Tulliver, as well as the old ways of slow saving, as illustrated by the Gleggs and the Pullets, as shown to be giving way to a new order of speculation capitalism.
The old ways of local provincial relations, illustrated through Mr. The novel situates itslef on the cusp of a new economic order. The Mill on the Floss mainly deals with the troubled childhood and young adulthood of Maggie Tulliver, but a variety of background details reveal the changing community of the time and so relate to the actual sociological and economic shifts in 1830s England. Ogg's society are unsparing in relation to women-the town's females are revealed as the most self-serving and shallow of the population-yet, this harsh realism does not change the basic feminist tenor of the novel.ĭo the concerns of The Mill on the Floss relate to 1830s England? The passages dealing with the hypocritical morality of St. We are significantly not shown the chapters in which she is on her own, teaching, and are made to focus, instead, on scenes with Maggie and her family and friends, in which Maggie's subjection, or non- subjection, to their will is at issue. The structure of the novel itself presents Maggie as constrained and unable to move outside of her family circle. Significantly, society's mistaken views about the shallowness of women are shown to adversely effect men as well-it is Tom who suffers just as much as Maggie, through his miseducation. Stelling pronounces the cleverness of women to be shallow, we are clearly meant to become angry at this pronunciation and know automatically that the pronunciation is wrong.
Even Tom is shown to participate in this narrowness-he considers it his right to keep Maggie in her place, as well as care for her. Especially during Maggie's childhood, we are constantly confronted with older characters ignoring or devaluing Maggie's obvious intelligence because she is a girl. The Mill on the Floss is a feminist novel in the sense that it reveals the difficulty of Maggie's coming of age, and that difficulty is shown to be made harder by her society's narrow views about women.
Is The Mill on the Floss a feminist novel?
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