Familial Connections In Helen Edmundson's The Mill On The Floss

Tom is the most important character, yet he is not a flawless figure. Tom is irritated and annoyed easily, impatient and ignorant. His anger is clearly displayed in scenes with Gwen who expresses illiterate and disrespectful comments towards Tom’s family. Tom develops to acquire his own appealing death, during the course of the play. He has been hesitant to speak about his death, as he ignores Meg’s attempt to begin a conversation on the matter: “Are you afraid? / You coming to the concert tonight?”. Gow signifies Tom’s acceptance by giving him King Lear’s lines about crawling towards death.

Maggie feels terribly unloved in her marriage with Brick. Because of her unfulfilling marriage with Brick, she seeks affection and attention with someone close to Brick. In addition, when Mae interrupts Maggie and Brick from conversing by talking about her own children and how adorable they are, Maggie says, “why did y’give dawgs names to all your kiddies... sounds like four dogs and a parrot”(29). Maggie has a grudge Mae because she has many children with Gooper. Maggie feels insecure about having children, so she mocks Mae and her offspring to reassure herself and make her self feel better. Margaret has a dreadful relationship with Brick and also with Mae and her kids.

Maggie comes from a very strained family life, living in poverty. She lives in a horrific tenement in the Bowery neighborhood of New York’s Lower East Side, with her two younger brothers, Jimmie and Tommie. Jimmie is hardened against any sympathy due to the years he spent on the streets fighting with gangs and is currently working as a truck driver. Tommie was the infant of the family who passed away at a young age. The tenement is filled with argumentative feelings amongst her parents. Mary Johnson, Maggie’s mother, is an alcoholic and very aggressive. She has been noted for torturing Maggie with hateful words over actions that she has done. Mr. Johnson, the father, was also very aggressive with his children and an alcoholic like his wife, he too passed away. Maggie had a relationship with a friend of

On the first day of school Nash (who is gay) sees a new guy on the school bus and points him out to Maggie. Nash calls “dibs” over the new guy, Tom, which in their friendship would mean that he would “get” the thing without fighting over it. But in this case even though Nash called “dibs” Maggie struggles with letting him “have” Tom to himself. Maggie lets Nash have dibs on Tom at first because she thinks Tom wouldn’t like her anyway cense she is overweight. However, she can’t stop thinking about how much she likes him and also wonders if Tom might not like

This value of hardwork is proven when she describes herself as a women who can hunt and work outside all day. She is a single mother and it is apparent that she is devoted to her family because of how hard she works to support their needs. Maggie is the youngest daughter of the narrator; she has many of the same values as her mother.

Pete is the one that really teaches Maggie a lot about the upper class. He takes her to rich musicals and Theaters where their are a bunch of acts. Maggie just can’t believe that people live like that. Pete buys Maggie nice clothes and treats Maggie like she is royalty. Maggie likes Pete a lot and even leaves home to be with him.

Torn from the only life she’s ever known, Maggie is furious and devastated by her father’s betrayal. But, when she arrives in Montana, she finds a very cute boy named Tom Rowland, the son of a park geologist, who owns the park in Yellowstone. Tom has Maggie’s heart, (in love) and Maggie is forced to choose between who she is and who she wants to be.

For Maggie, “a small ragged girl,” tears, blood, and cursing are more normal than not. Granted, the character of Maggie knew that there did

In witnessing this scene, Tom quickly realizes that his disappearance really hurt Aunt Polly. Tom later then becomes emotional at the thought that his aunt really does love him, though she is always hard on him. As a result, he comes to value his dear Aunt Polly, a woman who has served as a mother to him for all his life. Before he was about to leave, Tom “bent over and kissed the faded lips” of Aunt Polly (Twain 127). This highly emotional response that was brought out in Tom clearly shows that he quickly learned to value Aunt Polly. If he did not feel loved, Tom would have simply left the house, dejected as ever. Though he knew this action was unknown to her, Tom still does so because he has learned to truly value Aunt Polly Upon learning that his actions have the power to hurt his aunt, he comes to value his mother-like

Pete is constantly seeking the best opportunity for himself. He begins to talk to Maggie because she is one of the prettiest girls in the Bowery, and easy to win over. However, when Nellie returns and begins to show interest in Pete, he immediately leaves Maggie for the more appealing woman. This prompt dismissal of Maggie shows that Pete is apathetic and uninterested in assisting others with their plights. Pete’s selfish attitude allows him to gain exactly what he desires in any situation that may arise.

First off, the story begins with Tom’s guardian, Aunt Polly, screaming for him to return home. Batzer stated that this was metaphorically, an adult pulling

Pete is man whom Maggie perceives to be her moral equal in the slums, and a gateway to a better life. Maggie's mother upset with this telling her “Yeh’ve gone t’ d’ devil, Mag Johnson, yehs knows yehs have gone t’ d’ devil. Yer a disgrace t’ yer people” (49) an ironic statement because at that time Maggie was seen to be the angel of the tenements. Maggie's sense of purity and endearment causes her to become naive to his true personality. Maggie fell for the first set of open arms, when those open arms closed on her Maggie had no place to fall back to.

Johnson never gives Maggie the support that she needed, and neither does her brother, Jimmie. With an alcoholic mother, who can be referred to as a savage, and a violent brother; Maggie attempts to escape from the constant chaos in her home. Mrs. Johnson is constantly worried about her reputation and what her neighbors think. She doesn’t want the neighbors to think she accepts a daughter who sells her body for money. She wants to be seen as "proper" and the ideal mother.

She is spontaneous and natural, her impulsive nature is illustrated when she cuts her hair following a casual remark by her father that she should have it cut short. She immediately regrets it when her brother Tom and other members of her family ridicule her. During her childhood Maggie's numerous frustrations are vented by hammering nails into a fetish doll in the attic. Maggie is imaginative, well read and very intelligent, however she is denied the education afforded to her brother Tom who is not nearly as clever as she is. Mr Stelling her brother's tutor recognises her potential but scorns the serious education of women:

The sharp and unruly main character of The Mill on the Floss is Maggie Tulliver. She is a “‘gell gone nine,’” at the outset of the story, the daughter of the miller Mr. Tulliver, and lives with her family on the banks of the Floss (Eliot 8, 9, 12). When Mr. and Mrs. Tulliver begin discussing the issue of Tom's education in their first conversation of the story, they segue into discussion of his sister. While Mrs. Tulliver derides Maggie for being unsensible, brown-skinned, and altogether unlike her side of the family, Mr. Tulliver defends her, saying “‘she's a straight, black-eyed wench as anybody need wish to see. I don't know i' what she's behind other folks's children; and she can read almost as well as the parson,’” (Eliot 12). Maggie's parents further describe her physiognomy for the reader later in this conversation. From Mrs. Tulliver's perspective, her daughter's hair exemplifies the issue with Maggie's character. “‘But her hair won't curl all I can do with it… an' there's her cousin Lucy's got a row o' curls round her head, an' not a hair out o' place,’” Mrs. Tulliver frets (Eliot 12, 13). Maggie’s mother feels that her daughter is a comical mistake, with her “dark, heavy locks,” “air of a small Shetland pony,” and likeness to “‘a Bedlam creature,’” (Eliot 12, 13). Because of this dissatisfaction, Mrs. Tulliver is forever attempting to make her daughter more similar to herself and to “‘other folks’s’” respectable, curly-haired children. Later in the story, Maggie’s character is further established by juxtaposition to her brother Tom. Tom Tulliver differs from Maggie not only in appearance, but also in garnering motherly affection: Mrs. Tulliver continually speaks of him with great approbation and pride, greeting him as “‘my sweet lad!’”on his return from school (Eliot 30). In addition to this contrast in affection, a contrast in physical character is evident between the siblings. Tom is described as “a lad with light-brown hair, cheeks of cream and roses, full lips, indeterminate nose and eyebrows… the generic character to boyhood,” while Maggie is “moulded and colored with the most decided intention,” a “dark-eyed, demonstrative, rebellious girl,” though it is noted that these physical appearances