Garth, Caleb

Land agest and builder; a man with a storng sense of honour and an enthusiastic interest in his work. "A large amount of painful experience had not sufficed to make Cable Garth cautious about his own affairs, or distrustful of his fellow-men when they had not proved themselves un trustworthy. ... He was one of those rare men who are rigid to themselves and indulgent to others. He had a certain shame about his neighbour's errors, and never spoke of them willingly." "His virtual divinities were good, practical schemes, accurate work, and the faithful completion of undertakings: his prince of darkness was a slack workman. ... In fact, he had a reverential soul with a strong, practical intelligence. But he could not manage finance: he knew values well, but he had no keenness of imagination for monetary results in the shape of profit and loss: and having ascertained this to his cost, he determined to give up all forms of his beloved 'business' which required that talent. He . . . was one of those precious men within his own district whom everybody would choose to work for them, because he did his work well, charged very little, and often declined to charge at all. It is no wonder, then, that the Garths were poor, and 'lived in a small way However, they did not mind it." "With regard to a large number of matters about which other men are decided or obstinate, he was the most easily manageable man in the world. He never knew what meat he would choose; and if Susan had said that they ought to live in a fourroomed cottage, in order to save, he would have said, 'Let us go,' without inquiring into details. But where Caleb's feeling and judgment strongly pronounced, he was a ruler; and in spite of his mildness and timidity in reproving, every one about him knew that on the exceptional occasion, when he chose, he was absolute." He had failed in the building business but had eventually paid his creditors in full. He has faith in Fred Vincy, and when Fred disappoints his own family by deciding not to enter the Church, he takes him into his office as his assistant, at the cost of additional work for himself, and gives him help that enables him to marry his daughter Mary. He accepts a good position from Mr. Bulstrode, but when he learns of Mr. Bulstrode's dishonest career, his uncompromising honesty forces him to give this up. It is generally agreed that many of Caleb Garth's marked characteristics —his occupation as builder and land agent, his uncompromising uprightness, delight in his work, love of the soil, perhaps even his domestic submissiveness — were drawn from Robert Evans, George Eliot's father, although the character is not an exact portrait of the original. (See Cooke, George Eliot, pp. 4-5; Cross, George Eliot's Life, vol. 1, p. 2; Dictionary of National Biography, article Cross, Mary Ann.)

<em>Middlemarch</em>

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