The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot Essay -- Mill Floss George Eliot

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot It is said that George Eliot’s style of writing deals with much realism. Eliot, herself meant by a â€Å"realist† to be â€Å"an artist who values the truth of observation above the imaginative fancies of writers of â€Å"romance† or fashionable melodramatic fiction.† (Ashton 19) This technique is artfully utilized in her writings in a way which human character and relationships are dissected and analyzed. In the novel The Mill on the Floss, Eliot uses the relationships of the protagonist of the story, Miss Maggie Tulliver, as a medium in which to convey various aspects of human social associations. It seems that as a result of Maggie’s nature and of circumstances presented around her, that she is never able to have a connection with one person that satisfies her multifaceted needs and desires. Maggie is able, to some extent, to explore the various and occasionally conflicting aspects of her person with her relationships between other characters pr esented in the novel. â€Å"From an early age, Maggie needs approval from men...Maggie is not shown in any deep relationship with a female friend.† (Ashton 83) A reader can explore into Maggie Tulliver’s person and her short development as a woman in four primary male associations: her father—Mr. Tulliver, her brother—Tom Tulliver, her friend and mentor—Philip Wakem and her dangerous passion with Steven Guest. Maggie unconditionally loves her father although he has been the unconscious root of many of her misfortunes. â€Å"Tom’s and Maggie’s young lives are blighted by the gloom, poverty, disgrace and death of their father...Maggie is obliged by her father’s failure to leave school...It is the misfortune of a clever girl denied any activity other than domestic.† (Ashton 50) In the time period of the setting of the novel, women were regarded as male property, to take care of household matters and without skill, originality and intelligence of a man. Mr. Tulliver cared deeply for his daughter’s future but inadvertently oppressed Maggie through his views of women. This idea is represented in his dialog with Mr. Riley of Maggie’s â€Å"unnatural† intelligence: â€Å"It’s a pity but what she’d been then lad—she’d ha’been a match for the lawyers, she would. It’s the wonderful’st thing.† (Eli ot 68) Mr. Tulliver by nature was stubborn, opinionated and led his family to disgrace as a result. However, there is ... ... caused them both much pain. Maggie was also allowed to experience the type of love that can exist between siblings, despite all of their disagreements, Maggie and Tom were able to realize that their bond was deeper than could have been imagined. George Eliot artfully created such relationships in this novel in a successful method to analyze and probe into the complexities of human interaction. This comes along with the message that it may be possible to have everything that one may want in life, just not all at once or at the same time. Works Cited Ashton, Rosemary. The Mill on the Floss: A Natural History. Twayne’s Masterwork Studies. Boston, G.K. Hall & Co. 1990 Byatt, A.S. â€Å"The Placing of Steven Guest†. Appendix, The Mill on the Floss, Middlesex, Blays Ltd, St Printing; Penguin Classics. 1979 Carlisle, Janice. â€Å"The Mirror In the Mill on the Floss; Toward Reading of Autobiography Discourse†. Studies in the Literary Imagination. Vol 23:Issue 2. [EBSCO] Masterfile Premier 1990 Edinborough and London. â€Å"Brother and Sister† The Legend of Jubal and Other Poems. London, Blackwood 1874 Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss. Middlesex, Penguin English Library, 1979.