The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot As a Tragedy My first George Eliot novel. There has been one main reason why I haven’t read The Mill on the Floss yet. I saw most of the 1998 film adaptation starring Emily Watson some years ago. That was how I discovered this book; I had heard of Middlemarch, but not of this work until I saw the film. The plot stayed with me because I was perplexed by the ending so much I had to read literary criticism on it afterwards to understand it. There are elements of tragedy in this novel. This is a coming of age novel at its core. It depicts both Tom and Maggie Tulliver through their childhoods, adolescence and adulthood through tragedy and hardships. The novel was published in 1860, but is set in the 1820s right after the ascension of the Prince Regent to George IV as King. The storytelling, mode and feeling is traditional and rural, but also Victorian in the way the people are changing. There is an unusual narration technique. The narrator is introduced as first person, but they are omniscient and not a character in the story. They act more like a third person narrator, but once in awhile, the author uses an “I” which reminds you that this is someone recounting a story. From the beginning, Maggie is a girl that everyone except her father thinks must be kept in check. She adulates her brother, and they are close. Tom cares for her deeply and as children, they share the dream of living together happily. But oddly enough, he also thinks that when they live together, he needs to “punish her when she did wrong.” There is this cold, self-righteous aspect about Tom throughout the novel and how it contrasts to Maggie. Maggie’s insatiable need to be loved and admired is the cause and result of many conflicts in the novel. This is something that the movie couldn’t display really that way and Eliot’s psychological insight gives.Maggie’s not wrong in this, and her love seems altruistic in a way. She really wants others to be happy and not hurt. It is also destructive though because she is very passionate and sensitive.
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