Mr. Wrench

Mr. Wrench has been the leading medical man of Middlemarch for years, commanding the trust of many prominent families through consistent service and conventional practice. He is comfortable in his position and practices medicine according to established principles, having no incentive to embrace the newer theories that Tertius Lydgate brings to the town. Wrench moves through Middlemarch's drawing rooms and sickbeds with the assurance of someone who has long held the confidence of the gentry and professional classes. His interactions with other medical practitioners are colored by professional rivalry and the protective instinct of an established practitioner watching a younger man arrive with ambitious ideas and modern training. Wrench represents the forces of local custom and professional convention, a reasonable but unambitious man whose primary concerns are maintaining his practice and his standing in the community.