The Mill on the Floss

The Mill on the Floss carries significance because the action of George Eliot’s novel revolves around the Dorlcote Mill and the River Floss (or, as it appears in the text, "river Floss"). In a...

We must remember that this book was written by a woman who was unhappy with the societal norms of her time. Many of the salient factors of the Victorian Age present in Mill on the Floss seem to be...

There are several ways to compare and contrast Maggie and Tom Tulliver. They are the central characters of the novel, and they embody two very different outlooks on life. Tom, the boy, is bound by...

Eliot's novel is concerned with the social aspirations of a mill owner, Mr. Tulliver, and his son, Tom. A major theme is the problem of social mobility and how greed and desire work in English...

Let us be careful here. Your question seems to suggest that St. Ogg's is actually a character in this excellent novel. However, it is actually the town in which the novel is set, as the opening...

The Mill on the Floss is an example of a bildungsroman, or a novel that traces its protagonist's development from childhood to adulthood. The novel is also an example of Victorian literature, as it...

Several factors contribute to the idea in the reader's mind of Mr. Tulliver as a tragic character, although Mr. Tulliver is not an example of a classic one. Classically "tragedy" means...

I suppose the tragedy of Mr. Tulliver relates to his inability to work out and understand the children that he has and the way that they are. For Mr. Tulliver, who is at best an unintelligent man...

In book 2, chapter 3 of The Mill on the Floss, Tom Tulliver is returning—reluctantly—to school. The weather is wet and miserable and perfectly reflects how Tom is feeling at this precise moment. To...

The novel The Mill on the Floss, written by George Eliot and published in 1860, covers about fifteen years and recounts the lives of brother and sister Tom and Maggie Tulliver, beginning in the...

You have asked a very broad question here. I have included some links below to the enotes study guide section of this novel that you can peruse at your leisure, but let me offer the following words...

When Tom Tulliver returns to boarding school on a cold, wet day in January, he is introduced by the schoolmaster, Mr. Stelling, to a new classmate, Philip Wakem, who, like Tom, is from the town of...

Mr. Tulliver wants his son, Tom, to have a good education for several reasons. First, he wants to ensure a financially secure future for Tom. Mr. Tulliver tells Mrs. Tulliver that he wants to send...

The theme of morality and guilt in The Mill on the Floss usually centers on the character of Maggie. George Eliot creates a female character who bucks against the idea of being "traditional" and...

Maggie Tulliver is the protagonist of The Mill on the Floss. Right from the outset, we're aware that she's a very unusual character for her time and place. For one thing, her skin color is notably...

Two important places are mentioned in the title of George Eliot’s novel The Mill on the Floss: Dorlcote Mill and the Floss River on which it is located. The mill is outside of St. Oggs, the town...

There are a lot of things that one can say about characterization. In the most basic definition of characterization is the way a character in a story is portrayed by the author. With that said,...

Maggie flees to the attic in tears because Tom has gotten very angry with her. His anger is ignited because she let his rabbits die while he was away at boarding school. Though she cries and begs...

There are a lot of characters in this novel, and going over the internal conflicts of each could very well be a novel in its own right. I'll pick a few characters. Mr. Tulliver is a good starting...

Historical criticism, as the name implies, interprets a work of literature within the context of its time period and the life of its author. The Mill on the Floss is in many ways an...

A good example of a functional character, Mr. Riley, makes his entrance early on in The Mill on the Floss. Riley comes to visit Mr. Tulliver about dam arbitration in book 1, chapter 3. While he is...

In The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot depicts the underlying roughness and injustice of a supposedly civilized society. For one thing, as a girl and then woman, Maggie Tulliver always seems to...

The Mill on the Floss was written by George Eliot in the nineteenth century. It is largely about the tribulations of a girl named Maggie and her family during Queen Victoria’s reign over England....

Mr. Tulliver owns a mill on the River Floss, and has a wife and two children. The children, Tom and Maggie, are different in appearance and character. Maggie is intelligent, wild, and dark; Tom...

George Eliot's novel The Mill on the Floss is, as most of her works, more than a simple story about relationships. It also is a far reaching critique of social and gender inequality. Often The Mill...

Maggie is immature because she is self-conscious and not sure of herself. She is easily swayed by the interests of others and in her desire not to offend. When she offers to help Tom find a job...

George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss essentially ends with the deaths of Maggie and Tom, but there is one short epilogue after. The purpose of the epilogue is twofold. First, Eliot wants to show...

Philip Wakem is a lawyer's son. Deformed, with a hunchback, his chief persuasive appeal to Maggie is his sensitive, caring, and supportive nature. Philip is intelligent, perceptive, and artistic,...

Maggie and Tom have been sharing jam puffs, which they took from the kitchen. When Maggie eats the bigger half of the last puff, Tom calls her greedy and unfair, providing the occasion for an...

If we are looking for a central concept or theme to this impressive work, I think it has to be an examination of the role of its central character, Maggie Tulliver, and the way that she is always...

Water is a frequent symbol in "The Mill on the Floss." What is great about the water symbolism is that it is never only bad or only good. It is portrayed as two sides to the same coin. A very...

I would argue that she is certainly a moral person as she has very strong feelings about right and wrong and worries quite a bit about other people's feelings and making sure to do right by...

Stephen and Tom are very alike. How often it is that women become attracted to the qualities possessed by their fathers, or father figures. Both men are self-confident and arrogant. They each...

It is important to realise that the final paragaph of this chapter needs to be read in conjunction with the penultimate paragraph, where Mrs. Tulliver weakly complains to her husband about the way...

St. Ogg's, as described in the opening of The Mill on the Floss, is an idyllic English town. The River Floss runs through it, fed by a tributary river called Ripple. Sights you are likely to see...

There are several different approaches you could take to the assignment. The key to writing a critical paper of this type is to focus on one very narrow topic you can investigate in depth. A key to...

eNotes offers a good book-by-book summary at the link below.