Abstract

The Cult of Destructivity: Mothers and Daughters in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss (1860)

Emily G. Brownell

George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss (1860) calls attention to the potentially harmful effects of the Cult of Domesticity for women in the Victorian period. In brief, the novel spans the years 1829 to 1839, covering the bulk of Maggie Tulliver’s education while also alluding to the trials of her mother’s formative years. Given this time frame, Mrs. Tulliver’s youth could have been influenced by the positions Mary Wollstonecraft speaks out against in her Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792).

Wollstonecraft’s Rights of Women (1792) calls for a broader education of women in order to better prepare them for life after their duties as mothers and wives have been fulfilled. Rather than applying feminist theory to relationships between women and men, this paper applies Wollstonecraft’s ideals to readings of Mrs. Tulliver with regard to her daughter. By doing this, the project explores the consequences of her education and its negative effects on her relationship with Maggie. The aim of this project is to open a conversation about the system under which women have been, and continue to be, raised. It follows, from this analysis, that mothers cannot simply be kind to their daughters, largely, because they are required to raise them to be successful.