Autobio in Mill On The Floss
Autobio in Mill On The Floss
Autobio in Mill On The Floss
Sayeda Hassan
Mahnoor Khattak
Momna Shahid
Misbah Mehmood
Hamna Tahir
Biography:
Mary Ann Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English
Victorian novelist. She was born on November 22, 1819 and passed away on December 22nd
of 1880. She is most famous for developing psychological analysis characteristic of modern
fiction. From a young age she had been educated more than the women of her time and had a
keen intelligent personality. She spent her early years in the countryside. This is clearly
depicted in most of her novels. She had some siblings that were the basis for some of her
characters. Mill on the floss is her most autobiographical novel. it is not entirely
autobiographical as its story differs largely from her own life. Even so resemblance is observed
in some of the characters of the novel with some of her family members. The first few chapters
are rich in her own experiences. The story then develops into a different scenario.
Resemblance in Setting:
Marry Ann Evans was born in Warwickshire, England. As the novel reflects
most of autobiographical elements, the setting of novel also depicts some places she had visited
or has spent some time there. For example, most of The Mill on the Floss is set in and around
the fictional town of St. Ogg’s, St. Ogg’s and Dorlcote Mill are actually based on Eliot’s own
childhood home in Warwickshire, England. Warwickshire is a county located in the middle of
England, or the "Midlands." The Midlands were the major site for England’s Industrial
Revolution. This gives us some insight into our characters.
This book is set in past, not very remote, and covered by the memories of the
author herself, or of her family. It drew on people and places from Warwickshire although The
Mill on the Floss is set in Lincolnshire, where she had travelled to with her partner George
Lewes to find suitable rivers for her catastrophic flood, The pair hired a boat and rowed several
miles down the river Trent. Eliot was looking for somewhere with a river big enough to produce
the sort of flood with which The Mill on the Floss ends. She had been disappointed by the river
Frome at Dorchester but found what she wanted in the Trent at Gainsborough. However, the
landscape of The Mill on the Floss is not identical with Gainsborough. Dorlcote Mill is based
on Eliot’s memories of her childhood in Warwickshire and of a visit she paid to a mill near
Weymouth after she had started writing the novel.
Dorlcote Mill closely resembles Arbury Mill, where Mary Ann Evans played
as a child, and the attic where Maggie Tulliver bangs her fetish's head on the beams is the attic
of Griff House, where she spent her first twenty-two years. In The Mill on the Floss, Mudport
is a large city to which Maggie and Stephen Guest travel with the intention of marrying. Eliot
experimented with different names for the city and it is thought to be based on the real city of
Hull located in England
The novel is set around 1820’s since there are numerous historical references
such as events after the Napoleonic war but before the Reform Act of 1832.
Death by drowning:
Death by drowning has been a tragic part of Mary Ann’s life. And it has been
reflected in the closing part of her novel at a crucial stage. In her real life her grandfather
“George Evan” who was a carpenter and a builder died from drowning. And she had seen
people crying in the cruel clutches of flood in her life.
As in the novel:
"The next moment the boat was no longer to be seen on the water. Both
Brother and Sister had drowned in an embrace never to be parted"
She has presented the same scenario of flood. Maggie and her brother Tom
being swallowed by the flood represents the impact of Ann's real life experience.
Winding up the discussion we can say that Mill on the Floss is direct representation of writer's
intimate characteristics.
The Mill on the Floss is a story of a girl who is far too intelligent for the people
around her to bear. Her relations with a boy who appreciates her intellect and personality is
troublesome and brings a strain on her relationship with her own family members specifically
her brother. These elements along with some others such as setting are close to the life of
George Eliot – Mary Ann herself. She wished that her relationship with her brother Isaac could
be salvaged just like Maggie and Tom’s. this novel is a psychological novel that is deeply
rooted in her own experiences and knowledge.