= The_Mill_on_the

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= The_Mill_on_the_Floss =
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Introduction
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'The Mill on the Floss' is a novel by English author George Eliot, pen
name of Mary Ann Evans, first published, in three volumes, on 4 April
1860 by William Blackwood and Sons. The first American edition was
published, in the same year, by Harper & Brothers, New York.

Spanning a period of 10 to 15 years, the novel details the lives of
Tom and Maggie Tulliver, siblings who grow up at Dorlcote Mill on the
River Floss. The mill is at the confluence of the Floss and the
smaller River Ripple, near the village of St Ogg's in Lincolnshire,
England. Both the rivers and the village are fictional.

The novel was first published, in three volumes, on 4 April 1860 by
William Blackwood and Sons. The first American edition was published,
in the same year, by Harper & Brothers, New York.

Plot
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The novel begins in the late 1820s or early 1830s - several historical
references place the events in the book after the Napoleonic Wars but
before the Reform Act 1832. (In chapter 3, the character Mr Riley is
described as an "auctioneer and appraiser thirty years ago", placing
the opening events of the novel in approximately 1829, thirty years
before the novel's composition in 1859. In chapter 8, Mr Tulliver and
Mr Deane discuss the Duke of Wellington and his "conduct in the
Catholic Question", a conversation that could only take place after
1828, when Wellington became Prime Minister and supported a bill for
Catholic Emancipation). The novel includes many autobiographical
elements and reflects the disgrace that George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
experienced while in a lengthy relationship with a married man, George
Henry Lewes.
Maggie Tulliver is the protagonist and the story begins when she is 9
years old, 13 years into her parents' marriage. Her relationship with
her older brother, Tom, and her romantic relationships with Philip
Wakem (a hunchbacked, sensitive and intellectual friend) and with
Stephen Guest (a vivacious young socialite in St Ogg's and assumed
fiancé of Maggie's cousin Lucy Deane) constitute the most significant
narrative threads.

Tom and Maggie have a close yet complex bond, which continues
throughout the novel. Their relationship is coloured by Maggie's
desire to recapture the unconditional love of her father before his
death. Tom's pragmatic and reserved nature clashes with Maggie's
idealism and fervor for intellectual gains and experience. Various
family crises, including bankruptcy, Mr Tulliver's rancorous
relationship with Philip Wakem's father, which results in the loss of
the mill and Mr Tulliver's death, intensify Tom's and Maggie's
differences and highlight their love for each other. To help his
father repay his debts, Tom leaves school to devote himself to a life
of business. He eventually finds a measure of success, restoring the
family's former estate. Maggie languishes in the impoverished Tulliver
home, her intellectual aptitude wasted in her socially isolated state.
She passes through a period of tough spirituality, during which she
renounces the world, motivated by her reading of Thomas à Kempis's '
The Imitation of Christ'.

This renunciation is tested by a renewed friendship with Philip Wakem,
with whom she had developed a friendship while he and Tom were
students. Against the wishes of Tom and her father - who both despise
the Wakems - Maggie secretly meets Philip and they go for long walks
through the woods. The relationship they forge is founded partly in
Maggie's heartfelt pity for broken and neglected human beings but it
also serves as an outlet for her intellectual romantic desires.
Philip's and Maggie's attraction is, in any case, inconsequential
because of the family antipathy. Philip manages to coax a pledge of
love from Maggie. When Tom discovers the relationship between the two,
he forces his sister to renounce Philip and with him her hopes of
experiencing the broader, more cultured world he represents.

Several years pass, during which Mr Tulliver dies. Lucy Deane invites
Maggie to come and stay with her and experience the life of cultured
leisure that she enjoys. This includes long hours conversing and
playing music with Lucy's suitor, Stephen Guest, a prominent St Ogg's
resident. Stephen and Maggie, against their rational judgments, become
attracted to each other. The complication is compounded by Philip
Wakem's friendship with Lucy and Stephen; he and Maggie are
reintroduced and Philip's love for her is rekindled, while Maggie, no
longer isolated, enjoys the clandestine attentions of Stephen Guest,
putting her past profession of love for Philip in question. Lucy
intrigues to throw Philip and Maggie together on a short rowing trip
down the Floss but Stephen unwittingly takes a sick Philip's place.

When Maggie and Stephen find themselves floating down the river,
negligent of the distance they have covered, he proposes that they
board a passing boat to the next substantial city, Mudport and get
married. Maggie is too tired to argue about it. Stephen takes
advantage of her weariness and hails the boat. They are taken on board
and during the trip to Mudport, Maggie struggles between her love for
Stephen and her duties to Philip and Lucy, which were established when
she was poor, isolated and dependent on them for what good her life
contained. Upon arrival in Mudport, she rejects Stephen and makes her
way back to St Ogg's, where she lives for a brief period as an
outcast, Stephen having fled to Holland. Although she immediately goes
to Tom for forgiveness and shelter, he sends her away, telling her
that she will never again be welcome under his roof. Lucy and Philip
forgive her, in a moving reunion and in an eloquent letter,
respectively.

Maggie's brief exile ends when the river floods. Having struggled
through the waters in a boat to find Tom at the old mill, she sets out
with him to rescue Lucy Deane and her family. In a brief tender
moment, the brother and sister are reconciled from all past
differences. When their boat capsizes, the two drown in an embrace.

Characters
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* Maggie Tulliver - a dark-complexioned miller's daughter. A clever
and impetuous child who feels deep passions, but forces herself to
suppress them for the good of others.
* Tom Tulliver - Maggie's brother. Originally lives in a careless
fashion and neglects his studies, but begins to work seriously after
his father's downfall.
* Bessy Tulliver (née Dodson) - Maggie and Tom's mother, a simple and
dim-witted woman who feels her social decline. She "obsesses about her
linen cupboard, her prized silver sugar tongs and her sister's
expensive new hat".
* Edward Tulliver - Maggie and Tom's father, owner of the Mill until a
lengthy lawsuit leaves him in dire financial straits. A proud and rash
man who struggles to adapt to the modern commercial world. Feels deep
love for Maggie especially, and for his own sister "Gritty".
Characterized by his strong sense of justice and determination to
secure a prosperous future for his family.
* Philip Wakem - hunchbacked classmate of Tom and friend/suitor to
Maggie
* Stephen Guest - affluent suitor to Lucy, who also has eyes for
Maggie

Minor characters
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* John Wakem - St Ogg's lawyer and father of Philip. Mr Tulliver
considers all lawyers to be creations of Old Harry (the Devil) but is
particularly disdainful of Wakem after losing a costly lawsuit to him.
* Emily Wakem (née Clint) - mother of Philip, dies before the events
of the book
* Lucy Deane - Tom and Maggie's cousin, a pretty, fair-haired girl,
presumed to be betrothed to Stephen Guest
* Miss Guest and Laura Guest - sisters to Stephen, figures in local
society and friends to Lucy
* Mr Riley - auctioneer and appraiser, a friend of Mr Tulliver
* Rev. Walter Stelling - teacher of Tom and Phillip
* Dr Kenn - the clergyman of St Ogg's
* Bob Jakin - a childhood friend of Tom who later helps Tom in
business; both Tom and Maggie stay at his house at different times
* Mrs Jane Glegg (née Dodson) - leader of the Dodson clan, critical
and dominating aunt of Maggie and Tom who stands up for Maggie after
her scandal with Stephen
* Mrs Sophy Pullet (née Dodson) - sister of Bessy, Tom and Maggie's
aunt
* Mrs Susan Deane (née Dodson) - sister of Bessy, Tom and Maggie's
aunt, mother to Lucy
* Gritty Moss (née Tulliver) - Mr Tulliver's sister, mother of many
children, including Georgy and Lizzy
* Kezia - Tulliver family maid
* Luke - the head miller
* Yap - the Tullivers' dog
* Mr Turnbull - doctor of the parish

Locations
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* Dorlcote Mill - the Tulliver family's home for a century
* Basset - home of Moss Farm
* Dunlow Common
* Garum Firs - visited for a treat
* Red Deeps
* Midsummer - home of the academy
* Mudport
* St Ogg's
* St Ursula

Themes
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Like other novels by George Eliot, 'The Mill on the Floss' articulates
the tension between circumstances and the spiritual energies of
individual characters struggling against those circumstances. A
certain determinism is at play throughout the novel, from Mr
Tulliver's inability to keep himself from "going to law", and thereby
losing his patrimony and bankrupting his family, to the series of
events that sets Maggie and Stephen down the river and past the point
of no return. Characters such as Mr Tulliver are presented as unable
to determine their own course rationally, while various external
forces, be it the drift of the river or the force of a flood, are
presented as determining the courses of people for them. On the other
hand, Maggie's ultimate choice not to marry Stephen, and to suffer
both the privation of his love and the ignominy of their botched
elopement demonstrates a final triumph of free will.

Critics have asserted that Maggie's need for love and acceptance is
her underlying motivation throughout 'The Mill on the Floss', claiming
that the conflicts that arise in the novel stem from her frustrated
attempts at gaining this acceptance. Alan Bellringer has claimed that
"[t]he two main themes of the novel, growing up and falling in love,
lend themselves to amusement, but it is stunted growth and frustrated
love that are emphasized." Commentators have often focused on the
constant rejection of Maggie's talents and mannerisms by her family
and society. Even the cultural norms of her community deny her
intellectual and spiritual growth. According to Elizabeth Ermarth,
"[t]hey are norms according to which she is an inferior, dependent
creature who will never go far in anything, and which consequently are
a denial of her full humanity."

Adaptations
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The story was adapted as a film, 'The Mill on the Floss', in 1937, and
as a BBC series in 1978 starring Christopher Blake, Pippa Guard, Judy
Cornwell, Ray Smith and Anton Lesser.

In 1994, Helen Edmundson adapted the book for the stage, in a
production performed by Shared Experience.

A television film adaptation of the novel was first aired on 1 January
1997. Maggie Tulliver is portrayed by Emily Watson and Mr Tulliver by
Bernard Hill. The production was filmed at the historic Chatham
Dockyard in Kent for exterior street scenes.

A radio dramatisation in five one-hour parts was broadcast on BBC7 in
2009.

Bibliography
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* Eliot, George. 'The Mill on the Floss'. (many editions, via the
OpenLibrary)
* Eliot, George. 'The Mill on the
Floss'/'[https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/10 The Mill on the
Floss]' free PDF of Blackwood's 1878 Cabinet Edition (the critical
standard with Eliot's final corrections) at the
'[https://georgeeliotarchive.org/ George Eliot Archive]'

External links
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*
* '[https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/10 The Mill on the
Floss]' free PDF of Blackwood's 1878 Cabinet Edition (the critical
standard with Eliot's final corrections) at the
'[https://georgeeliotarchive.org George Eliot Archive]'

* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6688 'The Mill on the Floss' at
'Project Gutenberg'].
*
* [http://www.freeaudiobooksonline.org/book/the-mill-on-the-floss/
'The Mill on the Floss'] - streaming audio.
* [http://www.pdfbooksworld.com/The-Mill-on-the-Floss-by-George-Eliot/
'The Mill on the Floss'] - PDF version.

License
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mill_on_the_Floss