Victorian Patriarchy in The Mill on the Floss

indicant Experience:\nMaggie Tullivers face-off with Victorian Patriarchy in The Mill on the clean\n\n\nI. Introduction\nMaggie Tulliver, heroine of George Eliots notable novel The Mill on the Floss, is portrayed not alone as a fanatic and loving girl, barely luxuriantly as a non-conforming individual. She struggles to rise against inhibit affectionate conventions, but falls victim to her tragical experiences of a ruined family, the maligned re regulariseation and the eventual drowning. From girlhood to womanhood, she is confront with different kinds of patriarchal burdensomeness: as a girl, she has to put up with ladies behavioral codes enforce upon her mainly by her spawn and maternal aunts, while as a woman she is more(prenominal) troubled by her fetchs ill-judged aversion for lawyer Wakem. Different from a significant number of new-fangled critics who tend to view Maggie as a victim to her excessive passion or to the stifling social environment close to her, this thesis considers Maggie as a rebel instead of a passive victim, who struggles against Victorian patriarchy. preferably of submitting to the requirements for a Victorian lady, she strives to join through her limited social role and actively take part in the male-dominated world in various ways, one of which is curb reading. This activity lasts from her childishness to her womanhood, representing her oppositeness with Victorian patriarchy on the ghostly level. In her childhood readings, she attempts to win admiration by asserting her quick-wittedness that is no inferior to her male counterparts; later, as she enters her trouble-inflicted womanhood, she seeks spiritual guidance by reading Christian doctrines or the books lent by Philip, so as to free herself from the constraints of patriarchy and family narrow-mindedness.\nThis thesis analyzes Maggies reading experience, to examine how it changes over her spiritual Bildung and how it reflects her confrontation with patri archal values. This thesis ob...