Mill on the Floss is a novel written by Eliot that is mainly about the relationship between a brother and sister, Tom and Maggie Tulliver, who live in a mill on the river Floss. It describes their childhood and a clash that becomes a reason to separate them.
Like
the other two, George Eliot’s characters are also living, breathing beings, who
love, hate, sin, and repent. True to the class or caste system of the
nineteenth-century her characters also having good and bad qualities. There are
two types of characterization found in the Mill on the Floss. Direct and
indirect characterization is the most common method been used in this novel. In
the case of Maggie, she is shown as being hot-headed, clever, quick-witted but
somehow emotional. However, these character qualities, as Maggie's discoveries
to her intense frustration are not attributes appreciated in females in her
time. Some people are even upset by her mop of curls which could be seen as an
apparent sign of her 'unruly-ness.' Eliot uses her portrayal of looks to add
characterization. Her mixed-up beliefs about her gifts make her susceptible to
low self-esteem caused by others.
In
the novel, the writer describes her character through different features. She
characterizes by touching minute details like speech and dialogue, thoughts and
opinions, and social status. Eliot is distinguished for writing in dialects
and, as a consequence, the speech of characters like Mr. Tulliver and Mrs.
Glegg is written with lots of apostrophes to give the reader a sense of what
these characters’ pronunciations sounded like. The considerable discussions
between Philip and Maggie regarding individual longings, and between Stephen
and Maggie just before their breakup, are good examples of places where Eliot
gives her characters’ free rule to express their opinions. The characters in
this book are also very attentively frank; between them and the commenting
narrator, we hardly have to guess at what a character’s actual thought or
opinion is. We see that there is a gigantic financial gap between Stephen Guest
and Maggie, the two of them never discuss their relationship problems in terms
of money. Rather, their subjects revolve around family, Lucy, Philip. Mr. Deane
is depicted almost exclusively by his job, and Tom’s desire to make money and
pay his family arrears is a massive part of his character. Social status is an
important tool of characterization, but it does not apply equally to every
character in the book, which is fascinating in itself.
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