Middlemarch Chapter 68 Summary

Summary

John Raffles reappears at The Shrubs on Christmas Eve and forces Nicholas Bulstrode into a painful confrontation. Bulstrode keeps Raffles isolated in his room overnight, anxious that Raffles will speak of past facts that might compromise him. Raffles’s drunken, restless behavior and audacious teasing are intended to extract money; Bulstrode, terrified of exposure and unable to lie outright, resolves on a decisive course. Before dawn he awakens Raffles, makes a stern, premeditated speech forbidding any return to Middlemarch and promising limited financial help only by letter, and drives him away to Ilsley. Raffles recovers spirits on the road and obtains a hundred pounds, leaving Bulstrode relieved but haunted by unease and the possibility of further disclosure.

Back at home Bulstrode contemplates leaving Middlemarch to escape the dread of scandal; he plans arrangements short of definite exile so he can return if Providence intervenes. He consults Caleb Garth about managing his estate at Stone Court in his possible absence, and Garth seizes the chance to propose placing Fred Vincy as tenant-manager there under Garth’s oversight. Bulstrode consents to the idea as a way to benefit the Vincy family and to give his wife some comfort about their relations. Caleb, delighted, secretly inspects Stone Court and keeps the scheme from Fred and Mary for the present, savouring the prospect of steadying Fred’s future without alarming anyone prematurely.

Key events

1. John Raffles returns to The Shrubs on Christmas Eve and behaves loudly and provocatively.
2. Bulstrode isolates Raffles overnight, fearing he will be overheard and exposed.
3. At dawn Bulstrode forces Raffles out, warns him not to return, and drives him to Ilsley.
4. Raffles receives a hundred pounds and leaves in renewed spirits.
5. Bulstrode, still anxious, considers temporarily leaving Middlemarch and altering his business role.
6. Caleb Garth proposes placing Fred Vincy at Stone Court as tenant-manager and inspects the property.
7. Bulstrode agrees in principle to Fred’s tenancy if he departs, to appease his wife and help the Vincys.

Analysis

This chapter heightens tension around Bulstrode by showing how precarious his respectability feels when confronted with the past embodied in Raffles. The narrative confines most of the drama to an intimate domestic setting—the bedroom, the carriage, the quiet house—so that moral and psychological stakes become almost physical sensations: sleeplessness, a shuddering waking, the slimy traces of a dream. Bulstrode’s inability to tell a direct lie but readiness to use evasions reveals a complex conscience: he fears outward disgrace more than inner corruption, and his prayers and plans are shaped by anticipatory shame. Raffles functions as both a concrete blackmailer and a symbolic reminder that vice can return and demand payment; his drunken restlessness contrasts with Bulstrode’s brittle self-control and produces the chapter’s moral pressure.

Structurally the chapter shifts the novel’s motion from immediate crisis to contingency planning: Bulstrode’s contemplated exile, the management of Stone Court, and Caleb Garth’s scheme to settle Fred Vincy move secondary characters into positions where their futures will intersect with larger consequences. The chapter also uses close third-person narration that probes Bulstrode’s inwardness while maintaining ironic distance—detailing his calculations and self-deceptions—and it foreshadows how attempts to control reputation and manage others’ lives (e.g., placing Fred at Stone Court) will be tested by events. Themes of social standing, the costs of concealment, and the uneasy boundary between charity and self-protection run through both the Raffles episode and the agricultural negotiations.

Important quotes

“Get up, sir, and do as I order you, without noise, or I will send for a policeman to take you off my premises, and you may carry your stories into every pothouse in the town, but you shall have no sixpence from me to pay your expenses there.”

Nicholas BulstrodeBulstrode’s stern, premeditated warning to Raffles at dawn, designed to force him away and prevent future threats to Bulstrode’s reputation.

“It was as if he had had a loathsome dream, and could not shake off its images with their hateful kindred of sensations—as if on all the pleasant surroundings of his life a dangerous reptile had left his slimy traces.”

NarratorNarration describing Bulstrode’s lingering sense of contamination and dread after sending Raffles away, capturing the moral and psychological residue of the encounter.

““I’ll think about it,” said Caleb, in his blunt way.”

Caleb GarthCaleb’s measured reply when Bulstrode asks him to find a tenant and a sum for managing Stone Court, foreshadowing his later plan to place Fred there.

Characters in Chapter 68

• John Raffles
• Nicholas Bulstrode
• Mrs. Bulstrode
• Tertius Lydgate
• Caleb Garth
• Mrs. Garth
• Fred Vincy
• Rosamond Vincy
• Mr. Vincy
• Peter Featherstone