Tale of two Georges: Eliot and Romney

Has Romney read Middlemarch? Couldn't help but think of him and his ilk in the great, painful scene during which Lydgate, completely tapped out and a thousand pounds in debt thanks to his lavish taste and his spoiled and narcissistic wife, goes the evil banker, Bulstrode, who's backed Lydgate as a benefactor of his new hospital, and asks for a loan. First, Bulstrode completely puts him off, questioning him in some detail about his medical condition (I doubt he pays anything for this medical consult - it's just among friends, don't you know, a professional courtesy), then he shocks Lydgate by telling him he's moving out of Middlemarch and giving up his interest in the hospital; we understand the reason for this move  (he's trying to avoid the shame Raffles will bring on him when and if Raffles reveals that Bulstrode stole another's inheritance), but Lydgate has no clue: yet it's quite clear to Lydgate that the hospital, and therefore his medical practice, will fall apart without Bulstrode's support. Bulstrode tells Lydgate to merge with the general hospital in town, but L. knows that the physicians there hate him and will ruin his modest practice. At last, Lydgate asks Bulstrode about a loan; Bulstrode's advice, given as if this is a benefice, is to go bankrupt and clear out his debts that way. Yes, let the marketplace take care of everything - who cares who has to suffer in the process, as long as the truly wealth remain untouched and unhindered in their practices. His advice to Lydgate was pretty much Romney's economic viewpoint: GM should have gone bankrupt, college may be tough for some kids to afford but there are plenty of other opportunities, etc. - cruel, careless, obtuse, and entirely based on self-interest. Politics and political analogies aside, this is a terrific moment in the novel and shows George Eliot's strengths as a writer quite well: it would be easy to get a lot of mileage out of this scene by making Lydgate an aggrieved good guy, but Eliot is more subtle and nuanced than that: yes, Lydgate nobly pursues the medical profession, but he is also a fool and snob in many ways, and his near-bankruptcy is of his own doing, a result of his vanity and his weakness before his wife (though he tries awfully hard to bully her into submission). The characters in Middlemarch are seldom "types" (though Bulstrode and Raffles come close), but they are "round," complex, and surprising.