Brooke, Mr. Arthur

Bachelor uncle and guardian of Dorothea and Celia. " A man nearly sixty, of acquiescent temper, miscellaneous opinions, and uncertain vote. He had travelled in his younger years, and was held in this part of the county to have contracted a too rambling habit of mind. Mr. Brooke's conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather; it was only safe to say that he would act with benevolent intentions, and that he would spend as little money as possible in carrying them out." He takes his responsibilities towards his nieces very lightly, and, although disapproving of the elderly Mr. Casaubon as a husband for Dorothea, makes only a ridiculously inadequate remonstrance when she announces her intention of marrying him. Later, when he plunges into politics and wishes to run for Parliament, he engages the services of Will Ladislaw and retains him in the neighbourhood to the displeasure of jealous Mr. Casaubon. When Dorothea, then a young widow, marries Will Ladislaw, he is unable to manifest any serious displeasure and, although he at first talks of cutting the entail, her eldest son eventually inherits his estates.

<em>Middlemarch</em>

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