Rosamond Vincy

Rosamond Vincy: porcelain doll, actress or well-rounded character?

Throughout George Eliot’s Middlemarch, a young woman, Rosamond Vincy, is constantly being observed. The citizens of Middlemarch see Rosamond as a flawless specimen of womanhood whereas the narrator sees her as malicious and manipulative. Is Rosamond faultless or wicked? A third alternative exists: she is neither. Miss Vincy on the surface appears perfect, yet upon further examination one can see that she is flawed and unintentionally manipulative. Rosamond manipulates the way others see her, yet she is unaware that she is doing so. Rosamond is not only a pretty face but a fully developed character with her own faults, strengths and desires and should not be written off as simply

While others in the novel point out Rosamond’s goodness, the narrator points out her flaws. An example of this can be seen in the passage while Lydgate is looking at Rosamond. The narrator does not speak about what Lydgate is feeling when he looks at Rosamond or how beautiful she is, instead they imply that Rosamond is manipulative. In an aside the narrator states, “Every nerve and muscle in Rosamond was adjusted to the consciousness that she was being looked at,” (Elliot 109). In this line the narrator the narrator infers that Miss Vincy is fake, in the sense that she puts forward a façade for other people to see. It is suggested that Rosamond is manipulating others by changing herself when they are watching. The narrator further implies this by saying, “She was by nature an actress of parts that entered into her physique,” (Elliot 109). By comparing her to an actress, the narrator insinuates that Rosamond is pretending to be something she is not. The citizens of Middlemarch see perfection and beauty, while the narrator sees manipulation and

She changes the way others see her and feel about her by adjusting her actions and appearance. This however, is not done maliciously; it is done unintentionally. While perhaps the narrator is not fond of Rosamond, they reveal something about her character that undermines their view that she is malevolent. The narrator compares Rosamond to an actress yet they then reveal, “she even acted her own character, and so well, that she did not know it to be precisely her own,” (Elliot 109). This line reveals that even though Rosamond manipulates others, that she is unaware she is doing so. An example of this is when Rosamond flirts with Mr. Lydgate it is because she cannot help herself; her feelings for Lydgate change the way she acts around him. When Lydgate hands Rosamond her whip, she, “blushed deeply and felt a certain astonishment,” (Elliot 109). While blushing can be seen as a sign of affection, it is an involuntary bodily function that Rosamond could not control. Miss Vincy is not an actress since her “act” is unconscious. She changes herself for others, adjusts every nerve, yet does not do it intentionally.

Throughout Middlemarch, Rosamond Vincy is speculated upon: the citizens of Middlemarch see her as perfect while the narrator sees her as manipulative. In some ways she is judged too harshly by both the narrator and the Middlemarchers. Rosamond is neither perfect nor manipulative, she is a flawed yet