B4;C37f

Ironically, if Mr. Casaubon was not so smart, didn’t think things through so much, he might have at least been a position to do something rash that would have stirred the pot, let people know he was jealous of Will, show his weakness to others and, thus, possibly endeared himself a little. It’s his mind that is literally causing him grief. But he suffers quietly. In marriage he’s more alone than before.

B4;C37e

The fist time they really have a talk like a married couple, it takes place in the dark – she’s literally in the dark about the whole matter of Ladislaw.

B4;C37d

A lot of people go into a relationship with a baggage cart full of unrealistic expectations about the other person. They think they can change this and that, and that they too will be changed in some (better, of course) way. Poor Dorothea had such high hopes for her husband and is day by day being disillusioned in her “blue-green boudoir”. The novel does not think wisely of the decisions young people make.

B4;C37c

We can compare Will’s building of a relation with Dorothea with Rosamond’s manuvering of Lydgate. Will is not particularly ambitious, but he does greatly desire Dorothea – yet what one says, the other takes a different meaning than the other intended. Rosamond is much more simple, really. She wants Lydgate (for good or bad to her) and is able to “catch him” with just a few tears.

B4;37b

“But it is very difficult to be learned; it seems as if people were worn out on the way to great thoughts, and can never enjoy them because they are too tired.” Thinking too much about what it means to enjoy life means you’re going to miss all the things that make life enjoyable.