Dorothea Marrying Quote by George Eliot
““And Casaubon had done a wrong to Dorothea in marrying her. A man was bound to know himself better than that, and if he chose to grow grey crunching bones in a cavern, he had no business to be luring a girl into his companionship. 'It is the most horrible of virgin sacrifices,' said Will; and he painted to himself what were Dorothea's inward sorrows as if he had been writing a choric wail.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: Middlemarch, 1871
A man who avoids personal growth cannot truly love, leading to emotional sacrifice.
In simple terms: Stagnation harms relationships.
Key Takeaway
Pursue self‑knowledge to love fully.
Themes
love
self‑knowledge
growth
Mood
melancholic
thoughtful
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- marriage counseling
- personal development
- literary analysis
Key Concepts
existentialism
psychology
Questions to Reflect On
- What does personal growth mean for you?
- How can you avoid becoming a “virgin sacrifice”?
A Different Perspective
Love alone cannot compensate for personal stagnation.
![“[W]e must learn to accommodate ourselves to the discovery that some of those cunningly-fashioned instruments called human souls have only a very limited range of music, and will not vibrate in the least under a touch that fills others with tremulous rapture or quivering agony.” quote by George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9be/george-eliot-84_agony_w-e-must-learn-to-accommodate-ourselves_12409.jpg)
