George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss,
Are there motifs or features of the book which suggest parallels with Greek tragedy? What is the reference in the epigraph? What is the significance of the title? What difference would it have made had the novel been titled “Sister Maggie”, as George Eliot originally intended?
“... heaven knows where that striving might lead us, if our affections ahd not a trick of twining round those old inferior things; if the loves and sanctities of our life ha dno deep immovable roots in memory. (Book II chapter 1). What is the relation of the narrator to the events he/she describes? At what points does the narrator intervene? Do you think the presence of such a narrator adds to the tale?
Can you tell the time period in which the novel was set? (see the discussion about “Duke Wellington” in Book I chapter 7 and other references to “the Catholic question” in Book I chapter 12 as well as Stephen's dismissive remark about “the tall candlesticks” Dr Kenn put on the communion table, Book VI chapter 2). How old would Eliot herself have been at the time? Can you comment on some possible autobiographical features of the novel?
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." (L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between) What are the advantages of setting the novel in a not-so-distant past?
What scenes in the novel foreshadow its ending? (e.g. book I chapter 3, other images of drowning, tension between Tom and Maggie)
What are Mr Tulliver's motivations in sending Tom to Mr Stelling's? Why is this education largely a failure?
What is the character of Mrs. Tulliver? What are her chief interests in life? What are the attitudes of both parents toward their children?
What are prominent traits of Maggie's character? How do these cause her difficulty? How are her reading tastes received?
“Every virtue has its vice”, as the saying goes. What features of protagonists' characters turn out at various point in the novel to be beneficial or destructive, depending on the context? You may take into account not only Tom and Maggie but also other characters.
In The Mill, in contrast to many other Victorian novels, the young protagonists are not orphans. On the contrary, they have both parents and an extended family. What role does the family play in their life and in the novel? What is the role of heredity in the novel?
How do all the young characters (Maggie, Tom, Philip, Lucy) meet or fail to meet societal gender roles? See e.g. Mr Stelling's comment on girls on Book II chapter 1
What is the significance of the opening passages of Book IV about flooding on the Rhone and the days of medieval romance?
How do the several characters--Mr. Tulliver, Maggie, Tom, Mrs. Tulliver, the aunts and uncles, Bob Jakin-- respond to the Tulliver's financial loss, and what does this reveal about their respective personal traits?
What role does religion play in the characters' lives? See esp. Book IV chapter 1. Why does Maggie turn to religion for guidance, and what form of religion does she espouse? What critique of her choices will Philip later make? Do you think the author agrees with him?
Why does Maggie feel “a certain dim background of relief” after Tom separates her from Philip?
What allusion is referred to in the title of Book Five? Which actions are the wheat, and which the tares?
Does Maggie seem attracted to Philip? Does she “love” him? Do you think the narrator considers this to be a promising future union?
How is the relationship between Stephen and Lucy described? Do you think the author feels it is lacking in any way?
Why are Stephen and Maggie attracted to each other? Do we know if they are compatible? How is their attraction represented? What are some of the circumstances which draw them together? Many critics lamented Maggie's apparent lack of taste in falling in love with Stephen Guest, “a mere hair-dresser's block”, as Leslie Stephen called him.Do you agree or disagree?
In what way Maggie's feelings for Stephen differ from the ones she has for Philip?
What are some features of Stephen's courtship? On what grounds does Maggie reject his pleas? What do you think of her claim that they owe to Lucy and Philip a denial of their feelings for each other? Of his claim that she owes a duty to herself and to him?
What symbolism inheres in Stephen and Maggie's riverboat journey? Why do they both feel their absence will cause consternation at home? What does the narrator seem to feel were Maggie's options? Might there have been others?
What motives prompt Maggie to return home at the book's end, and what emotions does she continue to feel toward Stephen? Do you think her actions/emotions are consistent? Repressive and self-destructive?
Granted the assumptions of the narrator about the inviolability of original ties, can you think of any way in which Maggie might have achieved a resolution of her many inner conflicts on the threshold of maturation?
What events occur after the siblings' deaths? Do these affect our views of any of the participants?
Does the narrator/author wish the reader to believe that a great moral “rescue” has enabled Maggie to be reunited with her childhood companion? Or might other feelings prompt the book's violent ending?
The novel was published after George Eliot had been outed as a woman. Why might she want to stick to her fake male persona as a writer? You may take into account what a contemporary reviewer wrote about The Mill: “... we cannot think that the conflict of sensation and principle raised in a man's mind by gazing at a woman's arm is a theme that a female novelist can touch on without leaving behind a feeling of hesitation, if not repulsion, in the reader.”
To what extent is George Eliot a humorist? a satirist? Can you see ways in which she is also a moralist?