The Mill on the Floss in Reading the Classics

Jun 08, 2013 Nikhilesh rated it really liked it

Shelves: the-george-eliot-project

Spoilers all over the place.
The name The Mill on the Floss signifies a property, a business and a means of living. It is quite impersonal in many ways. I am exasperated by this book. I am wondering why was the book named after the mill and I am guessing its very cleverly done. You see, Maggie had respect for cleverness but clever ladies seem conceited to the society. The novel is about gender roles and whats quite unfortunate and heartless is the manner with which George Eliot dealt with fates o Spoilers all over the place.
The name The Mill on the Floss signifies a property, a business and a means of living. It is quite impersonal in many ways. I am exasperated by this book. I am wondering why was the book named after the mill and I am guessing its very cleverly done. You see, Maggie had respect for cleverness but clever ladies seem conceited to the society. The novel is about gender roles and whats quite unfortunate and heartless is the manner with which George Eliot dealt with fates of the main characters. Owning this business, saving it and running it is an all male affair. Tom and his father seem sure of what they do and set the rules for Maggie to follow. Women werent working back then, all they could do was cook, go to dance and tea parties and gossip. Anyone who seemed curious or contrarily was cast out.
It has really gotten 3 stars from me, but I am guessing this novel is semi autobiographical and has a connection with the controversial life of George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) and her promiscuity and I plan to get to the bottom of this sometime soon. My guess is the author has done away with a part of herself with the death of Maggie. Wisdom of Eliot is luminous, even if intermittently so, and that earns an extra star.

We are talking about a girl who has an appetite for books and knowledge. Quite a fumbling manner in which she gets ahead of herself and makes mistakes. Whats such a burning, writhing, infuriating matter is Tom's ridiculous and yet very real sense of punishment and justice. Did he love her? Is love based on what Maggie does right or wrong? I am angry. The same sense of justice is in Mr. Tulliver, the impetuous hotspur, who, on his deathbed is saying, it was only fair what I did to Wakem. How can God forgive a rascal like Wakem. Is he asking or is he telling? Why doesn't he get punished for financial mismanagement? Where is the justice? The author makes it quite clear how the fairer sex is dealt and unfair trial.

Maggie's actions eventually hurt Tom or Lucy or the whole family. There is no way she can have love without hurting anybody.(By the way its beautiful how Lucy will be hurt by Maggie is hinted at by the pond incident in the childhood, just as Momma Tulliver's fears about drowning in water are ultimately true for Maggie). All male characters are such irritable and ineffectual. Stephens words seem like hot air. No matter how hard he may like to pump in emotion into complex clauses we wouldn't like anyone to have Maggie except Philip. Philip cant have Maggie because she made a promise to her brother. Philip's brand of....impotence, for the lack of a better word, is still aggravating. Poor Maggie needed someone to support her. I am not talking of economic but a friendship and guidance for her convictions. The book deserves five stars for telling the story of a fatherless girl who cant seem to find her way through a wretched society. Things go out of hand seamlessly.
Mother Tulliver is yet another non-entity. Her sense of family life is so rooted in materials - furniture, clothes etc. even in despair she talks of the things she is going to lose. Getting scolded by her sisters does nothing to her. Its a sad sad book. Its a real book and despite places where things seem artificial, characters seem vague and plot seems rushed,at the heart of it we know what its like to be Maggie and we were trapped in that time and place, would we judge ourselves any worse? ...more

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