Some time ago I read a book entitled Payback: Debt and the Shadow of Wealth by Margaret Atwood. It is a discussion about the concept of debt – not just financial, but personal and moral and other such debts. Why am I talking about a book by Margaret Atwood when I’m supposed to be reviewing The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot? In this book Payback, there is chapter entitled “Debt as Plot”, which discusses how debt is often at the centre of the plot of a good fiction story. Atwood discusses different books in this chapter to illustrate her idea, books such as A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot. I found the discussion in Payback fascinating, particularly this particular chapter about the role debt had played in literature, and so I decided to read the Mill on the Floss.It didn’t disappoint. It was nice to read a classic, something I feel like I hadn’t done for a long time. The old English language was challenging, particularly at first, however I eventually acclimatised to it. The novel follows the fortunes of the Tulliver family. The father, Mr Tulliver, involves himself in legal proceedings with the evil lawyer Wakem which he eventually loses and in turn finds himself almost a bankrupt. His family fortunes take a turn for the worse. His wife is forced to sell all her household goods and their children Tom and Maggie are forced to leave their educations and start to work in their teenage years. The central character is Maggie, a young intellectual girl who struggles in a society that sees women as mere decoration and certainly not anyone with brains. Maggie falls in love, and the novel follows her love stories to a tragic end (don’t worry – I wont ruin the ending).
I really felt for Maggie, it’s always frustrating to see the plight of women in the past. Although it’s a novel, George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans) wrote her novel about the times in which she lives, and as such they are an accurate portrayal of those times from Eliot’s perspective. Maggie wants to be free but is constantly thwarted by society, and particularly her older brother Tom, who feels it is her duty to keep her check and prevent her from bringing disgrace upon her self and her family. It’s usually read as a feminist manifesto, but I liked Atwood’s discussion of debt being the idea that moves the plot along. The financial debt Mr Tulliver owes following his unsuccessful lawsuit, the debt owed to him by him sister and brother-in-law which he refuses to accept payment for out of family loyalty, the debt the Tulliver family is seen to owe to Mrs Tulliver’s family who help them (in their own selfish way) through the period of their disgrace. There’s the debt that Mr Tulliver feels Wakem owes him because of Wakem’s ill treatment of him, and which Mr Tulliver seeks repayment of in his vicious attack on the lawyer. It’s a story about morals and values I think – whether they be in relation to the position of women in society or the concept of debt.
It’s an interesting book that is worth reading if ever you are in the mood for a good old fashioned classic.
Star Rating
5.5 / 8
Really enjoyable and well written. Worth reading if you have the opportunity.
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