The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot" presents a nuanced exploration of major characters navigating the complexities of life marked by societal expectations, personal crises, and evolving identities. The protagonist, Meg Eliot, is a wealthy society matron who initially thrives on her husband's financial support but faces a profound transformation after his unexpected death. As she grapples with her newfound insecurity and diminished status, Meg's journey leads her to reassess her past and seek independence through various jobs, symbolizing a shift from material reliance to self-discovery.
Bill Eliot, Meg's husband, embodies the struggle between societal norms and personal integrity; his sacrifices for a stable life ultimately contribute to his downfall. Meanwhile, Meg's estranged brother, David Parker, represents a contrasting lifestyle grounded in pacifism and emotional detachment, yet he becomes a source of support when Meg's crisis unfolds. Other significant characters, including Lady Viola Pirie, Tom Pirie, Poll Robson, Jill Stokes, and Else Bode, each reflect unique perspectives on womanhood, ambition, and relationships, contributing to the overarching themes of dependency, self-worth, and the quest for genuine connection in the face of adversity. Together, these characters create a rich tapestry that invites readers to explore the complexities of human experience during a pivotal moment in their lives.
The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Angus Wilson
First published: 1958
Genre: Novel
Locale: London, an Eastern capital, and southern England
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: The 1950's
Meg Eliot, a wealthy forty-three-year-old society matron. Striking in appearance, with large brown eyes, laugh lines, and thick, graying yellow hair, Meg occupies her time with her collection of porcelain and with charitable works in which her wealth and confidence allow her dominance. Insecure as a child, she values the luxury her husband provides and trusts all financial matters to him. As the novel opens, she is about to accompany him on a trip around the world. After his death on that trip, she is left relatively poor and learns that, without wealth and a husband, her world is circumscribed and her dominance over people rejected. Analyzing her marriage, she realizes that there, too, she had been manipulative. After training to be a secretary, she suffers a physical and emotional breakdown and is sheltered by her long-estranged brother David at his nursery, Andredaswood, in Sussex. Returning to health and a more authentic sense of confidence, she reenters the world, taking a series of jobs that will allow her to understand life as it is, not as, in her wealth and security, she had once fantasized it to be.
Bill Eliot, a successful barrister, fifty-five years old. With his drink-flushed, coarse, and sensual face and his overweight body, Bill is a conventionally masculine man. For Meg's sake, he has sacrificed an interesting career in criminal law for a more profitable corporate practice that affords them the style of life Meg craves. They have spent all he has made. Worried about his health and Meg's future, Bill has become a compulsive gambler. At the Srem Panh airport in Badai, he intervenes to prevent the assassination of a Badai minister whom he had admired at the airport and is himself killed, leaving his financial affairs chaotic.
David Parker, Meg's estranged older brother. David, a pacifist during World War II, is casual in appearance, with thick, prematurely gray hair and a distaste for conventional clothing and for Meg and Bill's feckless and worldly life. Rejecting a junior fellowship at Oxford, he has formed a chaste emotional and business partnership with Gordon Paget, the man he loves. An agnostic, he nevertheless espouses a Quaker-like quietism and has disciplined himself to a detached compassion for human life. Despite Gordon's terminal illness and death, David must care for Meg after her collapse; in the stress of the two situations, he moves toward greater emotional involvement, finally wanting to keep Meg at Andredaswood even though she insists on returning to workandtoalargerworld.
Lady Viola Pirie, a friend of Meg. Stern, with a square gray face, she lives a lonely life in a flat that she shares with her son Tom, with whom she is obsessively concerned. She offers Meg a room until Meg's attempts to help Tom are misinterpreted as sexual overtures by the young man and until Meg rejects Viola's strongly felt belief that a woman is nothing without a man.
Tom Pirie, about twenty-two years old, the bearded and grubby son of Viola. Emotionally immature and clumsy, with a tendency to spit as he talks, Tom aspires to authorship, expecting his first book to be successful but lacking talent and intelligence. Because his mother will not permit him to do women's work at home and he will do no other, he is spoiled and selfish. When Meg attempts to reorganize his life, he perceives her as sexually starved, a once grande dame now to be cut down to size.
Poll Robson, a dumpy, middle-aged friend of Meg. Moon-faced, with lifeless blue eyes, she once studied art with Meg but now drinks too much, picks up acquaintances at pubs and clubs, borrows money, and fantasizes an aristocratic background. She believes that this way of life is the only one possible for women of their age and background who lack money.
Jill Stokes, Meg's oldest friend. Once beautiful, she now is a bitter widow with a frozen smile. Like Meg, she loved her husband; unlike Meg, she is obsessed with the past to the degree that she will not accept a son-in-law who cannot share her obsession and, consequently, has alienated herself from her beloved daughter and granddaughter. She offers quarters to Meg but asks her to leave when Meg tries to mediate these strained relationships.
Else Bode, the housekeeper, shopper, clerk, and secretary for David and Gordon. With sapphire eyes and wrinkled, papery skin, she is an emaciated, governess-like refugee from Adolf Hitler's Germany. Her strongest emotion is self-effacing love for David and Gordon, but she is jealous of Meg's assertiveness and of David's ability to attract love. Her virtues are her devotion and courage; her weakness is the passive aggression that contrasts with Meg's desire to participate actively in life.