From Unseen to Undaunted: Mrs. Tulliver’s Rise in The Mill on the Floss
Abstract
In George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, Mrs. Tulliver seems to be a two-dimensional character who favors her steady son Tom over her passionate daughter Maggie. At face value, Mrs. Tulliver is the passive object who suffers the consequences of her husband’s ego and her sister’s family pride because she makes no decisions on her own. However, in the last book of the novel, Maggie comes back home in disgrace, and Mrs. Tulliver makes the drastic decision to leave Tom and the conventional life he represents in order to align herself with Maggie. Mrs. Tulliver’s overt decision at the end of the novel seems incompatible with her passive character, but a closer reading of the novel reveals that her sense of agency is complex even though it develops covertly throughout the story.
From Unseen to Undaunted: Mrs. Tulliver’s Rise in The Mill on the Floss
Plaza Classrooms
In George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, Mrs. Tulliver seems to be a two-dimensional character who favors her steady son Tom over her passionate daughter Maggie. At face value, Mrs. Tulliver is the passive object who suffers the consequences of her husband’s ego and her sister’s family pride because she makes no decisions on her own. However, in the last book of the novel, Maggie comes back home in disgrace, and Mrs. Tulliver makes the drastic decision to leave Tom and the conventional life he represents in order to align herself with Maggie. Mrs. Tulliver’s overt decision at the end of the novel seems incompatible with her passive character, but a closer reading of the novel reveals that her sense of agency is complex even though it develops covertly throughout the story.