Woman's Sacrifices and The Mill on the Floss

Women are always searching for their identity in order to find themselves. When we look at to history, these searches are reflected in the characters of the book. One of these books is The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot. The protagonist is Maggie Tulliver, who does not fit the Victorian Beauty standards of that time. Maggie's search for identity, which began at an early age, was badly affected by her mother's negative criticism of her beauty, her devotion to her father, and her excessive love for her brother. This, as the reasons I mentioned, greatly influenced the decisions she would make in the future. Just like the women of that period, she had to make sacrifices that would cost her life. 

Her mother's comparisons of her daughter with her cousin, who fits the beauty standards, attract Maggie to the outcasts like herself when she gets older. She tries to love with all her heart, not to exclude the people she meets. Especially Philip, who has a physical disability. But because she can't get her brother's approval and Philip is the son of their enemies, Maggie embarks on an internally complex journey. Maggie's brother, who has been working to get back the mill where they made their money after their father's death, doesn't want Maggie to pursue these ambitions. So he forbids Maggie to meet Philip. This action of her brother emphasizes that women at that time had to determine the people they loved or wanted to love according to their family. Maggie will give up many things for her brother, including the people she loves. Maggie's brother characterizes Maggie's every action that he doesn't like as harming the family and this causes Maggie to question herself. Unable to cope with all this questioning, Maggie turns to her own inner light and finds the solution in religious books. She focuses on pleasing others and not on her own happiness. 

This was going to be a very big thing for Maggie, because it is not easy to deal with repressed emotions. Maggie, who gets to know new people as she gets older, becomes close to her cousin's fiancé. Even though she remembers her brother's words about unnecessary ambition, Maggie finds herself unable to resist the temptation to run away with Stephen. Thinking of her brother during the journey, Maggie expresses her desire to return and ends her relationship with Stephen. But it is too late for this action, which she has taken to avoid publicly embarrassing the family name and her brother. Maggie is already humiliated in the eyes of society, but all she thinks about is what her brother thinks of her. She cannot see that she is living for her brother and not for herself. After she returns, the worsening weather causes flooding, and Maggie tries to save everyone around, at the risk of her own life. She sacrifices herself for her brother, not caring what her brother thinks of her. But rising waters overturn their boat and death takes them both. Death could not separate them, just as life could not separate them.