Mr Bulstrode Character Analysis

Mr. Bulstrode is an affluent banker. He has an unpresentable past. His money is ill-gotten gains. He marries a wealthy widow who is Will Ladislaw’s grandmother. The widow begs him to find her daughter because the widow wants to leave her wealth to her only surviving daughter. Mr. Bulstrode asks Raffles to find the daughter. Raffles finds the daughter. But Mr. Bulstrode deceives the widow, telling her that he doesn’t find her daughter. Therefore he receives the inheritance from the widow. Later he comes to Middlemarch and marries Harriet who is Mayor Vincy’s sister. He opens a bank and gradually enlarges his enterprise. Mr. Bulsrode controls the town’s economy and becomes a prominent figure in Middlemarch. His wife Mrs. Bulstrode is a faithful

Bulstrode owes most of the disillusion to himself. Mr. Bulstrode’s story is an exemplification of punishment from the fate. Mr. Bulstrode thinks that he will live a charmed life until his death. But the fate will hit the person on his head with a brick when he enjoys the life proudly. He acquires wealth through dishonest means. In fact, Mr. Bulstrode is never a gangster. He has never done any wicked deeds. He just can’t contain his private desire and gains something that doesn’t belong to him. He knows that he has done something wrong. He runs a charitable hospital and becomes a famous philanthropist in Middlemarch. He wants to do something to compensate internal malaise. He is pious believer. He deludes himself into thinking everything he does is the God’s will. He combines his personal desire with religious belief. The philanthropy’s starting point is not to help the poor or contribute to society, but to enjoy the life for his own comfort. Therefore he can accept people’s curse and denouncement when his crimes are exposed to the public. He is self-serving, arrogant and hypocritical. His end is not so sad because his disillusion is caused by his own faults. God is fair to everyone. No one can use God to work for himself. Mr. Bulstrode is a person who likes to use some lying techniques. In Middlemarch he always hypes the moral behaviors and steps in some major things. When Mr. Vincy asks him for help, he refuses the request. He preaches and satirizes the Fred’s

Some despicable behaviors lead to the lost of opportunity to exploit people’s talent. In Middlemarch, the promising futures for all people are disillusioned. Their ideals go far away from the reality. Dorothea doesn’t achieve her Saint Theresa’s dream. Mr. Casaubon dies suddenly and doesn’t complete his book. Lydgate lives a painful life and dies of grief in a young age. Rosamond deludes herself into thinking her happiness is a kind of compensation. Mr. Bulstrode becomes notorious and lives his remaining years miserably. The reasons why people experience failure and disillusion can be found in a specific fictional town. It’s Middlemarch. People are restrained by social and historical environments. It is obvious that private life is determined by the wider public life. However, as the chapter 7 says, “it is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.”(Eliot 2011: 69). In addition to social limitations, the individual personalities also play an decisive role in people’s lifetime. In Middlemarch, people always believe their own subjective initiatives. They reckon that their decisions are definitely right and unquestioned, especially Dorothea and Rosamond. Several characters’ tragic outcomes are caused by themselves. Their character flaws lead to false choices which bring tragic fates. They are confused, weak and uncritical, and they don’t have free will in their daily life. At the same time,