Middlemarch: Book 8, Chapter 80 Summary & Analysis

Dorothea sees Farebrother in the morning and promises to have dinner with him that evening. She stops by the schoolhouse and then, on the way home, strikes up more conversations with local residents. At dinner, Farebrother and Mrs. Farebrother playfully comment on Miss Noble’s crush on Will Ladislaw. When Dorothea gets home that night, she finally admits to herself that she has been in love with Will since Rome, and bursts into tears. Feeling resentful of Will and the torment he is causing her, she cries herself to sleep.

Dorothea wakes up in the early hours of the morning with a sudden sense of clarity. She forces herself to reflect on the moment when she caught Will and Rosamond together and to wonder what was really going on. She rings for Tantripp, who is shocked to see that she is still in yesterday’s clothes, and she asks for a cup of coffee and her new dress and bonnet. Tantripp expresses approval that Dorothea is finally deciding to put away her mourning clothes. By 11 am, she is on her way to Middlemarch, determined to “save Rosamond.”