The Woman’s Voice In The Mill On The Floss

George Eliot (1819-1880) is widely acknowledged as one of the most importantwomen writers in Victorian Britain. One of her earlier works, The Mill on the Floss(1860), is well-acclaimed by its readers yet causes a lot of controversies among itscritics. Examining from the feminist point of view after1970’s, critics have foundtextual subversions and disruptions, which have been overlooked in the past, in thisseemingly complacent Victorian realist novel. Such subversions are resulting from theconflict between the dominant and patriarchal Symbolic and the female author. Thisthesis intends to explore such subversions and disruptions of the Symbolic—thewoman’s voice—in this novel, in terms of narrator, plot and characterization.A brief critical review is conducted in the introduction which would go throughpast feminist criticisms of this novel and put forward the possible aspects for furtherstudy. A few brief explanatory paragraphs are also given to the introduction of thefeminist theories to which this thesis applies. In the end of the introduction, thepurpose of this thesis would be revealed, namely the discovery of the woman’s voiceon the levels of narrator, plot and characterization in The Mill on the Floss.This thesis consists of three main chapters in addition to the introduction and theconclusion. The first chapter discusses ‘The Female Subversion of the PatriarchalDiscourse in Narration.’ It establishes the narrator of The Mill as male, subjecting thisnovel to be patriarchal and within the realm of the Symbolic. However, the malenarrator’s authority depletes while the female author’s increases, constituting thesubversion of the patriarchal discourse, which is an expression of the woman’s voice.The second chapter examines ‘The Dichotomy of Female and MaleBildungsromane’ in The Mill’s plot. Although The Mill contains the Bildungsromaneof Maggie and Tom, Maggie’s/female Bildung has always been repressed andsilenced by Tom’s/male Bildung. However, the later discussion of Maggie’s unusual“mimesis” of Tom’s Bildungsroman elucidates a subversion of the patriarchal constraints and such mimesis proves to be a soapbox on which the woman’s voice isarticulated.The third chapter deals with ‘The Woman’s Voice in Characterization’ in whichthe characterizations of Maggie, Dodson sisters and Philip are analyzed. Maggie’sproclivity for story-telling, Dodson sisters’ funereal allusions and Philip’sfeminization are all the channels through which the subverting woman’s voice travelsto undermine the authority of the Symbolic.In conclusion, this thesis is to discover the woman’s voice in The Mill on theFloss that subverts the Symbolic governing the novel, from the levels of narrator, plotand characterization so as to show that The Mill on the Floss is more than merely amainstream traditional realist novel that caters for the palates of the Victorian society;The Mill on the Floss also contains disruptions and insurrections of the patriarchaldiscourse that allows exuberant feminist interpretations.