Unavoidable proliferation of literary allusions

Middlemarch by Eliot contains an unavoidable proliferation of literary allusions, epigraphs, philosophical and historical references, and many other fragments
that seem to get in the way of the story. What case can be made, using some specific examples, for their essential importance to how we understand Eliot's
approach to the art of the novel? Why do they have to be here?
No secondary sources, must have a proper thesis & be persuasive & analytical.
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