The Mill on the Floss

The Mill on the Floss is George Eliot's novel following Maggie and Tom Tulliver from childhood beside their father's mill into lives troubled by financial loss and estrangement. Maggie's intellectual hunger and emotional intensity frequently clash with Tom's stern sense of duty. Her attachments to Philip Wakem and Stephen Guest complicate obligations to family and community. The river landscape binds memories of belonging to the possibility of sudden disaster. Eliot gives each conflict a history, showing how affection can coexist with resentment and how judgments made without sympathy can deepen suffering.