Arthur Brooke

Arthur Dorothea Brooke is the aging proprietor of the Dorothea Brooke estate and guardian to his nieces Dorothea Brooke and Celia Brooke. A gentleman of independent means and moderate social standing in Middlemarch, he cuts an unimpressive figure—his thinning hair, ruddy complexion, and soft manner give him an air of genial but scatterbrained authority. Dorothea Brooke is fond of his role as a country squire and harbors ambitions toward political life, though his convictions shift with the winds. His conversation is famously digressive; he begins one topic, abandons it, circles back, and rarely concludes a thought with force. Though not unkind, his wandering attention extends to his estate management, and his tenants suffer the consequences of his neglect. He respects Dorothea Brooke's intellect—particularly her interest in serious books and improvement schemes—yet his own grasp of systematic reform is shallow. He is frequently caught between liberal pretensions and the comfortable conservatism of his class, making him a figure of mild ridicule among both reformers and traditionalists in the county.