Two reasons why Dorthea's marriage is a horror : Middlemarch

So as book two of Goerge Eliot's Middlemarch bloses out and I step into book 3, we are now back to the central (I think) character of the novel, Dorothea, and, no surprise, severalweeks into her marriage to Casaubon she realizes her grave error - it's not so much that he is dray as dust and a pretentious would-be historian-scholar, unlikely ever to begin his massive project on The Key to all Mythology let alone finish it, but, two things: first, he is in no way in favor of female independence, and all her thoughts about subjugating herself to his genius should have been a warning. Not only would that have been a tragic waste of Dorothea's talents and abilities - it's tragic that she (and millions of other women) had to think that the best and perhaps the only way they could make a contribution to scholarship and letters would be as an aide to a brilliant husband/mentor - but, more important to Dorothea, Casaubon doesn't even want her help. Note that throughout it has been Dorothea saying she'll read to him to spare his eyesight, she'll organize his papers so that he can work more efficiently - he never asks this of her, and he never actually invites her to help him out. When it comes right down to it, during their honeymoon in Rome, he seems to want her out of the way - seeing the famous "sights" as he works on his project in the Vatican Museum I see this as two issues: first, he is ashamed of his project, he knows it's way beyond his mental capacity, he knows he can't ever begin writing this monstrous text, and he doesn't want Dorothea to see how pathetic his work actually is and doesn't want her rooting for him and building her identity and the foundation of their marriage on the back of this project because he knows it will amount to a pile of dust. Second - which brings me to the second theme that rises in this part of the novel: he obviously is not a suitable sexual partner for Dorothea, or for any woman; he's a shy old "bachelor," probably not gay, certainly no intimation of that, but also certainly nonsexual or asexual: Eliot never (at least thus far) treats this theme overtly, but it is the underlying current of the novel when we pick up Dorothea and Casaubon 6 weeks into their marriage in Rome: there is no love or affection between them, Casaubon seems repeatedly to pull away from Dorothea, and part of her sense of loss in this marriage must be her sense that she will never have a sexual relation with her husband, perhaps with anyone. Why she didn't see this earlier is a great mystery and perhaps a flaw in Middlemarch, but the outcome or result of this terrible mistake will be the theme of much of the novel I'm sure - as various other relationships among young couples in Middlemarch, each with looming problems and issues (Lydgate falling for the beautiful but shallow Rosamond Vincy, the irresponsible Fred Vincy and Mary(?) Garth, Ladislaw lurking in the shadows of the Dorothea-Casaubon edifice).