I once read 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 honor and courage in the face of
social disapproval. Finally the fate of the
heroine is not a happy one, but as a tragic heroine, Maggie is
certainly preferable to many of the dippy blondes occupying that niche.
The plot then - the first section of the book deals with the heroine's early life - her adoration for her older
brother, her parent's pretensions and errors. Her father's foolishness leads the family into abject poverty. We see snippets of other family members and local people - not as much detail as you get in Eliot’s other popular works, such as Middlemarch, but certainly enough to provide richness and depth to the tale. These are quite sweet, almost sickly, anecdotes, but are also used to put across some shrewd points about education, and especially the education of girls who really weren't given many opportunities.
Maggie Tulliver falls in love with her cousin's betrothed, and finds that he returns her feelings. He persuades her to go off with him in a boat and attempts an elopement. For the sake of her cousin, who she loves dearly, Maggie returns, with her chastity in tact, yet her reputation already in shreds. 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. Here the parallels with Eliot's own experiences are obvious. She lived with a married man, and often found herself a social outcast because of her unmarried state.
Maggie is rejected by her brother and finds herself friendless. She has her own sense of honor 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.
Victorian fiction, likely Hollywood films today, is littered with unlikely coincidences, and Mill on the Floss does have a few, but not so many as to stretch your credulity. The plot is quite slow moving, similar to Middlemarch in that respect, but has a good deal of depth to it - character insight and social observations being more important here than pace and action. It is a thoughtful piece, deeply romantic in a way. It is a long book and at first the wordy writing style can be a bit of a struggle to contend with, however as you get used to the language, it becomes very readable and enjoyable.
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 experiences of social judgment and personal isolation have impacted on the character 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 hypocrisies, and by better understanding the past we may make sounder judgments about our own biases.
Eliot is one of the authors who laid the foundations for the historical women's fiction we get now, and her work is infinitely superior to that of most later copiers. It certainly does not preclude a male audience, however, despite being more female-oriented than much of Eliot’s work, it is still fascinating for people of both sexes.
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