Three problems in Middlemarch

Yes, there are three "love problems," as George Eliot modestly calls them, in Middlemarch, but they're about much more than love, and as these problems evolve and develop we see just how smart and sophisticated a writer Eliot is and we get a real instance of a "problem novel" at its best - issues worked out through character and action rather than through exposition and polemics. First, Dorothea: her husband, Casaubon, has asked her to make an unreasonable promise to carry on his scholarly project after he dies; Dorothea has become aware that his scholarship is a work of folly (Casaubon, too, has reluctantly begun to understand this - and his binding Dorothea to the project is an act of extreme cruelty and selfishness). Dorothea wrestles with her decision: to deny him would be a devastating blow to him and to their marriage (such as it is), but to accept would draw her away from the much more important work she sees before her - improving the lives of the impoverished in Middlemarch. Which leads us to the 2nd problem: Lydgate, the good if arrogant doctor, has estranged himself from all his fellow professionals, who are jealous of his education and his capabilities; he also emphasizes treatment rather than prescription, which has alienated him from the apothecaries obviously; his only ally in building the new hospital is the banker Bulstrade, generally hated by everybody; still he persists in his vision, yet we see that he is being drawn toward unreasonable expenditures by his new, spoiled bride, Rosamund Vincy. What kind of compromises will he be forced into in order to maintain his lifestyle, as we today would call it? Third, Ladislaw has begun working in the service of that old food Brooke, now running for Parliament - it's obvious that to run for Parliament you need a respectable name, not ideas or capacity - Ladislaw knows that Brooke will not uphold any of the progressive views he sometimes espouses, but he persuades himself that he has influence Brooke for the better and that he, too, must make compromises, in order to earn a living and to at least in some way advance the social good - but obviously there will be increasing tension between his ideals and the demands of the campaign.