Previous
Similes
Key Examples in The Mill on the Floss
Book 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Tom's Education:
In an example of situational irony, Mr. Tulliver spends hundreds of pounds on Tom’s education—believing that it will help him to become financially successful—only to find that it has not prepared Tom for the workforce at all. Mr. Tulliver communicates his intentions early in the novel:
“What I want, you know,” said Mr Tulliver — “what I want is to give Tom a good eddication; an eddication as’ll be a bread to him. That was what I was thinking of when I gave notice for him to leave the ’cademy at Ladyday. I mean to put him to a downright good school at Midsummer. The two years at the ’cademy ’ud ha’ done well enough, if I’d meant to make a miller and farmer of him, for he’s had a fine sight more schoolin’ nor I ever got: all the learnin’ my father ever paid for was a bit o’ birch at one end and the alphabet at th’ other.”
Related Themes:
Book 6, Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Stephen Desiring Maggie:
Stephen falling in love with Maggie when he is pursuing marriage with Lucy is an example of situational irony. Stephen’s feelings for Maggie are ironic because Lucy, according to everyone in St. Ogg’s, is the epitome of feminine beauty (she is even referred to as the “Belle of St. Ogg’s”), with her blonde curly hair and caring, gentle demeanor.
Related Themes:
Book 7, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Maggie's Reputation:
After Maggie returns from running away with Stephen, the townspeople of St. Ogg’s judge her fiercely and essentially ostracize her, assuming her to have had an extramarital affair with him. The narrator points out the situational irony inherent in the townspeople’s judgements in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+We judge others according to results; how else? — not knowing the processes by which results are arrived at. If Miss Tulliver, after a few months of well-chosen travel, had returned as Mrs Stephen Guest — with a post-marital trousseau, and all the advantages possessed even by the most unwelcome wife of an only son, public opinion, which at St Ogg’s, as elsewhere, always knew what to think, would have judged in strict consistency with those results.
Related Themes:
