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The following narrative comment in
Chapter IV shows that George Eliot preoccupation with realism. Eliot
preferred to psychological realism to the novels in which characters were
idealistically simple or stereotypical, and motives were depicted as
straightforward. She depicted in detail the variety of forces at work within
one character, to create a sense of realness.
“Nevertheless, there was a visible improvement in Tom under
this training; perhaps because he was not a boy in the abstract, existing
solely to illustrate the evils of a mistaken education, but a boy mad of
flesh and blood, with dispositions not entirely at the mercy of
circumstances.”
In the 19th century, novelists began to weave their own life
experiences into their works to develop a new genre—autobiographical novel.
The Mill on the Floss is one of the examples. Eliot herself told that
she indulged in her past memories when she was writing this novel. In fact,
she really collected what had happened in her childhood for materials to
create this novel. In the novel, Maggie’s brother Tom was vaguely suggested
by Isaac Evans, George Eliot’s brother. The attic to which Maggie retires in
the Mill is the attic to which George Eliot had retired in her father’s
house.
Eliot expressed the tragic tone by analyzing the inner world
of characters, especially the mental conflicts of the major characters. The
author’s fine analysis of the psychological motives of characters gave a
vivid description of characters. The following quotations described Maggie’s
mental struggle after her quarrel with Tom to present Maggie’s character.
“Maggie soon thought she
had been hours in the attic, and it must be tea-time, and they were all
having their tea, and not thinking of her. Well, then, she would stay up
there and starve herself—hide herself behind the tub, and stay there all
night; and then they would all be frightened, and Tom would be sorry. Thus
Maggie thought in the pride of her heart, as she crept behind tub; but
presently she began to cry again at the idea that they did not mind her
being there. If she went down again to Tom now-- would he forgive
her?—perhaps her father would be there, and he would take her part. But,
then, she wanted Tom to forgive her because he loved her, not because his
father told him. No, she would never go down if Tom did not come to fetch
her. This resolution lasted in great intensity for five dark minutes behind
the tub; but then the need of being loved, the strongest and soon threw it.
She crept from behind her tub into the twilight of the long attic, but just
then she heard a quick footstep on the stairs.”
In The Mill on the Floss the first person narrative is
adopted, but the skill Eliot used was different from her former writers in
18th century. The narrator in the novel is the main character, but,
sometime, plays a role of the outsider, because Eliot believes that it is
necessary to comment on the characters and their actions to clear readers’
misunderstanding about themes and characters. In this sense, Eliot developed
narrative art of novels in the 19th century.
Readers can see a sharp contrast between Maggie’s noble ideal
and poetic image and the pettiness of the people around her. She criticizes
the bourgeois reality as a realist writer. The fate of tragic heroine is
caused by the society. In her novel, moral laws govern her from the
beginning of the story to the end. Eliot’s descriptions of her familiar life
and characters reflected morality. She emphasized love between relatives and
love of hometowns and stressed on responsibility, all of which improve men’s
soul. In the novel, Maggie renounces her own love and humiliates herself in
seeking the forgiveness of her narrow-minded brother. Eliot expresses the
tragic tone by analyzing the inner world of characters, especially the
mental conflicts of the major character.
George Eliot is good at description of scenery that has
symbolic meanings in her novels to reflect themes and characters. In The
Mill on the Floss, the beginning of the descriptions of scenery has the
esthetic effect of 19th century novels.
“A WIDE PLAIN, where the broadening Floss hurries on between
its green banks to the sea, and the loving ride, rushing to meet it, …Just
by the red-roofed torn the tributary Ripple flows with a lively current into
the Floss. How lovely the litter river is, with its dark, changing wavelets!
It seems to its low placid voice, as to the voice of one who is deaf and
loving”
From the description of the Floss, readers can see narrator’s
contradicted impressions on the scenery. “How lovely the little river is,
but “with it dark, changing wavelets!” Therefore, the scenery plays a role
of revealing inner world. It is worth mentioning that description of scenery
became popular in creating novels.
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