Describe the themes of the novel the mill in the floss
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1.Loss of innocence is a major theme in The Mill on the Floss. From the beginning of the novel, the narrator makes it clear that there is a strong demarcation between living in childhood, as Maggie and Tom are doing, and looking back on it, as she is doing. With sentences like, “Childhood has no forebodings; but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow” (72), or “Very trivial, perhaps, this anguish seems to weather-worn mortals who have to think of Christmas bills, dead loves, and broken friendships” (56), the narrator repeatedly calls to attention the great distance between the perception of children and the perception of adults.
When Mr. Tulliver loses all his assets and his senses, it becomes clear that the divide between child and adult is not necessarily slowly created over time, but that, for Maggie and Tom at least, it is created in a single episode of rending - a loss of innocence. With powerful imagery, Eliot shows Maggie and Tom going “forth together into their new life of sorrow,” “the thorny wilderness,” as “the golden gates of their childhood had for ever closed behind them” and they will “never more see the sunshine undimmed by remembered cares” (159). The knowledge of their family’s great hardships to come is “a violent shock” that separates them permanently from their edenic - in comparison, at least - childhood. 2.
The theme of communal versus individual interests, which could also be called duty versus desire, is of central importance to The Mill on the Floss, and is essentially what drives the plot. Maggie, with her unusual looks, her intellectual prowess, her driving curiosity, and her passionate desires, does not naturally fit into the community of St. Ogg’s at all. Her family continually fears what will become of her, she is often misunderstood and almost never taken seriously, and she is certainly never given the praise for her cleverness that she so desires. To fulfill her individual desires, then, is to break out of any role the community is willing to offer her, and so to go against it.
Though Maggie yearns for this at times, in the end she is far too bound to her past, her family, and the broader community to be willing to relinquish it. Though it would seem that marrying Stephen offers her the best opportunity for happiness, she chooses to leave him and, she believes, all future chances of happiness to return to St. Ogg’s. Once there, even the understanding Dr. Kenn, who appreciates her Christian values in staying close to her roots, tells her it would be best for her to go, but still, she stays. When she dies, it is in a boat on a current taking her towards home, so this becomes her final choice, and she has ultimately given her life to stay in the community; she loses her individuality in the most profound sense.
The gender disparity in the world of The Mill on the Floss is vital to understanding Maggie’s story. She is an intelligent and fascinating woman, but the world she is born into offers nothing for her to do with her talents; women are assumed to be more interested in gossip than reading, adherence to custom is valued more highly than intelligence or knowledge, and whether women are even capable of amassing a depth of knowledge is a subject of debate.
In this world, Maggie’s many talents do nothing for her except make her feel all the more dissatisfied with what is available. This context is crucial to understanding why choice is so difficult for her, why she is pulled so strongly between duty and desire. Her desires would lead her to a masculine pursuit, which is not available to her in any meaningful way and would require a great sacrifice of duty. But duty offers little of interest to someone with her creativity and sharpness, and so is a much harder choice than it is for, for example, Lucy Deane, who can play the appropriate feminine role perfectly. Maggie’s struggles, then, which the author so directly associates with progress, are not just for the general progress of culture away from the previous generation’s comfort with “ignorance” (101), but progress towards greater freedom of possibility for women like Maggie - women like George Eliot.
4.The difficult of choice. 5.Renunciation and sacrifice. 6.Nostalgia. 7.Progress versus tradition
When Mr. Tulliver loses all his assets and his senses, it becomes clear that the divide between child and adult is not necessarily slowly created over time, but that, for Maggie and Tom at least, it is created in a single episode of rending - a loss of innocence. With powerful imagery, Eliot shows Maggie and Tom going “forth together into their new life of sorrow,” “the thorny wilderness,” as “the golden gates of their childhood had for ever closed behind them” and they will “never more see the sunshine undimmed by remembered cares” (159). The knowledge of their family’s great hardships to come is “a violent shock” that separates them permanently from their edenic - in comparison, at least - childhood. 2.
The theme of communal versus individual interests, which could also be called duty versus desire, is of central importance to The Mill on the Floss, and is essentially what drives the plot. Maggie, with her unusual looks, her intellectual prowess, her driving curiosity, and her passionate desires, does not naturally fit into the community of St. Ogg’s at all. Her family continually fears what will become of her, she is often misunderstood and almost never taken seriously, and she is certainly never given the praise for her cleverness that she so desires. To fulfill her individual desires, then, is to break out of any role the community is willing to offer her, and so to go against it.
Though Maggie yearns for this at times, in the end she is far too bound to her past, her family, and the broader community to be willing to relinquish it. Though it would seem that marrying Stephen offers her the best opportunity for happiness, she chooses to leave him and, she believes, all future chances of happiness to return to St. Ogg’s. Once there, even the understanding Dr. Kenn, who appreciates her Christian values in staying close to her roots, tells her it would be best for her to go, but still, she stays. When she dies, it is in a boat on a current taking her towards home, so this becomes her final choice, and she has ultimately given her life to stay in the community; she loses her individuality in the most profound sense.
The gender disparity in the world of The Mill on the Floss is vital to understanding Maggie’s story. She is an intelligent and fascinating woman, but the world she is born into offers nothing for her to do with her talents; women are assumed to be more interested in gossip than reading, adherence to custom is valued more highly than intelligence or knowledge, and whether women are even capable of amassing a depth of knowledge is a subject of debate.
In this world, Maggie’s many talents do nothing for her except make her feel all the more dissatisfied with what is available. This context is crucial to understanding why choice is so difficult for her, why she is pulled so strongly between duty and desire. Her desires would lead her to a masculine pursuit, which is not available to her in any meaningful way and would require a great sacrifice of duty. But duty offers little of interest to someone with her creativity and sharpness, and so is a much harder choice than it is for, for example, Lucy Deane, who can play the appropriate feminine role perfectly. Maggie’s struggles, then, which the author so directly associates with progress, are not just for the general progress of culture away from the previous generation’s comfort with “ignorance” (101), but progress towards greater freedom of possibility for women like Maggie - women like George Eliot.
4.The difficult of choice. 5.Renunciation and sacrifice. 6.Nostalgia. 7.Progress versus tradition
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