Meanwhile, Maggie comes for a visit before she heads off to boarding school. Tom convinces this new tutor to loan him a sword that he hides in his bedroom. Philip and Tom build a tentative friendship that is thwarted when Tom teases him by inviting Philip to learn swordplay with a new tutor. Stelling he is a year older than Tom but much farther ahead in his studies. Philip is intelligent and works well with Mr. Tulliver regarding a new neighbor’s legal rights over irrigation systems in the area. Philip Wakem, the hunchbacked son of a prominent lawyer in Tom’s hometown, joins him for school amid a lawsuit between Mr. Stelling, the clergyman, believes that Tom is stupid and obstinate, but Tom doesn’t learn well with Mr.

Tulliver has a dispute with his wife’s sister, Mrs. Maggie adores her brother Tom and is only upset over her mischief if it bothers him. Maggie is younger and wilder she is known for causing trouble and acting unladylike. Tulliver sends Tom, who is thirteen years old, to a better school run by a clergyman, hoping that Tom will find his own lucrative line of business instead of inheriting the mill. Their father owns a mill, and they live close by their mother’s sisters’ families. Tom and Maggie Tulliver grow up in an idyllic British seaport town called St. Except in direct quotes, the guide uses the more accurate, appropriate term. This guide uses the edition published by Alma Books in 2019.Ĭontent Warning: The source text uses the outdated and offensive term “gypsy” for Romani people. Told through an unnamed narrator’s point-of-view, Eliot includes detailed imagery of the English countryside and infuses her text with psychological realism and deep inner reflection. The Mill on the Floss tells the story of a family repressed by social norms, featuring a protagonist who suffers at the hands of society’s constant judgements.

The mill on the floss by george eliot