In Middlemarch by George Eliot, Will Ladislaw is introduced as Mr. Casaubon's younger cousin. He is seen in the gardens of Lowick Manor and described as “a gentleman with a sketchbook […] and light brown curls” (49). Mr. Casaubon describes him as a young man with a changeable temperament, a general tendency to resist responsibility and an affinity for large artistic projects. Later in the book, the town gossip, Mrs. Cadwallader, describes him as "a little bit dangerous [...] with his operatic song and his ready tongue." A sort of Byronic conspirator and lover” (237). In “Middlemarch,” Eliot weaves a romantic character into the social network of a provincial Victorian village. Eliot's description of Ladislaw's coming of age can be interpreted as a description of the romantic artist's fate in a new Victorian society. When Will Ladislaw is first introduced to the reader, he appears to be a foil to his cousin and benefactor Mr. Casaubon. Mr. Casaubon is “recognized in the county as a man of profound learning, understood for many years to be engaged in great work concerning religious history” (7). Dorothea notes that “his manners [were] dignified; the whole of his iron-gray hair and his deep eye sockets made him resemble the portrait of Locke” (11). In contrast, Will Ladislaw is first described as a young artist with “long black curls”. Eliot juxtaposes these descriptions to dramatize the difference between these characters. Since Will Ladislaw is introduced to Dorothea in the context of Lowick Manor, and thus to Mr. Casaubon, he seems to be a foil for Mr. Casaubon himself. Mr. Casaubon complains of “the general imprecision and indisposition to detail of all kinds” (52). These are converted...... middle of paper...... an ardent public man, working well at the time when the reforms were begun with a young hope of immediate good […], and finally being returned to Parliament by a constituency that paid its expenses. (513) Will Ladislaw devotes himself to reform-oriented political writing, combining his need for artistic expression and social welfare with his need to provide for a family. By the end of the book, Eliot has not destroyed the romantic of Middlemarch, but simply made it more respectable. Until the end, Ladislaw is still lying on the floor rather than on the sofa, and Eliot celebrates his frank emotionality instead of ridiculing it. Works Cited Greenblatt, Stephen, Deidre Lynch and Jack Stillinger. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: WW Norton, 2012. Print. Eliot, George and Bert Hornback G. Middlemarch. New York: WW Norton, 2000. Print.