Trapped in between Duties and Desires: The Mill on the Floss

Abstract

This chapter is an examination of restrictions imposed upon Victorian women as well as limitations and inequalities that paralyze and imprison them on George Eliot’s popular novel The Mill on The Floss with an emphasis on the protagonist Maggie Tulliver. Initially, background information on the author is presented, then the novel is handled from the perspective of woman question in the Victorian Era juxtaposing the circumstances provided to the male and female child in the Victorian era in which cleverness is regarded as a trouble rather than a virtue. The qualities of New Woman are also scrutinized with the protagonist Maggie. Pointing out the dilemma the protagonist experiences in between her duties and desires in a patriarchal society that limits women from educational, intellectual and social aspects allowing them no pleasure of life, this chapter reveals that Victorian Women were regarded as the angels in the house who need to be protected by men. To conclude, this chapter handles The Mill on The Floss as a critique of Victorian Society which suffocates women leaving them no space for pleasure, intellectuality and individuality and emphasizes that such a society is actually no good for both males and females.

1. Introduction

As Nancy Paxton has argued, the 1850s was a catastrophic decade in terms of the anxiety generated by the heated debates on gender, sexuality and marriage in the run-up to the passing of the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act in England. During that time there were many Victorian Women English novelists whose speeches and organizations and petitions yielded the slow but steady achievements- in education, careers, property rights, divorce laws, contraception – which made the nineteenth century the greatest period of female social progress in history ([1], pp. 18–19). As an educated professional author with radical views on female education and property rights of women during marriage, George Eliot was one of those pioneering writers who supported feminist campaigns for reform. She even signed the petition drawn up by Barbara Leigh Smith which was called for the rights of married women to control their own property and earnings, but she was unable to commit herself wholeheartedly to the feminist cause ([2], pp. 87–88). Eliot took side with the ones who were powerful and exceeded the limits of the society to her opposing opinions and manners. Therefore, she was one Insurgent [women] who have indicted this unjust society in Simone de Beauvoir’s words ([3], p. 841). Since it is literature, which until the media explosion in Britain in the 1970s, has provided the most accessible images of women, Eliot used her talent in writing to reflect her opinions on the appropriate role of women in a society in which gender division run sharp and deep ([4], p. 2). She tried to raise an awareness of women’s role and status and to disseminate her ideas through her literary works. The heroines she created were also with free spirit and powerful like her: She typically chooses for her heroine a young woman, like Maggie Tulliver of The Mill on the Floss or Dorothea Brooke of Middlemarch, with a powerful imagination and a yearning to be more than her society allows her to be ([5], p. 1336).

Although Eliot condemned women’s social exclusion from education and lack of property rights in marriage, she used marriage as the central theme and principal concern for her heroines. On the other hand, she criticized women who were overly fond of property and power and used their husbands as a conduit for this ([2], pp. 87–88).

George Eliot is the author’s pen name and her real name is Marian Evans. She used a pen name because of the discriminating attitudes of the society of the time towards the female authors ([5], p. 1334). Although Eliot experienced 30 years of a wider and more intellectual life than any English woman before her, she did not write any line in fiction or considered to becoming a novelist until 1856 as she recorded: September 1856 made a new era in my life, for it was then I began to write Fiction ([1], p. 46). The main reason behind this is that as a woman of wide intellectual powers, George Eliot was trapped in a patriarchal society and experienced the trauma of constrictions and exclusions for being a woman and as Susan Dee points out [6]:

In The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot revisits her own predicament as a restricted, poorly-educated female child in a male-dominated culture. From the outset, however, Eliot’s portrayal of the passionate, intelligent Maggie Tulliver is problematic: the heroine’s struggle to construct and defend a sense of self is overcast by a dark certainty that familial and communal life cannot accommodate this small Medusa ([7], p. 391).

As seen, The Mill on the Floss (1860) is an analysis of the restrictions imposed upon Victorian women and a critique of the limitations and inequalities that paralyze and imprison women. The novel is also considered to be the autobiography of the writer in many respects because some traces of Eliot’s childhood memories and her closeness with her brother Isaac can be found in the novel:

The novel expresses the author’s own emotional and spiritual struggles in childhood, and the first section is actually dominated by the brother and sister relationship between Maggie and Tom (Marian Evans and her brother Isaac), making up what may be called the finest childhood in English fiction, for the infantile experience and its period lay the foundation for the positive emotions of adult life ([8], p. 201).

The aim of this paper is to find out the discrepancies in the raising of male and female child in Victorian Society which allows no intellectual, social and individual space for women even from childhood onwards and eventually leading to their despair without any chance for experience of happiness in life. The paper shows that by dictating the roles on individual according to their gender and telling them what to do, Victorian Society causes grief not only to women, but also to men. To this end, the protagonist Maggie Tulliver is examined as a New Woman with references to the definition of the concept.

2. Trapped in between duties and desires: The Mill on the Floss

Maggie Tullliver, the protagonist of the novel, a disobedient young girl, who does not conform to the gender-related norms of the society is an early representative of New Woman which is a concept that came into existence with Industrial Revolution. The new business opportunities for women, search for alternatives for marriage and other social conditions had a role in the emergence of this this concept in patriarchal societies ([9], p. 324). After some reforms in politics and education, the artificial ideal of the womanly woman or angle in the house changed and in turn, the concept of the modern woman the New Woman was accepted ([10], p. 237). With the concept of New Woman which was proposed for the first time by Sarah Grand in 1894, many issues concerning marriage and family life were started to be questioned. As Barbara Caine points out in her work English Feminism 1780–1980, the concept of New Woman is a reaction against ideal Victorian Woman image and emphasizes the need for a more educated, self-confident and independent woman ([11], p. 135). In her article The New Woman and the Old, Sarah Grand puts forward the differences between Old Woman who represents traditional Victorian patriarchal values and New Woman who reacts against these traditions; calls for equality in education and demands men to be chaste just like women ([12], p. 675).

Maggie attempts to deny her sex by cutting of her hair because of preconceived notions her elders hold concerning the nature of women and their secondary status in society and is portrayed as a New Woman ([13], p. 34). Eliot represents Maggie different from traditional female characters because she is independent and has free spirit. Although Maggie desires for fully realized love and for the fulfillment of her yearnings for a wider life, the patriarchal society she lives in essentially compels her to maintain her ties with her family and with established social values. She vacillates between her desires and her anxiety about her duty towards her family because she must be prepared to give her them up completely if she chooses to minister her desires. Her yearning for love, knowledge and equality interact with the established values of the society, so she is forced to choose between individual independence and tradition ([13], pp. 35–36).

The society Maggie grows up is a patriarchal one. Her father Mr. Tulliver is a patriarch and her mother is a traditional submissive woman. Similarly, her brother Tom is a typical Victorian boy and her cousin Lucy Deane is a stereotyped ideal Victorian girl. The only exceptional female character is Maggie. Her childhood onwards, Maggie is not approved by the society due to her rebellious behaviors unlike her brother. As a typical angel in the house, Mrs. Tulliver tries to raise her daughter in line with the gender roles of the Victorian society, but Maggie resists. Similarly, Mr. Tulliver thinks that Maggie’s cleverness will cause trouble because it has no value for a woman in patriarchal society. When they grow up, the situation does not change for Maggie and Tom. While Tom gets the approval of everyone around him as an educated Victorian man, Maggie is not appreciated because she does not behave according to the norms of the society by having some complicated relationships with Philip Wakem and Stephen Guest who is Lucy’s suitor. She even becomes a fallen woman and an outsider in the eyes of the society because of having affair with men. Maggie gives Stephan up to retain her position in the society and not to have break away completely her milieu ([13], pp. 35–36).

In The Mill on the Floss, male characters are represented as free, active, combatant, agents who deal with public and influential action while female characters are portrayed as passive, submissive and obedient individuals who are mainly concerned with domestic duties and trivial activities such as organizing parties, talking about material things, or gossiping. The novel also emphasizes that the actions of the males determine the fate of the women and children. For example, Tom tries to prevent his sister Maggie from establishing friendship with Philip Wakeem, the son of their father’s enemy. He obstinately tries to shape his sister’s fate and future life by banning her from acting freely and interfering with her relationships. Similarly, Mr. Tulliver’s failure in business affair causes the downfall of the family.

The novel shows that female characters consider their passive and restricted lives as something natural. They perform their domestic duties without any objection to the restrictions imposed by the society. For instance, Bessy Tulliver only focuses on her duties as a wife and a mother and she is concerned with domestic things and remains indifferent to the public activities. This shows that the society silences women in such a way that they are conditioned to accept whatever is ordered to them without any contradiction. For instance, during her conversation with her husband’s sister Mrs. Moss on Mr. Tulliver’s legal struggle with Mr. Wakeem, Mrs. Tulliver says, I never contradict him; I only say - well, Mr. Tulliver, do as you like; but whatever you do, do not go to law ([7], p. 10). This shows that as a woman who was trained only for domestic duties, Bessy Tulliver has no suggestion to help her husband and she blindly approves whatever her husband does, which turns out to be wrong because Mr. Tulliver’s actions cause the downfall of his family. After Mr. Tulliver loses the lawsuit against Lawyer Wakeem, she does nothing but complain helplessly: We’re ruined … everything is going to be sold up … to think as your father should ha’ married me to bring me to this! We’ve got nothing … we shall be beggars …, we must go to the workhouse ([7], p. 13).

Lucy Dean, the niece of Mrs. Tulliver, is another traditional female character who is portrayed as an angel in the house, a domestic princess. From childhood onwards, she is portrayed as the opposite of Maggie. As a girl trained in accordance with the traditional Victorian values, Lucy is depicted as an ideal obedient, tame, kind, unselfish, neat, forgiving and proper traditional Victorian lady. She is considered to be the best wife a middle-class man could want, potentially a good mother with whole hearted and sincere attitudes. She is publicly considered normal and natural because she behaves in accordance with the norms of the Victorian society, while Maggie is considered abnormal and outsider because she resists and questions social norms. For these reasons, she is always compared with Maggie and praised by those who are the supporters of patriarchy especially by Mrs. Tulliver and Tom who tells Maggie I like Lucy better than you: I wish Lucy was my sister ([7], p. 107). At the end of the novel, she is rewarded with marriage with Stephan.

Tom Tulliver is the son of Mr. Tulliver. He overtakes the role of masculine power over female characters. As a patriarch, he believes that he has a right to give direction to Maggie’s life and decisions, and to make a decision for her. He does not abstain from prohibiting her actions which he believes to be wrong especially her relationship with Philip Wakem whom Maggie praises for his cleverness and interest in reading: He was very fond of his sister, and meant always to take care of her, make her his housekeeper, and punish her when she did wrong ([7], p. 50). This shows that man act as a master who has a word in the life of female relatives in the name of protecting woman because in patriarchal society, it is believed that a woman always needs to be protected by men. That is why he has a restrictive attitude towards Maggie’s friendship with Philip Wakem: Mind you never speak to Philip again ([7], p. 50). After Mr. Tulliver’s death Tom becomes more prohibitive in his instructions to Maggie about her affair with Philip because becomes the new and only master of the family:

You know what my feeling on that subject, Maggie. There is no need for my repeating anything I said a year ago. While my father was living, I felt bound to use the utmost power over you, to prevent you from disgracing him as well as yourself, and all of us. But now I must leave you to your own choice. You wish to be independent - you told me so after my father’s death. My opinion is not changed. If you think of Philip Wakem as a lover again, you must give me up ([7], p. 476).

As a patriarch, Tom admits that he used the utmost power over (Maggie) to prevent her from seeing Philip. He acts as a master towards Maggie not only in this issue, but also in other issues as well. For instance, when Maggie attempts to give him some money when his rabbits die, Tom rejects her severely: I’ve got a great deal more money than you, because I’m a boy. I always have half-sovereign for my Christmas boxes, because I shall be a man, and you only a girl ([7], p. 45).Tom’s insulting attitude is also seen in his treatment to his cousin Lucy. For instance, in a discussion about her, he says: What do I care about Lucy? She’s only a girl; she cannot play at bandy ([7], p. 57). He sees Lucy inferior to him, because she cannot do the things that a boy can do. As seen with the character Tom, Eliot criticizes Victorian Society which regards women inferior just because they are only a girl, the other sex.

Eliot uses Tom as a mirror to reflect Victorian society’s attitude and point of view towards a woman while she uses the protagonist Maggie Tullliver to represent new woman. She finds other female characters’ way of life useless and invalid because their views of life bring about submission, obedience and restraint in life and so she had been blamed all her life ([7], p. 19). She has a rebellious nature and opposing manners that reject all types of roles dictating obedience. As an unusual woman, she has no interest in the activities traditional Victorian girls do. She is opposed to the social norms of the patriarchal society, refuses to do what her mother dictates her to do such as doing patchwork: I do not want to do my patchwork ([7], p. 19) because she thinks it as foolish work ([7], p. 19). Instead, she reads; she has read, even as a little girl, Defoe, Jeremy Taylor, and Bunyan. She even attempts to deny her sex by cutting off her hair because of the preconceived notions her elders. Due to her disobedience, her mother Bessy Tulliver gets angry with her. Unlike other girls, she has no concern for beauty. She throws her bonnet off very carelessly, and coming in with her hair rough as well as out of curly ([7], p. 76). She is foregrounded not with beauty but intelligence. Her father is aware of her intelligence which he sees as something bad because of her sex. He expresses his anxiety about Maggie’s intelligence which he believes turn to trouble: She understands what one’s talking about so as never was. And you should hear her read-straight off, as if she knowed it all beforehand. And allays at her book! But it’s bad - it’s bad,” he added “a woman’s no business wi’ being so clever; it’ll turn to trouble, l doubt ([7], p. 23).

Eliot shows that an intelligent woman is not encouraged and praised even by her father; contrary, her intelligence is seen as a trouble because a woman is not expected to be intelligent in patriarchal societies. To some extent, Mr. Tulliver is right because her intelligence causes her isolation throughout the novel. She lives in a society which does not allow any freedom to woman. She tries to escape from tedious way of life other female characters live and decides to live with the gypsies. As the narrator puts it, Maggie tries to run away from the house in which she feels lonesome and accepted as rude and coarse ([7], p. 132). At the gypsy camp, when the gypsies ask her where she came from she replies: I’m come from home because I’m unhappy, and I mean to be a gipsy. I’ll live with you if you like, and I can teach you a great many things ([7], p. 133). Her response shows that she tries to find the happiness she could not find at home and seeks a kind of solace with the gypsies who represent freedom. However, she is disappointed because she does not feel herself belong to gypsies who did not seem to mind her at all, and she felt quite weak among them ([7], p. 135). She feels alienated because the gypsies are not interested in reading unlike Maggie and disappointed because what the gypsies need is not an intellectual queen, but bread and better living conditions. Thus, she returns home.

Since Maggie’s view of life is different from the view of all traditional women in the novel, she is constantly criticized by them as she complains to Tom: I think all women are crosser than men. Aunt Glegg’s a great crosser than uncle Glegg, and mother scolds me more than father does ([7], p. 179). She expresses that she does not want to be a traditional submissive woman like her mother and her aunts when she grows up. When Tom says well, you’ll be a woman someday, so you needn’t talk ([7], p. 179), she replies But I shall be a clever woman ([7], p. 179). Unlike traditional women, Maggie tries to find happiness in reading: If she could have had all Scott’s novels and all Byron’s poems, then perhaps she might have found happiness enough to dull her sensibility to her actual life ([7], p. 291).

As a clever woman, education was very important for Maggie. Eliot makes it clear that gender roles limit women strictly and prevent their independence by depriving them from the education provided to men as seen in the case of Maggie and Tom who are not provided with equal education opportunities because of their genders. From the beginning, Mr. Tulliver tries to choose the best education for Tom. His main concern is to provide his son with an appropriate education that would give him assistance in his future manly activities. He expresses his opinion to his wife Bessy: What I want is to give Tom a good education, an education as it’ll be a bread to him […] But I should like Tom to be a bit of a scholar, so as he might be up to the tricks o’ these fellows as talk fine and write with a flourish. It ‘ud be a help to me wi’ these lawsuits, and arbitrations and things ([7], p. 13).

As seen, education is a way to gain a respectful place in the society and to make a living for Mr. Tulliver. He desires good education for his son so that he would assist him in living under comfortable conditions and would help him to bring bread since man was considered to undertake the role of Mr. Tulliver in future He wants to train Tom perfectly so as to give him assistance in his future struggles with his rivals in a combative world. He wants his son to become more competent and powerful with a good training in performing his manly duties, and thus protecting his family from the dangers of the outside world. Mr. Tulliver believes that the more educated he is, the better he could perform his duties dedicated to him by the patriarchal society. As a man who has difficulty in dealing with legal issues, Mr. Tulliver wants Tom to be a bit of a scholars so as he might be up to the tricks o ‘these fellows as talk fine and write with a flourish. It ‘ud be a help to me wi’ these lawsuits, and arbitration, and things ([7], p. 13). Mr. Riley, a friend of Mr. Tulliver, approves and supports Mr. Tulliver’s ideas on education. He says that, there’s no greater advantage you can give him than a good education. Not ‘he added, with polite significance - ‘not that a man cannot be an excellent miller and farmer, and a shrewd sensible fellow into the bargain, without much help from the school master ([7], p. 22). As seen, they both believe that education is the greatest fortune a father can give to his son. On the other hand, since the society does not impose such responsibilities to her daughter Maggie, a nine-year-old girl, Mr. Tulliver has no concern for her education although she is more studious than Tom. Girls are trained only for domestic duties and housework by their mother because it is believed that since they will eventually marry, there is no need to educate them as reflected in Mr. Rilley’s ideas: Better spend extra hundred or two on your son’s education, than leave it him in your will. I know I should have tried to do so by a son of mine if I’d had one, though, God knows, I have not you ready money to play with Tulliver; and I have a house full of daughters into the bargain ([7], p. 27).

Mr. Riley advises Mr. Tulliver not to refrain from spending money for Tom’s education. Mr. Riley is out of sorts because of a household of daughters into the bargain, which he sees as a disadvantage because a household of daughters is the most unwanted and disadvantageous condition for him. The advice Mr. Rilley gives to Mr. Tulliver shows the male point of view towards women. With this attitude of Mr. Rilley, the author criticizes the society that sees daughters as a matter of bargain.

Mr. Tulliver and Mr. Rilley are not the only males who believe that education is the right of gentlemen. As a patriarch, Tom is also of the same opinion. For instance, when Maggie attempts to help Tom in Euclid, he replies I should like to see you doing one of my lesson ([7], p. 177), and he is sure that she cannot understand these courses since Girls never learn such things. They’re too silly ([7], p. 177). According to Tom, girls must keep away from manly activities such as education because they are not taught to do so. Therefore, the male characters’ idea that education is the right of men is a representation of a generalized view of men about woman in the Victorian society. Because of this view, although Mr. Tulliver is aware that his son is not as cute as Maggie, he gives much more chance to his son and frankly expresses his annoyance to Tom’s slowness in learning:

Well, he is not not to say stupid, he’s got a notion o’ things out o’ door, an ‘a sort o’ common sense… But he’s slow with his tongue, you see, and he reads but poorly, and cannot abide the books, and spells ail wrong, you never hear him cry ‘cute things like the little wench. Now, what I want is to send him to a school where they ‘II make him a bit nimble with his tongue and his pen ([7], p. 27).

With the character Tom, Eliot criticizes the society that imposes duties on sons regardless of their capacities. Although Tom has not got the right sort o’ brains for a smart fellow. I doubt he’s a bit slowish ([7], p. 17), he has to accept the duties imposed upon him by the society because he is a man. He is not even pleased with the privilege of having education and complains about the difficulties in learning. For instance, he begs his father to talk to Mr. Stelling not to give him those difficult courses, because It brings on the toothache, I think ([7], p. 176). Similarly, when he is asked what Euclid is, he is not able to give proper answers as if he were trying to prove that he was not appropriate for that sort of education: Oh, J don ‘t know: it’s definitions, and axioms, and triangles, and things. It’s a book I’ve got to learn in - there is no sense in it ([7], p. 177). He has to receive the education because it was the boy’s duty dictated on him by the society even if he does not want to do so.

Tom grows to be a dutiful person who devotes his life to pay his father’s debts and to take revenge of Mr. Wakem who causes his father’s bankruptcy. In order to take the responsibility of his family, he leaves school and enters into the world of business. Due to the responsibility the society imposes on him for being a boy, Tom struggles to present himself as a strong and mature man with the responsibility of his mother and sister. Tom, who lives according to the expectations of the society throughout his life and gives up his happiness for the sake of his duty, is not content with his life. He wants to be appreciated by his environment and is afraid to be humiliated in the eyes of the society. Thus, with the character Tom, the author criticizes the society which makes people shape their personality according to its expectations and shows that men suffer as much as women due to the society, its values and rules.

Maggie loves Tom despite his slowishness and all of his imperfections, and she is insistent in taking care of him and assisting him in his manly duties. She is determined to help her brother whenever he needs her assistance. She is determined to be with Tom when he needs an intellectual assistance. Whenever her brother’s intelligence is questioned, she defends him and says, Tom is not stupid, but he is only ‘not fond of reading’ ([7], p. 40), but Tom’s clever ([7], p. 40). The novel makes it clear that if Maggie had been treated in the same manner with Tom, she would have been probably more successful than him since she is cleverer. She [Maggie] had only been to school a year at St. Ogg’s, and had so few books that she sometimes read the dictionary ([7], p. 137). Like other women in patriarchal society, Maggie is aware of the inequality and yearning for knowledge and thought to be inferior to learn. The author points out this fact by making Maggie ask Tom’s teacher Mr. Stelling Couldn’t I do Euclid, and all Tom’s lessons, if you were to teach me instead of him? ([7], p. 137). Actually, this is the question directed to the patriarchal society. As the voice of the patriarchal society, Maggie’s question is replied by Tom who replies: No, you could not … Girls cannot do Euclid: can they, sir? ([7], p. 183). Mr. Stelling supports Tom with his comment on female intelligence by saying women have a great deal of superficial cleverness; but they could not go far into anything ([7], p. 184). As seen, deprived of education, Maggie is made to feel weak and inferior and internalize the dreadful destiny Simon De Beauvoir defines in her book titled The Second Sex as it is destiny imposed on her by her teachers and by her society ([3], p. 341). With Maggie’s situation, the author calls for a proper education for girls. As Rosemary Ashton argues, Eliot implies that the proper education of women would benefit men (who fear it) as well as women, since it would make women fitter companions for men ([7], p. 94) Maggie’s call receiving the education Tom takes sets forth her difference from traditional women who cannot think of such a demand.

Despite her intelligence, Maggie is obliged by her father’s bankruptcy¹ to leave school and stay at home with her mother and her sick ruined father. Even in the time of bankruptcy, Maggie does not hesitate to express her opinions about the wrongs of the people around her. For instance, when the Dodson sisters, who attach importance to materialistic benefits rather than kinship and the feelings of compassion, refuse to help Maggie and Tom financially after bankruptcy, Maggie rebels against her aunts’ insensitive attitudes:

Why do you come, then, she burst out, talking and interfering with us and scolding us if you do not mean to do anything to help my poor mother-your own sister- if you have no feeling for her when she’s in trouble, and will not part with anything, though you would never miss it, to save her from pain? Keep away from us then and do not come to find fault with my father ([7], p. 218).

Maggie does not remain silent against the accusations of Dodson sisters and attempts to assert herself, but the society does not approve her freedom of speech and criticizes Maggie. Tom condemns her violent acts and warns her: You ought not to have spoken as you did to my uncles and aunts; you should have leave it to me to take care of my mother and you and not put yourself forward ([7], p. 237). Once again, Maggie is overwhelmed by the gender inequality which is imposed by the society. The society makes her incapable of acting against the people who humiliate her.

As seen, Maggie is a rebellious individual who reacts against all of the rules and values imposed upon her as the woman’s natural duties does not hesitate to express her opinions freely. Her unconventional qualities differentiate her from other females in the novel. Despite her rebellious nature, Maggie is a tender woman who feels that life without love has no meaning: And if life had no love in it, what else was there for Maggie? ([7], p. 238) As she grows up, Maggie gradually tries to live in accordance with the expectations of the society by giving up all pleasures that make her happy and repressing her desire for freedom. One day, Maggie comes across with Philip. Although this encounter pleases Maggie, she refrains from continuing to see him because she thinks it is wrong to lead a life as she did in her childhood and tries to act in line with the norms of the society. Philip wants Maggie to reveal her feelings and emotions as she did in her childhood, but he cannot convince her. However, Maggie cannot stop seeing Philip, because of her desire to love and to be loved, but she loves him like a brother. She has never fallen in love with him. For Maggie, Philip is the only one who understands her feelings and nurtures her craving for learning. She loves him like a brother. She loves talking about books and music with Philip. She admires his intelligence.

Stephan, fiancée of her cousin Lucy, is another person with whom Maggie is emotionally attached to. Although Maggie tries not to fall in love with Stephen by keeping herself away from him, she does so. One day, they have a boat trip in which both of them unconsciously leave themselves to joy of life and the boat goes further and they cannot come back on time. Their short-time innocent joy is described as destructive in the Victorian period. Even if they did not have a sexual intercourse, by being with a man in a boat the whole day, Maggie has violated a social canon although it is Stephen who takes Maggie for a boat and forces her into inevitable results. Their being late was regarded as an elopement in the eyes of the society. Aware of the accusations of the society to the innocent Maggie and as a man who falls in love with Maggie, Stephan tries to convince Maggie to marry him. Despite the fact that she is also attracted to him, Maggie rejects his proposal thinking that their marriage will cause others’ unhappiness risking to be viewed as a fallen woman in the eyes of the society. When she returns to the mill, she is rejected by her brother who accuses Maggie for disgracing the family and St.Ogg community and becomes a fallen woman who eloped with her cousin’s lover intentionally in eyes of the society. Tom acts according to Victorian expectations by rejecting her sister who becomes a fallen woman in the eyes of the society. He does not empathize with Maggie because he has never allowed himself to experience the pleasure of life like Maggie did. He lived his whole life in the line with the social norms and devoted himself to his duties, which makes him blind to understand Maggie’s situation. If he had listened to Maggie without judging her, he would have understood that she sacrificed herself for the sake of happiness of others by rejecting Stephan’s proposal.

3. Conclusion

To conclude, The Mill on the Floss shows that although women try to escape from the norms of the society by rebelling against them, they cannot escape from the teaching of the society they live in completely. Despite Maggie’s rebellious nature, she sacrifices both her happiness and her life for the sake of others to live according to the expectations of the society. The novel shows that neither women nor men are happy as long as they live in a traditional way, which shows that there is something wrong with the patriarchal society. It seems as if Eliot does not want her characters to suffer more in this way. Due to the social limitations, it was impossible for both Maggie and Tom to live happily on earth, so Eliot fulfills Maggie’s desire to be hand in hand with brother forever by making them die together: The brother and sister had gone down in an embrace never to be parted, living through again in one supreme moment the days when they had clasped their little hands in love and roamed the daisies fields together ([7], p. 534). With such a tragic death of the siblings, Eliot criticizes society which suffocates people and implies that it is actually the society that kills them by dictating them how to behave. Maggie sacrifices her life to save the life of her mother and brother: She shows heroic efforts to save her brother and mother regardless of her own safety ([7], p. 532). Therefore, Maggie spent her whole life trapped in between duties and desires.