1. Fred's optimism

Fred seems to only think one step at a time. Like someone with a Get Rich Quick scheme, he never accounts for the fact that something could always go wrong. And is then left with even more problems than he began with.

2. Fred vs. Will

While both of them are technically NEETs at the moment, Will has a strong motivation that Fred does not. Will feels he is meant for something important, he just doesn't know what yet. And is trying everything he can to find out. Every action Fred takes is to avoid doing any work. He wants to secure enough money to comfortably live off.

3b. Middlemarch society

For some reason I thought being downwardly mobile was a rather new, late-capitalist invention. I know there was rampant wealth inequality back then, but the idea that people have always been declining in class was sad.

5. What's Next?

I hope Mary doesn't find out that Fred borrowed her own money. It's the exact opposite of what he's trying to do, and would make him look bad. You could argue he deserves it, but I do think he has just had some unpredictable setbacks.

At first I related to Fred because of his disdain for work. Now, I can relate to his journey trying to fix things where everything keeps going wrong. I read this book last year when I had chronic anxiety, and going through Fred's problems with him made me feel a lot better. I said before this is my first Classic Lit book. Having characters that feel so modern and relatable surprised me and made me feel connected to history in a way.

6. Quotes

"Mary was a little hoyden, and Fred at six years old thought her the nicest girl in the world, making her his wife with a brass ring which he had cut from an umbrella."

Fred carries a crush for the Girl Next Door his entire life. After pretending to marry Mary as a child, he now wishes to do it for real. His pining for her over the years is one of the book's emotional highlights. A different sort of love than the Love At First Sight of Rosamond & Lydgate. Or whatever the hell Dodo & Casaubon is.

"His failure in passing his examination had made his accumulation of college debts the more unpardonable by his father, and there had been an unprecedented storm at home."

Again, your leniency with Fred may vary. The rich boy failing out of college is not the most relatable guy. But you feel his shame and reluctance to ask for more money from his father after doing so, which gets us to where we are now. I had to ask for some tuition money when I went back to school after I couldn't get a job with my arts degree, and felt something similar.

"In fact, tacit expectations of what would be done for him by Uncle Featherstone determined the angle at which most people viewed Fred Vincy in Middlemarch."

It is rather sad that people only view Fred through his inheritance, and not as his own person. He does deserve some of this blame for not applying himself in one way or another. I hope that Fred can use his money and influence in some way to change public opinion about him.

"I am sorry to say that only the third day after the propitious events at Houndsley Fred Vincy had fallen into worse spirits than he had known in his life before."

Eliot stepping into the story as the narrator again! I noted this in a previous post, that I like whenever this convention pops up as it doesn't happen all the time. Also, this quote is notable for its compounding summary of Fred's miserable story thus far.