchief for Rosamond on the occasion of her wedding. She tells Mrs. Garth that she has decided to go and teach at a school in York, though she doesn’t like being inside classrooms. As her siblings tease her Mary tries to laugh, but cannot fight back her tears. Mr. Garth reads a letter from Mr. Brooke, asking him to come back and manage both Freshitt and Tipton. Everyone at the table is delighted; Mr. Garth tells Mary not to go to the school after all, as the family will have enough money now.

That evening, Mr. Farebrother comes to the Garths’ house, announcing that he is there to deliver a message from Fred Vincy, who has just returned to Middlemarch after a few months away. Fred will soon go away again to study, but is too ashamed and upset by his unpaid debt that he cannot bear to say goodbye to the Garths himself. Mr. Garth announces that Fred’s debt has already been forgotten, and that the family is about to become rich thanks to his new job. Mrs. Garth corrects him, noting that they will hardly be rich, just secure.

Farebrother congratulates Mr. Garth. They discuss Fred and whether he should indeed enter the clergy, or whether, as Mary suggests, this would degrade the whole profession. Mr. Garth says he feels that Fred probably wouldn’t make a good clergyman, but also that they should feel sympathy for Fred after Featherstone implied he was going to leave him land, only to snatch it away at the last moment. Even Mrs. Garth says she will forgive Fred if he proves himself worthy. Mary leaves the room.

With Mary gone, Mr. Garth tells the story of how Featherstone asked her to burn one of the wills right before he died. Mrs. Garth says there was nothing Mary could have done differently, but that Mary still feels guilty, blaming herself for Fred’s misfortune. They swear Farebrother to secrecy; he says goodbye and leaves. On his way out, Farebrother sees Mary outside with her younger sister Letty. Mary calls Fred “worse than ridiculous,” and then says she is happy that she will not have to go away to work.

Farebrother leaves and walks to Lowick, speculating that Fred and Mary have feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Mr. Garth tells his wife that he is considering asking Fred to work under him as a kind of assistant. Mrs. Garth points out that Mr. Vincy and Mrs. Vincy would be far too proud to let that happen, and besides, Fred is now going back to college. Mr. Garth agrees that they should wait for a bit. The couple then discusses the possibility that Rigg is selling some of the land he just inherited to Bulstrode.