We can say the book-mill on the
floss is an autobiographical novel of Gearge Eliot. She identifies herself with the
character of Maggie Tulliver, the main character of the novel. The mill on the
floss narrates the story of Maggie Tulliver, how she is crushed by an unfavourable social environment. She is wild as a child, untidy and unkept, but she soon grows up to be a beautiful young woman who everyone adores. Her emotional side and her love for all things, mainly her brother,is the main reason for her downfall in the end. Her death comesas a shock toeveryone and she is mournedby her two young lovers-Stephen guest andPhilip wakem.
George Eliot's forte was characterisation and not
plot-construction. even though her plots are better constructed than those of most other vitorian novelists. In her novels minor characters do not swell to gigantic proportions, dwarfing the principal characters, and her most memorable scenes are always the turning points in action.
In the mill on the floss, the characters do not produce humour through witty or amusing remarks, but all the same cause laughter in others.George Eliot's comic characters talk with utmost seriousness about hoysehold linen, furniture etc.
Itis altogethera remarkable piece ofwork by George Eliot. There are a lot of minor characters in the play like the four dodson sisters, their husbands, bob jakin, lucy ect. Yet the main plot holding them all together is Maggie and to a large extent her brother Tom Tulliver. We see the two of them grow up from little children to adults.