Sir Walter Scott's novel The Heart of Midlothian was originally entitled Tales of My Landlord, Second Series and was published in four volumes in 1818. It was a great success from the beginning, and many critics have considered it to be Scott's finest novel. One of the reasons for this is a negative one in that this novel does not have the conventional hero and heroine critics see as Scott's weakest characters, characters generally found in his other novels (Lauber, 1966, 106). The novel plot is simple, and it involves multiple characters and so has no hero at all in the traditional sense. The work is structured on the basis of strong characterizations that enhance the themes, a number of which have been identified by critics as unifying elements binding together the characters and serving as the spine that overcomes a number of internal contradictions in Scott's writing. Yet, it is apparent that these critics do not agree on what the theme of the novel is.
Scott wrote several novels depicting the contrasts between opposing social and political forces exemplified by the Covenanters, a fanatical group, and their moral opposites, the hedonistic Cavaliers. These forces in Scottish history stand as extremes that attract the hero one way or the other in novels like Rob Roy. In The Heart of Midlothian, Scott treats these matters in a somewhat different manner:
Here we see the Covenanting tradition tamed by history into eccentricity on the one hand and on the other achieving humble personal heroism very different from the fatal violence of earlier practitioners: character and history are related in a way that gives a new dimension to the historical novel (Daiches, 1971, 101-102).
There is no hero as such in this novel, but there is a heroine, though a different sort than Scott had portrayed in earlier works. The heroine in this case is taken from the lower classes, and the moral dilemma faced by Jeanie in the novel is see...