The Restrained Aspirations of George Eliot’s heroine in The Mill on the Floss

The paper concentrates on the restrained aspirations of Maggie in The Mill on the Floss. Eliot troubles Maggie in order to show the limits given to the female society. She depicts how Maggie is tortured by stereotypical expectations. Maggie’s life is more cruelly restricted, her ambitions more thoroughly frustrated than her brother. The ending to the novel has a great deal of commentary, interpretation and disappointment. Eliot aims to depict realism in her novel and this forces her to end her novel in the death of Maggie and Tom. Marriage is not possible here and so death ends the novel. Eliot could have given a positive ending but cares for the Victorian society more than Maggie. Realism is important for her more than the aspirations of Maggie. She is not allowed to step out typicality eventhough Eliot enjoys that in her personal life. Eliot refuses to allow Maggie to do what she did in real life, like publishing articles, leading an independent existence and finally live with a man whom she could not marry. Early nineteenth century expects that a woman can complete her life only with marriage. In Maggie’s case, marriage is not possible and so she dies. Her novel realistically presents the life of Warwickshire where women were not allowed to think or act freely. The restrained aspirations of Eliot’s Maggie shows that her heroine is not allowed to act within limitations of nineteenth century. Maggie’s aspiration are restrained completely by Eliot to reveal herself as a writer who lies between two position that is to reveal herself as a realistic writer than a feminist writer by ending her novel ‘The Mill on the Floss’. This reveals that Eliot’s contemporary society had been dominated by forces and concepts against freedom of women and their aspirations.