Summary
Lydgate faces his worst nightmare: having to ask Bulstrode for money. After losing at gambling and realizing he's running out of options, he finally swallows his pride and approaches the banker he's always claimed to despise. The irony is crushing - Lydgate has spent months boasting about his independence from Bulstrode, only to find himself with no choice but to beg. When he finally makes his desperate pitch for a thousand-pound loan, Bulstrode coldly suggests bankruptcy instead, offering no help whatsoever. The scene is excruciating because we watch a proud, capable man reduced to pleading, only to be dismissed with religious platitudes about 'trial being our portion.' Eliot shows us how financial pressure strips away all our pretenses and forces us to confront who we really are versus who we think we are. Lydgate's gambling loss becomes a symbol for all the small compromises that lead to larger moral failures. The chapter also reveals Bulstrode's plans to withdraw support from the hospital, potentially destroying everything Lydgate has worked for. This double blow - personal humiliation and professional ruin - leaves Lydgate in an impossible position, showing how quickly circumstances can spiral beyond our control when pride prevents us from seeking help early.
Coming Up in Chapter 68
With Bulstrode's rejection crushing his last hope, Lydgate must face the reality of his situation. But sometimes our darkest moments reveal unexpected possibilities - and unexpected allies.
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An excerpt from the original text.(~500 words)
CHAPTER LXVII. Now is there civil war within the soul: Resolve is thrust from off the sacred throne By clamorous Needs, and Pride the grand-vizier Makes humble compact, plays the supple part Of envoy and deft-tongued apologist For hungry rebels. Happily Lydgate had ended by losing in the billiard-room, and brought away no encouragement to make a raid on luck. On the contrary, he felt unmixed disgust with himself the next day when he had to pay four or five pounds over and above his gains, and he carried about with him a most unpleasant vision of the figure he had made, not only rubbing elbows with the men at the Green Dragon but behaving just as they did. A philosopher fallen to betting is hardly distinguishable from a Philistine under the same circumstances: the difference will chiefly be found in his subsequent reflections, and Lydgate chewed a very disagreeable cud in that way. His reason told him how the affair might have been magnified into ruin by a slight change of scenery—if it had been a gambling-house that he had turned into, where chance could be clutched with both hands instead of being picked up with thumb and fore-finger. Nevertheless, though reason strangled the desire to gamble, there remained the feeling that, with an assurance of luck to the needful amount, he would have liked to gamble, rather than take the alternative which was beginning to urge itself as inevitable. That alternative was to apply to Mr. Bulstrode. Lydgate had so many times boasted both to himself and others that he was totally independent of Bulstrode, to whose plans he had lent himself solely because they enabled him to carry out his own ideas of professional work and public benefit—he had so constantly in their personal intercourse had his pride sustained by the sense that he was making a good social use of this predominating banker, whose opinions he thought contemptible and whose motives often seemed to him an absurd mixture of contradictory impressions—that he had been creating for himself strong ideal obstacles to the proffering of any considerable request to him on his own account. Still, early in March his affairs were at that pass in which men begin to say that their oaths were delivered in ignorance, and to perceive that the act which they had called impossible to them is becoming manifestly possible. With Dover’s ugly security soon to be put in force, with the proceeds of his practice immediately absorbed in paying back debts, and with the chance, if the worst were known, of daily supplies being refused on credit, above all with the vision of Rosamond’s hopeless discontent continually haunting him, Lydgate had begun to see that he should inevitably bend himself to ask help from somebody or other. At first he had considered whether he should write to Mr. Vincy; but on questioning Rosamond he found that, as he had suspected, she had already applied twice to her father, the last time being...
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Intelligence Amplifier™ Analysis
The Road of Desperate Pride - When Independence Becomes Its Own Prison
When insisting on independence eliminates the help we need most, forcing us to beg from those we've publicly rejected.
Why This Matters
Connect literature to life
This chapter teaches how past behavior affects present negotiations and why people remember your public stances when you need private help.
Practice This Today
This week, notice when you're taking public positions that might limit your future options—pay attention to what bridges you're burning with your words.
Now let's explore the literary elements.
Terms to Know
Philistine
Someone who lacks cultural refinement or intellectual curiosity, focused only on material concerns. Eliot uses this to show how gambling reduces even educated people to base behavior.
Modern Usage:
We still call someone a 'philistine' when they dismiss art, books, or ideas as worthless if they don't make money.
Civil war within the soul
The internal battle between what we know is right and what we desperately want to do. This describes Lydgate's struggle between his principles and his financial desperation.
Modern Usage:
We experience this whenever we're torn between doing the right thing and taking the easy way out - like staying in a toxic job because we need the money.
Pride the grand-vizier
Pride acting as a chief advisor that makes us rationalize bad decisions. A grand-vizier was a high-ranking official who influenced rulers, often corruptly.
Modern Usage:
This is like when our ego talks us into choices we know are wrong, convincing us we're special or different from everyone else who failed.
Clamorous Needs
Urgent financial pressures that drown out moral reasoning. These 'needs' become so loud they overpower our better judgment.
Modern Usage:
This happens when bills pile up and we start considering things we'd normally never do - like payday loans or borrowing from retirement funds.
Bankruptcy
Legal declaration that you cannot pay your debts, resulting in loss of assets and social disgrace. In Lydgate's time, this meant complete social ruin.
Modern Usage:
While bankruptcy today has legal protections, it still carries shame and makes rebuilding credit and reputation difficult.
Trial being our portion
Religious language suggesting that suffering is God's plan for testing us. Bulstrode uses this to avoid helping while sounding pious.
Modern Usage:
This is like when people say 'everything happens for a reason' to avoid actually helping someone in crisis.
Characters in This Chapter
Lydgate
Desperate protagonist
Faces complete humiliation as he's forced to beg money from the man he's always claimed to despise. His gambling loss becomes the final push toward a choice that destroys his pride.
Modern Equivalent:
The professional who talks big about independence but ends up having to ask their toxic ex-boss for their job back
Bulstrode
Cold antagonist
Refuses Lydgate's desperate plea for help, suggesting bankruptcy instead. Uses religious language to justify his cruelty while planning to withdraw hospital funding.
Modern Equivalent:
The wealthy relative who lectures about 'tough love' while refusing to help family members in genuine crisis
Key Quotes & Analysis
"A philosopher fallen to betting is hardly distinguishable from a Philistine under the same circumstances"
Context: Describing how Lydgate's gambling makes him no different from the crude men he usually looks down on
This shows how desperation strips away our pretenses and reveals that we're not as different from others as we think. Education and refinement mean nothing when we're driven by the same base needs.
In Today's Words:
When you're desperate enough, your college degree doesn't make you any classier than anyone else
"That alternative was to apply to Mr. Bulstrode"
Context: Lydgate realizing he has no choice but to ask his enemy for money
This captures the moment when pride finally breaks under financial pressure. The word 'alternative' shows how he's been avoiding this inevitable choice.
In Today's Words:
He was going to have to swallow his pride and ask the one person he'd sworn he'd never ask
"I would not trouble you if the case were not desperate"
Context: Lydgate's opening plea to Bulstrode for financial help
This reveals how completely Lydgate's pride has been crushed. A man who once boasted of independence is now openly admitting desperation to someone he despises.
In Today's Words:
I wouldn't be here if I had any other choice left
Thematic Threads
Pride
In This Chapter
Lydgate's boasted independence from Bulstrode becomes the very thing that makes his humiliation complete when he must beg for money
Development
Pride has been building throughout Lydgate's story—his medical superiority, his social climbing, his financial assumptions—now it traps him
In Your Life:
Notice when your public stance about not needing help is actually preventing you from getting the support you desperately need.
Class
In This Chapter
Lydgate's gentleman pretensions crumble when faced with actual financial ruin—class performance requires money he doesn't have
Development
The class theme deepens as we see how financial pressure strips away social pretensions and reveals true power dynamics
In Your Life:
Your professional or social image may be more fragile than you think when money problems hit.
Power
In This Chapter
Bulstrode wields his financial power coldly, suggesting bankruptcy instead of helping, showing how money creates moral distance
Development
Bulstrode's power has been growing throughout the novel—now we see how he uses it to punish those who've rejected him
In Your Life:
People with financial power often remember how you treated them when you didn't need their help.
Consequences
In This Chapter
Lydgate's gambling loss and mounting debts force him into the exact position he swore he'd never occupy—dependent on Bulstrode
Development
Small compromises and poor decisions have been accumulating throughout Lydgate's story, now reaching crisis point
In Your Life:
Small financial compromises and pride-based decisions can snowball into situations where you have no good options left.
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
- 1
What forced Lydgate to finally approach Bulstrode for money, and how did Bulstrode respond?
analysis • surface - 2
Why was asking Bulstrode for help especially humiliating for Lydgate, given their previous relationship?
analysis • medium - 3
Where do you see people today getting trapped by their own public statements about independence or self-sufficiency?
application • medium - 4
If you were Lydgate's friend, what advice would you give him about swallowing pride and asking for help earlier?
application • deep - 5
What does this scene reveal about how pride can become our worst enemy when we're already struggling?
reflection • deep
Critical Thinking Exercise
Map Your Pride Trap
Think of an area where you've publicly claimed independence or self-sufficiency. Write down what you've said or implied about not needing help in this area. Then honestly assess: if problems arose, who could you actually turn to? What would make asking for help difficult? Create a simple plan for reaching out before crisis hits.
Consider:
- •Consider how your public statements might limit your future options
- •Think about the difference between asking for advice versus begging for rescue
- •Identify people who would help you maintain dignity while getting support
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time when pride prevented you from asking for help early, and how the situation might have been different if you'd reached out sooner.
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 68: Behind the Scholar's Mask
What lies ahead teaches us insecurity can poison even well-intentioned relationships, and shows us understanding someone's inner world matters more than judging their behavior. These patterns appear in literature and life alike.