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The Mill On The Floss Literary Analysis

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In The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda George Eliot introduces a vast and heterogeneous group of characters. Often, in her novels, women with unconventional traits are the one who drive the action. In fact, the leading female characters are women that seem to be out of their time. These characters are often described as beautiful but not in a mainstream way. They tend to embody, at some extent, the idea of exceptional women. Therefore, they seek to be more than what society expects them to be. Moreover, main male characters are also young and good-looking, but their goals are more gendered aligned. Both male and female figures try to affirm themselves. However, while the first seek validation through their occupation, the second want to affirm their identity independently to social custom. Generally, male succeed in accomplish themselves, while for women the realistic dimension of Eliot’s style clash with their expectations. George Eliot builds her character’s social status mainly through different institutions. In The Mill on the Floss education represents a key element that defines the characters’ social role. Moreover, in Middlemarch George Eliot investigates the institution of marriage and its possible outcomes. She also identifies the various impacts and…show more content…
Maggie Tulliver, the protagonist of the story, is a young strong-willed woman. She is unconventionally beautiful and remarkably intelligent, perhaps, as her father points out she is too intelligent to be a woman. In fact, at the beginning of the novel he states: "a woman’s no business wi’ being so clever; it’ll turn to trouble, I doubt” (Eliot, The Mill on the Floss). In the narration, her character is juxtaposed both to her brother Tom and her cousin Lucy not only because of their temperament, but also for the kind of education that they receive. In fact, they get educated differently based on their gender and
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