The Structural Unity In The Mill On The Floss

This thesis examines the critical studies of three great modern critics of The Mill on the Floss and explores the diverse and complex ways in which their arguments contribute to prove the structural unity in the novel. K. M. Newton's Memory and The Mill on the Floss, among the three critical studies, stands out as one who explicitly upholds the views of the end of the novel forming an organic part of the whole novel. Focusing on his discussion of the psychological world of memory, this study shows how his understanding of the two important roles memory plays in the novel can help us to appreciate the novel as a single structure. As the discussion moves from his general concept of memory into its more specific contents—home and infantile union with the brother, the close tie between the ending and the preceding parts of the novel appears to be more salient. Similar approach of psychoanalysis is adopted by Sally Shuttlworth, who however, focuses on exploring George Eliot's divided allegiance to the organicist principles of unity and finds that the psychological world of the novel consists of two levels—consciousness and unconsciousness. This study traces this duality running through Eliot's presentation of the characters' inner world, especially that of Maggie and comes to a conclusion that Maggie's death in the final scene is largely determined by Eliot's ambivalent attitudes towards an unified schema in historical development. In arguing that George Eliot's close involvement with the mid-nineteenth-century British imperialism and colonialism has influenced her writing of The Mill on the Floss, Nancy Henry draws widely on the biographical material of George Eliot, examining her relationship with the emigrant sons and reading experience of colonial literature, from which two themes of the novel are explored, including the gender roles and the ambivalent view of home. This study gives particular attention to these two issues and achieves such impressions in the discussion of each issue that Maggie's death in the final episode is structurally relevant or even indispensable to the artistic design of the novel as an organic whole.Through its detailed examination of these three critics' arguments and the related textual evidence, this study challenges the commonly held belief that The Mill on the Floss, though rich in its moral implications, has artistic flaw as betrayed in George Eliot's failure in arranging a proper conclusion for the novel. The Mill on the Floss, perceived in this light, betrays the author's great genius in both handling moral questions and artistic construction.