“The Mill on the Floss “
This book is more than a revelation of manners and conventions. It is the happy union of knowledge with sympathy, of understanding with determination to reveal some of the real differences between people.
Dorleote Mill stood on the banks of the River Floss near the village of St.Oggis. Owned by the ambitious Mr. Tulliver, it provided a good living for him and his family, but he dreamed of the
day when his son Tom would climb to a higher station in life.
Mrs. Tulliver’s sister, who had married well, criticized Mr.Tulliver’s unseemly ambition and openly predicted the day when his air castles would bring himself and his family to ruin.
Aunt Glegg, richest of the sisters, held a note on his property, and when he quarreled with her over his plans for Tom’s education. Mr. Tulliver determined to borrow the
money and repay her.
Tom and Maggie
Tom’s troubles began when his
father sent him to study at Mr. Stelling’s school. Having little interest in spelling, grammar, or Latin, Tom found himself wishing he was back at the mill, where he might dream of someday riding a horse like his father’s and giving orders to people around – him
Mr. Stelling was convinced that Tom was not only obstainate but also stupid. Returning home for the Christians holidays, Tom learned that Philip Wakem, son of a lawyer who was his father’s enemy, would also enter Mr. Stelling’s school.Philip Wakem was a cripple, and so Tom was not able to beat him up as he should have liked to at first. Philip could draw and he knew Latin and Greek. After they overcame their intial reserve, the two boys became useful to one another, Philip admired Tom’s arrogance and self-possession and Tom needed Philip’s knowledge to help him in his studies. But their fathers’ quarrel kept a breach between them
Maggie likes Philip
When Maggie came to visit Tom, she met Philip, and the two became close friends. Then, after Maggie had been sent away to school with her cousin Lucy, Mr. Tulliver became involved in a lawsuit. Because Mr.Wakem defended the opposition, Mr. Tulliver said his children should have as little as possible to do with Philip.
Tulliver’s disaster
Mr. Tulliver lost his suit and stood to lose all his property as well. In order to pay off Aunt Glegg he had borrowed money on his household furnishings. Now he hoped Aunt Pullet would lend him the money to pay the debt against which his household goods stood forfeit,. He could no longer afford to keep Maggie and Tom in school. Then Mr. Tulliver learned that Mr.Wakem had bought up his debts and the discovery brought on a stroke. Tom made Maggie promise never to speak to Philip Wakem again.Mrs. Tulliver wept because her household things were to be put up at auction. In the ruin which followed. Tom and Maggie rejected the scornful offers of help from their aunts.
Tom takes up a job
Mr.Wakem bought the mill but permitted Mr. Tulliver to act as its manager for wages. It was Wakem’s plan eventually to turn the mill over to his son. Tulliver, not knowing what else to do, stayed on as an employee of his enemy, but he asked Tom to sign a statement in the Bible that he would wish the Wakems evil as long as he lived. Against Maggie’s entreaties. Tom signed. He got some money, which he invested with Bob Jakin. Slowly Tom began to accumulate funds to pay off his father’s debts.
Meanwhile Maggie and Philip had been meeting secretly in the glades near the mill. One day he asked Maggie if she loved him. She put him off Later , at a family gathering, she betrayed her feeling for Philip in a manner which aroused Tom;s suspicions. He made her swear on the Bible not to have anything more to do with Philip, and then he sought out Philip and ordered him to stay away from his sister.
Repayment of debts and death of Tulliver
One day Stephen took Maggie boating and tried to convince her to run away with him and be married. But she refused . Then the tide carried them beyond the reach of the shore and they were forced to spend the night in the boat.
Maggie’s resolution and Tom’s rigid posture
Maggie denied the wrath and judgement of her relatives when she returned and attempted to explain to Lucy and the others what had happened. They refused to listen to her. Tom turned her away from the mill house, with the word that he again. Mrs. Tulliver resolved to go with Maggie, and Bob Jakin took them in.
Maggie slowly began to realize what ostracism meant, for one by one people deserted her. Only Aunt Glegg and Lucy offered any sympathy. Stephen wrote to her in agony of spirit, as did Philip but Maggie wanted to be by herself. She wondered if there could be love for her without pain for others.
The flood ends it all
That autuimn a terrible flood ravaged St Oggis Knowing that Tom was at the mill. Maggie attempted to reacn him in a boat. The two were reunited and Tom tok over the rowing of the boat. But the full force of the flood over whelmed them and they drowned together at the end as they had been when they were children.
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