Who Edward Casaubon is
Edward Casaubon lives at Lowick, where he spends years gathering notes for a large work called the Key to All Mythologies. His manner is dry and distant, but beneath that reserve lies anxiety about the value of his life's work.
What Edward Casaubon wants
Casaubon wants to produce a substantial scholarly book, yet he cannot find a way to bring his accumulated notes together. His fear of failure makes Dorothea's eager questions feel like judgments rather than offers of help.
Edward Casaubon and the others in the story
Dorothea admires Casaubon's learning and imagines that marriage will give her both knowledge and a worthy purpose. He remains absorbed in his notes, leaving her outside the work she hopes to share. She offers to copy his notes and help with Latin and Greek, but he responds with refusal or irritation.
Will Ladislaw, Casaubon's young cousin, talks to Dorothea with a warmth that her marriage lacks. Casaubon's uneasiness about their friendship develops into jealousy, expressed through cold remarks and restrictions.
Questions
Who is Edward Casaubon?
Edward Casaubon is Dorothea Brooke's husband, a clergyman whose scholarly ambitions occupy much of his life.
What is Casaubon's book about?
His unfinished book, the Key to All Mythologies, is a study of mythology built from years of collected notes.
Is Edward Casaubon a villain?
No, Eliot presents him as anxious and fearful rather than simply villainous. His wounded pride helps explain his coldness without removing the hurt it causes Dorothea.