Garth, Mary

Elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Garth; an attractive girl with plain features, a clever tongue, a sense of humour, and a warm heart. "Mary Garth ... had the aspect of an ordinary sinner: she was brown; her curly dark hair was rough and stubborn; her stature was low: and it would not be true to declare in satisfactory antithesis, that she had all the virtues . . . Advancing womanhood had tempered her plainness, which was of a good human sort, such as the mothers of our race have very commonly worn in all latitudes under a more or less becoming headgear. Rembrandt would have painted her with pleasure, and would have made her broad features look out of the canvas with intelligent honesty. For honesty, truth-telling fairness, was Mary's reigning virtue: she neither tried to create illusions, nor indulged in them for her own behoof, and when she was in a good mood she had humour enough in her to laugh at herself." "She had a broad face and square brow, well-marked eyebrows and curly dark hair, a certain expression of amusement in her glance which her mouth keeps the secret of, and for the rest, features entirely insignificant.... If you made her smile, she would show you perfect little teeth; if you made her angry, she would not raise her voice, but would probably say one of the bitterest things you have ever tested the flavour of; if you did her a kindness, she would never forget it." As children, she and Fred Vincy had been sweethearts, and no one else ever replaces him in her affections, although she shows much scorn for his imperfections, and steadily opposes his plan of taking orders, for which she thinks he is not suited. While she has great admiration for Mr. Farebrother, who is in love with her, she remains faithful to Fred and marries him after saying, "I should never like scolding any one else so well, and that is a point to be thought of in a husband."

<em>Middlemarch</em>

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