He also has a very hard time with the new subjects he is being taught because he has had no previous exposure to them.
Stelling’s charge, Tom cannot fight physically for his place in the world. All of his previous experiences seem to be of no use to him in this new environment. Stelling, a clergyman/tutor, to be taught in the ways of Latin, arithmetic and history that Tom is most lost in terms of gender roles.
It is at the point in Tom’s life when he goes to live with Mr. Tulliver expects Tom to go to school and receive an education and be “a bit nimble with his tongue and his pen, and a smart chap” (p.23). Tulliver, Tom’s father, has different plans for his boy, though. The reader has every reason to suspect that Tom will enjoy a life laden with adventures and few responsibilities until it is his time to take over the family business and become a man. He does not seem to worry much about his future and quite enjoys the fact that his younger sister Maggie looks up to him as a friend and “protector”. Tom clearly enjoys traditionally manly activities such as fishing, riding big horses and thinking about owning a gun one day. Tom Tulliver, a central character in the novel, is first introduced to the reader as a lively and adventurous thirteen year old boy. The characters of Tom, Phillip, Lucy and Maggie all demonstrate how Evans defines gender roles throughout the novel. The gender roles of the Victorian period are clearly seen in The Mill on the Floss and mostly followed however, sometimes the roles are reversed or contrary to what the reader would expect.
She may have written The Mill on the Floss as a subtle outcry against society’s expectations (or lack thereof) of men and especially of women. Evans received criticism during her lifetime for not following the expected gender roles of the time period. In keeping the Victorian mindset, the novel encompasses many stereotypes of gender roles for its main characters. Mary Ann Evans, born in Warwickshire, England, wrote the novel The Mill on the Floss during the Victorian era of 1859 under the pseudonym George Eliot.
0 kommentar(er)
