He is aligned with the narrow, self-serving ethic of the rising entrepreneur: Tom explains to Mr. Tom has not the capability of sympathizing with Maggie. The opposite of this sympathy within the novel finds the form of variations of egoism. Ogg scene during the flood, is vindicated on the grounds of her deep sympathy with others. Ogg rewards the ferryman's unquestioning sympathy with another, and Maggie, in her final recreation of the St. The Mill on the Floss is not a religious novel, but it is highly concerned with a morality that should function among all people and should aspire to a compassionate connection with others through sympathy. Kenn, a sort of moral yardstick within the novel, complains of this neglect of the past of which Stephen is a part and Maggie has worked against: 'At present everything seems tending toward the relaxation of ties-toward the substitution of wayward choice for the adherence to obligation which has its roots in the past.' Thus, without a recognition of the past with which to form one's character, one is left only to the whims of the moment and subject to emotional extremes and eventual loneliness. Stephen is held up as an example of the dangers of neglecting the past. Book First clearly demonstrates the painfulness of life without a past-the depths of Maggie's childhood emotions are nearly unbearable to her because she has no past of conquered troubles to look back upon with which to put her present situation in perspective. Here, the past is not something to be escaped nor is it something that will rise again to threaten, but it is instead an inherent part of Maggie's (and her father's) character, making fidelity to it a necessity. Maggie holds the memory of her childhood sacred and her connection to that time comes to affects her future behavior.

The first, carefully sketched out book about Maggie and Tom's childhood becomes the past of the rest of the novel. In the novel, the past holds a cumulative presence and has a determining effect upon characters who are open to its influence. Similarly, Maggie and Tom are the hereditary products of two competing family lines-the Tullivers and the Dodsons-that have long histories and tendencies. Ogg's bears its hundreds of years of history within it.

The Claim of the Past Upon Present Identityīoth characters and places in The Mill on the Floss are presented as the current products of multi-generational gestation.

The mill on the floss sparknotes