| Product: |
The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot |
| Date: |
20.04.01 (796 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Insight into George Eliot as a person
Disadvantages: haRD NOT TO BE A LITTLE DISSAPOINTED BY THE ENDING.
I remember once reading a comment written by George Eliot, in which she said that she always hoped for books in which the less pretty, dark haired girl triumphed rather than the elfin blondes. The Mill on The Floss is the tale of the dark girl triumphant - for the man prefers her to her pretty blond cousin. It is also a tale of homour and courage in the face of social disapproval, and finally the fate of the heroine is not a happy one.
The plot then - the section of the book deals with the heroine's early life - her adoration for her older brother, her parent's pretentions and errors. Her father's foolishness leads the family into abject poeverty. We see snippets of other family members and local people - not as much detail as you get in Middlemarch, but certainly enough to provide richness.
Maggie Tulliver falls in love with her coursn's btrothed, and finds that he returns her feelings. He persuades her to go off with him in a boat and attempts an elopemtn. for the sake of her cousin, who she loves dearly, Maggie returns. The community in which she lives is quick to judge her - assuming that she has slept with Stephen and that he has rejected her. It is obvious that had they run off and married, it would have been excused. Conventions must be followed. hre the parallels with Eliot's own experiences are obvious.
Maggie is rejected by her brother and finds herself friendless. She has her own sens of honour in tact, but little else remains to her. When the river floods, she is able to save her brother, and briefly they are friends again before fate overtakes them.
George Eliot herself was an unconventional figure - not a beautiful woman, and one who lived with a man who she had not married - a daring enterprise in Victorian England. There are traces of Eliot's own life to be found in the Mill on the Floss - no doubt her own expereinces of socieal judgment and personal isolation have impacted on the characte
r of dark haired Maggie Tulliver.
As ever with Eliot's work, The Mill on the Floss is rich with insight into a whole society, centered around the lives of the Tulliver family. Richly described scenes and characters bring alive an England of the past, and make comprehensible attitudes that would seem very out of place in this day and age.
The modern age is not without its hypocrasises, and by better understanding the past we may make sounder judgements about our own biases.
Summary:
|
|
