George Eliot's Concept of Tolerance and Forgiveness in The Mill on The Floss

Abstract

George Eliot belongs to the Victorian Era. She wrote many famous novels such as Adam Bede, Middlemarch, Romola and her classic novel The Mill on the Floss. It is believed that the humour in The Mill on the Floss is overshadowed by the tragic theme of the novel. This research work will focus on the oppressive nature of patriarchal Victorian society and the element of tolerance and forgiveness in the work. The presented work centered on the concept of tolerance and forgiveness within a specific context during the Victorian era and how George Eliot examined these concepts in The Mill on the Floss. This work illuminated light on tragedy in the novel in the concept of tolerance and forgiveness concerning it. It is contended by the researcher that there could be a powerful depiction of tolerance and forgiveness offered by the literature and cultural texts selected here. Moreover, a powerful critique of the societal restrictions of Victorian society, as well as the role imposed on the character in the novel, was presented in this work. The identities were historicized and social restrictions were situated, revealing that restrictions were the results of the social condition that that was aggravated and reinforced by Victorian society.