A novel by GEORGE ELIOT #literature#criticalanalysis

1. PICTURE OF CHILD LIFE
GROUP : DOMINATORS
THE MILL ON THE FLOSS

2. • Psychology and child psychology
. Psychology is the study of mind and behaviour but in child psychology we study Behaviour of
kids while Are growing up
. George Elliot uses the child psychology in his work .
. She was the great female writer of all time .
. She was the incredible ,,intelligent woman, and this cleverness is seen in her writing style .
She explains everything going in the mind of characters and his/her psychology is depicted
to the readers without any effort According to the some critics her portrayal of the
psychological element in characters gives life to her lifeless characters and creates the
uniqueness and beauty in her work .
THE MILL ON THE FLOSS ( PICTURE OF CHILD LIFE)

3. CHARACTER OF MAGGIE:
Maggie’s character is filled with glimpses of child psy
chology. If someone understands her
character he/she can understand the child psycholo
gy in a better way.
The way the kids behave
when they are isolated or when the kids are deprive
d of love how do they act? This all is
present in the character of Maggie

4. EFFECT OF BOOK READING ON MAGGIE:
Maggie is someone who is ignored by her parents and her brother mostly eve
n though she is
an outrageously clever girl. This cleverness also harms the child if the child is n
ot given proper
care and attention. She even at the small age does things which the adults eve
n would not do.
She reads a lot. The reason of her reading more is that she is intelligent and als
o she lives alone
most of the time and is deprived of affection so she tries to find love and affecti
on in books. She
reads every book on which she can lay her hands. Some of them are not even
suitable for kids because of their violent themes.
• What book is it the wench has got hold on? He burst out at last.‘ “The Histor
y of the Devil” , by Daniel Defoe; not quite the right book for a little girl, ‘ said
Mr
Riley’ ..she was only nine years old when sh
e was reading these books. Reading books is a good thing
but reading wrong books can have an adverse effect on you
and that’s what happened with
Maggie. When she got angry on something she used to strike nails in the he
ad of a doll to calm her anger. She had learned this method from Bible
• “….that luxury of vengeance having been suggested to her by the picture of
Jael destroying sisera in the old bible.”

5. UNCONTROLLABLE ANGER IN MAGGIE
”.
Maggie’s anger was uncontrollable. This kind of behavior
is common in the kids who areisolated from their parents
and are denied of love and care from those who are clos
e to them.Kids are always in search of love. Even when t
hey are born they cry and only stop weepingwhen they a
re fed and soothed when picked up. So, little acts of love
are a big thing for kids.Unfortunately, nobody realized tha
t what Maggie needed. And, Ignored her all needs andsig
nals by which she showed she needs love and care. One
of the examples of her out of controlanger can be seen i
n
Chapter: Tom is Expectedwhen Mr Tulliver refuses to tak
e Maggie withhim when he is going to bring back Tom. M
aggie does an act Which could injure her just because of
the anger .
Maggie suddenly rushed from under her hands and dipp
ed her head in a basin of waterstanding near,_in the vind

6. MAGGIE AS A INNOCENT CHILD
• Maggie as an Innocent Child
• Maggie was as innocent as possible. Even though she was cunning, she was so
meone who hadno experience of world. All of her knowledge of world was from
books. She was intelligent soshe dreamed like those who are witty. She had a di
fferent and innocent perception of life. Forher, whatever was in the books was tr
ue. She lived in the imaginary world of her on. She usedto like gypsies. She like
d them because she thought that they respect people with knowledge.She was
so innocent that she thought that she could be the Queen of Gypsies. And shefa
ntasized that if she ran away and lived with them she would be of great importan
ce to themand maybe she could be their Queen.
• “No,” said Maggie, “I’m only thinking that if she isn’t a very good queen yo
u might be gladwhen she died, and you could choose another. If I was a qu
een, I’d be a very good queen, andkind to everybody.”
• This here shows that how innocent she was.Also, she thought that Gypsies had
good foods to eat but was disappointed when she was given Food which she barely
eat .

7. CHARACTER OF TOM
• Character of Tom is totally the opposite of Maggie’s Character. If Maggie is someone who is
• neglected then Tom is the one who has all of the attentions on him. If Maggie is someone whocraves for love then Tom is someone
who does not need more love. Tom loves chasing animalsand even likes disturbing them on the other hand Maggie is someone who
has a soft heart foranimals and cannot see any disturbance caused to them. Tom and Maggie are both differentcharacters. Tom just
has all the love that he needs and Maggie is deprived of all the love.
• Confident Character
• Tom is someone who is loved by all. His sister and parents love him dearly. So he is someonewho is confident because of all the su
pport that he gets from the family. Also, he is a boy andboys were given more importance than the females of that time. These all thi
ngs boost up hischaracter and make him a more strong character. He is always assured that what he does isright.
• Authoritative Character
• Tom has an imposing psychology. He tries to get what he wants. He is also not someone whoforgives someone easily. He tries to pu
t his authority into action. He has a dominantpersonality. When he arrives home he gets angry with Maggie when he hears that his
Rabbitshave died because Maggie could not take care of them. He does whatever he can to punish herand also he says that he will
get Harry fired.
• “I’ll pitch into Harry—I’ll have him turned away.”
• This shows the authority that he possesses. He is confident enough that his one complain canget anyone in trouble

8. MAN OF RULE
• Tom’s psychology is of a man who is really honest and does things by rule. He
• nevercompromises on rules. If at some place he loses fair and square he accepts it and if he getscheated t
hen there is no one who fights for his rights as he do. This can be seen in “Chapter Six:The Aunts and U
ncles are coming”
• In that chapter there is a scene where he asks Maggie to close her eyes and choose the piece ofcake whi
ch she wants to eat (One is a large piece the other is a small one). Maggie chooses thelarge one with her
eyes shut. Tom gives her the big piece even though he is angry but admits That she won it fair and square.
• “But I wanted you to have ityou know I did,” said Maggie in an injured tone.“Yes, but I wasn’t going to do w
hat wasn’t fair, like Spouncer” .
•

9. GEORGE ELLIOTT AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL NOVELIST
• Psychological Novel: Its Nature
• George Eliot is a Victorian novelist, but in many ways she is the first of the great modern
novelists. She is a modern in her high conception of her art, in her view of the novel as a serious
art form and in her interest in the human psyche.
•
A psychological novelist analyses the motives, pulses and mental processes which move his
characters to act in a particular way. He depicts the inner struggles of his characters and thus
lays bare their souls before his reader. Thus in psychological novels there is much soul-
dissection, as in the dramatic monologues of Browning, and the novel acquires a hard
intellectual tone. Samuel Richardson, George Eliot, and George Meredith are some of the
pioneers to be mentioned in this connection.

10. MAGGIE AS A TRAGIC HEROINE
• As a child, Maggie embodies Too Much little girlhood par excellence: she is rash and petulant
and prone to bouts of violent sobbing. She is no less passionate as a young woman, but her
loyalties to kin and friends—as well as her own moral convictions—run deep. Yet Victorian
society, like contemporary society, readily finds blame in a heterodox woman. Early in
adulthood, despite her strenuous efforts to withstand temptation, Maggie becomes entangled in
a sex scandal. Although innocent, circumstances effect the appearance of guilt, and poor optics
are sufficient to catalyze the town’s gossip mill.

11. GENDER DIFFERENCE IN VICTORIAN SOCIETY
• Victorian gender ideology was premised on the “doctrine of separate spheres.” This stated that
men and women were different and meant for different things. Men were physically strong,
while women were weak. Men belonged in the public sphere, while women belonged in the
private sphere. Men were meant to participate in politics and in paid work, while women were
meant to run households and raise families.

12. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TOM AND MAGGIE
• Tom is always the person Maggie will go to for the hope of safety and comfort, no matter how bad things have
gotten between them. While the relationship between the two siblings is very back and forth, it is ultimately rooted
in a mutual love. They know they have each other, no matter how badly one hurts the other.

13. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TOM AND MAGGIE
TOM TULLIVER
• Tom is painted as the pride and joy of the
family: the fairly intelligent son who will go
off to have more schooling than his father
and the sweet boy who takes after his
mother’s side.
MAGGIE TULLIVER
• Maggie is shown to be the lovable proverbial
thorn in her parent’s side: she talks back and
disregards her mother, is too clever for a girl
her age (proclaimed and prided by her
father), and incredibly emotional and
temperamental.

14. CONCLUSION:
• Conclusion
• George Eliot has done a remarkable work in depicting the psychology of child in Mill on the
• Floss. She has given minute details of a kid’s mind who is suffering from isolation. Maggie’s
• character is the perfect example of someone who is deprived of love. Her character iscontraste
d by the character of Tom who lives in the same house but is everything which Maggieis not ev
en though he is less intelligent than Maggie. How clever wit becomes a trouble for a kidis also d
epicted in the best possible way. We can say that George Eliot was a genius and thework that s
he has done is remarkable. No one could portray child psychology better than Eliotherself. She
will be remembered by her this remarkable work.

15. THANK YOU 😊 ... ANY QUESTIONS??
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