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Allusion
Explanation and Analysis—The Prodigal Daughter:
In an example of both foreshadowing and allusion, near the beginning of the novel, when Maggie is visiting Luke (the head miller at the Dorlcote Mill) and his wife, she notices a painting of the prodigal son:
Maggie actually forgot that she had any special cause of sadness this morning, as she stood on a chair to look at a remarkable series of pictures representing the Prodigal Son […] “I’m very glad his father took him back again — aren’t you, Luke?” she said. “For he was very sorry, you know, and wouldn’t do wrong again.”
The painting Maggie comments on is an allusion to a story in the Bible about a young man who abandons his family and spends all of his inheritance before humbly returning home and asking for forgiveness from his father, which the father readily grants.
Maggie’s statement that she is “glad his father took him back again” is notable in that it sets Maggie up as a character who is very empathetic and in tune with her emotions and also foreshadows the fact that, after running away with Stephen, she will ask for forgiveness from her family. Unfortunately for Maggie, she does not receive this forgiveness from Tom (even as other family members do forgive her) and suffers deeply because of it.
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