The Mill on the Floss | Style
Dialect
A notable feature of Eliot's writing is her use of local dialect in dialogue to express her characters' educational and social class. For example, Mr. Tulliver tells his wife, "What I want is to give Tom a good eddication. …I should like Tom to be a bit of a scholard, so as he might be up to the tricks o' these fellows as talk fine and write with a flourish." Mr. Riley, who is an auctioneer and somewhat better educated, does not use dialect when he tells Tulliver, "There's no greater advantage you can give him than a good education. Not that a man can't be an...
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