DOI: 10.9744/kata.16.1.

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Aggression or Regression: A Comparative Study of Heroines

in The Mill on the Floss and Pride and Prejudice
Pyeaam Abbasi
Assistant Professor of English Literature, English Department, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan, Hezar
Jerib St., IRAN. Zip code: 0311-8174674331.
Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

The basic formula in the English Victorian novel seems to be an individual standing against the world (of the Victorian
society). George Eliot‟s The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Jane Austen‟s Pride and Prejudice (1833) are two excellent
examples of intellectual heroines standing against social expectations. This paper, as a comparative study, shows that in the
former written by a romantic and modern novelist, the heroine drowns which signifies her self-renunciation and submission
to the expectations of the society as well as her revenge of a body being shaped by Victorian ideologies. In the latter written
by a conservative and realist writer, the heroine begins a process of education and transformation just to resolve her conflict
in marriage. The paper concludes that in such novels the intellectual woman has to either submit to survive, or is wiped out
which implies both the heroine‟s self-destruction of a Victorian body (aggression) or her drowning in the waters of ideology
(regression).

Keywords: Maggie Tulliver, Elizabeth Bennet, ideology, Victorian society, renunciation

INTRODUCTION about as a consequence of social convention” (2000,

p. 66). Anderson believes that, in Austen, “happiness
Not unrelated to the well-known Victorian ideology or suffering depends on moral action, not accident”
of the rational man‟s superiority over woman‟s (1975, p. 372), and Tomlinson states that “however
emotional inferiority, was the conflict Victorian spirited and independent by nature the heroines of
female characters of considerable mental capacity many nineteenth-century novels may be, their
faced: those with a man‟s mind and a woman‟s position in life forces them into a kind of idleness and
might; a conflict definitely felt by such female subject” (1978, p. 115). From these statements it is
novelists as Jane Austen (1775-1817) and George well understood that Austen educates her heroines
Eliot (1819-1880). Austen was self-divided: on the into social morality, experience and decorum so that
one hand she felt fascinated with feeling and they can meet the male society‟s demands and
imagination, and on the other she could not accept it expectations. Remaining silent and observant of a
as feminine. The conservative Jane Austen then male community where usually a male character
decided to resolve the conflict (of her characters) and takes the trouble of educating the heroine, seems
her own anxiety of the “desire for assertion in the “necessary for […] submission” which “reinforces
world and retreat into the security of the home— women‟s subordinate position in patriarchal culture”
speech and silence, independence and dependency” (Gilbert and Gubar, 2000, p. 154).
(Gilbert and Gubar, 2000, p. 162). Believing in the
Hegelian view that history was progressive and Despite the fact that Austen was a critique of her
towards betterment, Austen could find no better society—she had to publish her works anony-
resolution than marriage in her realist novels where mously—and a feminist writer, the criticism does not
her female characters change just to become fit for seem strong in her, and the feminism of the novels not
their expected Victorian gender roles. explicit. Criticism in Austen‟s successor is a different
story. Mary Ann (or Marian) Cross who published
Accordingly, the Austen heroine needs morality under the name of George Eliot, was a romantic
which, in Correa‟s words, “consists in her [the novelist who would defend individualism in her
heroine‟s] misfortunes and vicissitudes […] brought novels. Comparing her with the realist Austen, Eliot

54
Aggression or Regression: A Comparative Study of Heroines 55

can be named a modern novelist and a more serious mind of a man and the might of a woman which
critique of the society. George Eliot‟s words in Felix distinguishes her from other characters and many of
Holt are noteworthy: “no private life which has not her relatives. It does not seem difficult for the reader
been determined by a wider public life” (as cited in to guess a tragic outcome for the heroine in such a
Correa, 2000, p. 280). This implies that Eliot was well biased and narrow-minded community as St Ogg. St
aware of the social world of Victorian expectations of Ogg, other than being biased and narrow-minded, is a
gender roles, sexual codes and familial ties supporting materialistic society where Maggie the embodiment
the main ideologies that would leave the heroine with of “knowledge, imagination, feeling and morality”
no chance, whatsoever, to remain an individual or (Eagleton, 2005, p. 164) meets her tragic destiny.
survive at all. A more exact definition for society Maggie represents the “onward tendency of human
seems necessary before approaching the main stream things” (New, 1985, p. 195), and not being able to
of the discussion. perform her angel-in-the-house role that is expected
of her, becomes alienated from the human
Ingham provides us with the following definitions: community. It is the society that drives her to the
“as (rightfully) groups of patriarchal families” (1996, depths of water where she can experience silence.
p. 19); a “competing and conflicting linguistic
coding” (ibid.); “a necessary struggle for existence” Maggie desires to read books and, therefore, her love
(1996, p. 12) and finally “a machine and human for Philip is intellectual. However, Maggie, for whom
beings as its parts” (ibid.). Correa‟s definition is love is not different from martyrdom, turns Philip‟s
similar: “the networks of gossiping neighbors” (2000, offer down in an act of self-renunciation. Maggie‟s
p. 279) and a network can be a stifling circle. From desires are either renounced by herself or repressed by
the society‟s perspective, marriage is fortune; a the society:
“complex engagement between the marrying couple he [Philip] was raising his hat to her [Maggie];
and society—that is, it means not only “feelings” but while his father, catching the movement by a
“property” as well. In marrying, the individual side-glance, looked sharply around at them both.
marries society as well as his mate, and “property” Maggie hurried away from the window and
provides the necessary articles of this other marriage” carried her work up-stairs; for Mr. Wakem
(Ghent, 1961, p. 102). This represents the ideological sometimes came in and inspected the books, and
function of marriage in the Victorian novel however, Maggie felt that the meeting with Philip would
marriage finds totally different forms in George be robbed of all pleasure in the presence of the
Eliot‟s The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Jane two fathers. (MF, p. 241)
Austen‟s Pride and Prejudice (1813). This study is an
attempt to show how the basic nineteenth-century-
Maggie‟s conflict of cultivating a different self—
novel formula of individual versus society works in
either more aggressive to oppose male dominancy, or
the mentioned novels, and conclude that the heroine
regressive to escape the dominance of patriarchal
has to either submit to the societal expectations (if she
Victorian ideologies of the time—is shown in her
wants to survive) or die. Maggie drowns, and
Elizabeth marries Darcy—after a conventional power dual attitude towards her head. Maggie “cuts off her
play—to resolve her conflict. Maggie‟s drowning is, luxuriant dark hair as a child, hoping that her
of course, open to different layers of meaning and cleverness will shine more clearly” (Dreidre, 1994, p.
interpretation, for it is a more complex and ambi- 604). This implies that she thinks about cultivating an
guous ending than Elizabeth‟s resolution in sexual aggressive self, and wishes to challenge the dis-
appetite and a seemingly happy and prosperous cursively-made duality of male intellectualism and
marriage. female sensibility. The act of cutting her hair can also
signify her frustration with her femininity and
DISCUSSION intelligence, or her subconscious cultivation of a
regressive self that thinks about survival within the
The Mill on the Floss (1860) is known as George confines of a biased community. Accordingly, in the
Eliot‟s most autobiographical novel. The novel is a attic, where she keeps a fetish wooden doll, Maggie
sociological study of an ideological conflict between beats her doll against the wall to punish its head
the heroine‟s feelings and the society‟s expectations. which shows how much she is frustrated with her
In the beginning part of the novel, the intellectual own head/intelligence. Moreover, Maggie‟s hatred of
Maggie is introduced as the mistaken child of nature being treated as an object—a wooden doll—and
which is no surprise for the reader who sees the being identified with her wooden doll, do not seem
resistant, strong-willed Maggie of magnificent difficult to be found in the novel where Maggie
personality in a sordid society. Maggie possesses the dislikes rule and regulation.
56 Abbasi

The struggle for self-discovery, and the desire for self- reminiscent of Portia in Shakespeare‟s Julius Caesar
expression find the form of self-restraint in Maggie. who cannot show a man‟s mind and a woman‟s
Although she loves Stephen who is also a lover of might, Maggie gathers her power by deciding to
freedom and a hater of artificial convention, she make a decision, to suffer, and to end herself (by
prefers to renounce her desire, and retain her fidelity drowning).
to the male manifestation of the society—her father
and the seemingly ever-present beloved brother Tom Maggie’s Drowning
who, by treating her as an object, tries to control her.
The familial tie in the form of Maggie‟s love for Tom, Tom, who is really lesser than Maggie in intellect,
and Tom‟s affection for Maggie, win over her sexual feels that his masculinity gives him authority,
attraction to Stephen the result of which is self- superiority and dominance over Maggie which is why
sacrifice. By refusing Stephen, Maggie “had made up he frequently oppresses her. Maggie‟s brother is
her mind to suffer” (MF, p. 416), for she knows that associated with the mill crushing Maggie (associated
Tom has power and can do something in the world. with water); he consoles her, criticizes her and desires
Maggie‟s confrontation with the paralyzed Philip to make her an apt figure for the society. Maggie then
Wakem, is a kind of self-confrontation and self- can be looked at as the water that erupts, flows and
consciousness perhaps to create a different self; either finally breaks Tom the mill. The brother and sister
more aggressive or regressive. Maggie sympathizes drown while holding each other:
with Philip which is against Tom‟s wishes and creates The boat reappeared—but brother and sister had
a sense of guilt in her, and shows passionate feelings gone down in an embrace never to be parted
towards Stephen Guest. Both the guilt she feels inside […] The tomb bore the names of Tom and
and the haunting image of Tom make Maggie ignore Maggie Tulliver, and below the names it was
the intellectual sympathy existing between her and written—“In their death they were not divided.”
Philip. Maggie feels the lack of physical passion (MF, pp. 422-423)
between the two which she feels she can experience
with Stephen. However, she renounces the passion It is very likely that from the very beginning Eliot had
and decides to reach self-realization and experience Maggie‟s drowning in mind. The event is, undoub-
joy the climax of which comes in drowning. To put it tedly, an excellent manifestation of who Maggie is.
more clearly, Maggie who prefers passion and Ironically enough Maggie who comes to Tom‟s
spirituality to obligation and materialistic ethics, rescue, causes her brother‟s death. This can signify
changes the passionate feeling to a battle of sexes and Maggie‟s unconscious revenge of the discourse of
refuses to elope with Stephen implying both the familial ties as well as the superiority of the male
desire to control a male figure and the entangling members of the family. Eagleton believes that “the
power of family tie as a net from which it is judgment of society is both endorsed and rejected,
impossible to release herself. just as Tom is both embraced and wiped out” (2005,
p. 177). Maggie‟s drowning can also be interpreted as
In the power play, though Stephen and Lucy marry at her attempted suicide or Freudian death-wish when
last, Maggie even manages to put damage to she decides to wipe herself out in the depths of the sea
Stephen‟s and Lucy‟s engagement. Maggie kills what where she can be well out of reach of the Victorian
she likes; she takes revenge for losing what she likes, ideologies of men‟s superiority and female sub-
and she has to forget both Philip and Stephen as long mission. She, first, destroys Tom that represents such
as she is caught within the nets of social milieu and Victorian ideologies of male superiority and intellec-
family. Bissell defines Maggie‟s action that becomes tuality versus female inferiority and emotionality, and
“a symbolic denial of the validity of utilitarian ethics. then destroys her body—shaped by the dominant
If she had obeyed her natural desires and had married discourses of her time—to take revenge of a society
Stephen, she would not, it is true, have brought the that seeks the silence of its female figures.
greatest happiness to the greatest number of people”
(1968, p. 165). Maggie is a unique character, for The Freudian death-drive in Maggie is obvious in her
unable to break with the past, she transcends her words: “I am in love with moistness, and envy the
community with her romantic view and faith in the white ducks that are dipping their heads into the water
power of renunciation. here among the withes, unmindful of the awkward
appearance they make in the drier world above” (MF,
Frustrated with her quest for a lost joy, Maggie seems p. 8). The first-person narrator definitely remembers a
helpless with the limitations the society imposes on girl in love with moistness, watching the river: “A
her. Maggie cannot be changed to an unromantic wide plain, where the broadening Floss hurries on
figure, or a commodity, or a wooden doll. Much between its green banks to the sea, and the loving tide,
Aggression or Regression: A Comparative Study of Heroines 57

rushing to meet it, checks its passage with an all-knowing, perceptive, ironic narrator, and live in a
impetuous embrace” (MF, p. 7). Gilbert and Gubar world that is both limited and exerts limitation. It
believe that Eliot well understood that “such female seems easier to resist intrusions by the narrator in The
fascination with decline is a means of obtaining Mill on the Floss rather than the narrator of Pride and
power” (2000, p. 485). Maggie‟s fascination with Prejudice who imposes things on the reader in the
water and drowning empowers her to refuse to be name of fixed truths. The world of the novel is also
contained and commodified by St Ogg. Maggie is “rational and social” where “minds operate in certain
intellectual enough to realize that “the only expression social circumstances” (Ghent, 1961, p. 100).
for an intelligent female self is renunciation of that
self” (Dreidre, 1994, p. 607). The world of Pride and Prejudice is the world of an
important conflict, i. e., the conflict between private
Maggie finds her liberation in drowning where she and public; individual and society and, the last but not
can defy ideology and take revenge by wiping out a the least, love and property. The novel as a realist one
body she feels is becoming filled or shaped with is controlled by a central voice, and the language is so
Victorian ideologies or social expectations of renun- recycled that a resolution does not seem out of reach.
ciation. According to Dreidre ideology is “a symptom The hierarchy of discourses is kept by the central
of diseased culture and society” (1994, p. 598). Thus voice while a dominant ideology is imposed upon the
it does not seem wrong if water with its uncontrol- reader. This needs further clarification.
lable shaping force is taken as a signifier for ideology.
A less ideological look at water would see it as “the Mr. Bennet believes Elizabeth has “something more
sacrament which symbolically asserts man‟s depen- of quickness than her sisters” (PP, p. 5). Elizabeth is
dence on nature; the flood serves to remind man of as sharp, bright, witty, and imaginative as Maggie.
this” (as cited in Levine, 1994, p. 500). Water is both Elizabeth is attractive and outspoken; a complicated
beginning and end; it is both ideology and destroyer character who is a rebel against the society and its
of ideology, for it is under water that Maggie remains biased expectations. The same as Maggie, she
untouched by ideology and history. declines her lover Darcy identified with society,
patriarchy, aristocracy, and money. Elizabeth stays a
Maggie who appears as a Medusa-like figure sub- rebel, an individual respecting her own feeling more
than respecting what the society expects her to do—to
merged in the waters of feeling takes her sweet
marry a rich gentleman. According to Anderson, “the
revenge by destroying a passionate girl being shaped
possibility of Elizabeth rejecting Darcy‟s proposal is
by an impassionate society. This ending has been a
established by the end of the first volume” (1975, p.
major critical concern. For example, Stevenson
368). Ideologically speaking, it is obvious that
(1966) refers to B. J. Paris‟s “Towards a Revaluation
Elizabeth cannot stand against the society, and has to
of G. Eliot‟s The Mill on the Floss (1956) where the
either submit or perish. It is interesting that the
writer rejects ideological inconsistency of the last two heroine enters the process of beginning to like and
books. Bissell believes that Maggie‟s resolution “can then love a rich man. As a realist novel, the novel
bring no approval from the community and only a creates room for the reconciliation of money and love.
troubled peace to her own conscience” (1968, p. 165). Darcy is introduced as an aristocrat who expects
Mary Jacobus believes that The Mill on the Floss‟s Elizabeth to love and expect him. Mrs. Bennet tells
ending implies “subversion of dominant discourse, a her daughter
reaching beyond the analytic and realistic modes to „I can think of nothing else! Ten thousand a
„metaphors of unbounded desire‟” (as cited in year, and very likely more!
Dreidre, 1994, p. 605). The ambiguous drowning is, ‟Tis as good as a Lord! And a special license.
definitely, open to different layers of meaning: an You must and shall be married by a special
expression of the heroine‟s strength and an expression license. But my dearest love, tell me what dish
of the society‟s that will not let the heroine express Mr. Darcy is particularly fond of, that I may
her intelligence. have it tomorrow. (PP, p. 316)

Resolution in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice The intellectual Elizabeth finds herself in a battle with
the aristocrat Darcy and a mother ideologically
Jane Austen‟s Pride and Prejudice (1813) is a comic shaped. The Victorian society expects Elizabeth to be
novel of social manners. As Anderson believes that in want of a man who is rich. The second sentence of
“the luminosity of [the novel] resides in its central the novel is noteworthy:
love” (1975, p. 368), central to the novel is the However little known the feelings or views of
relationship between Elizabeth the heroine and Darcy. such a man may be on his first entering a
The characters of the novel are under the gaze of an neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the
58 Abbasi

minds of the surrounding families, that he is the way for the final transformation that is needed to
considered as the rightful property of some one make Elizabeth a suitable wife for Darcy. The society
or other of their daughters. (PP, p. 3) expects her to marry the well-to-do Darcy and offer a
resolution to the romantic story of the unromantic
This implies that a young man is seen and evaluated conflict of individual and society. The complexity of
as not different from property which the society takes marriage and inner conflicts is made simple by a
as a fixed piece of truth. To this ideology, the drastic change that occurs within the characters that
ideology of family tie—the Bennets, the Gardiners, see themselves ignorant of many things. The happy
Elizabeth and Darcy, Jane and Bingley, Lady resolution of marriage is not far away.
Catherine and Collins—must also be added the result
of which is the increasing interest and awareness (in No doubt Elizabeth should be the creation of the
each other). The process of Elizabeth‟s change conservative, realist Jane Austen. Her marriage
begins. resolves everything and puts everything in the proper
place, while in Eliot the heroine continues the battle to
Elizabeth must be shaped, educated, contained and either express herself or take revenge where there is
transformed. Darcy, though less witty than Elizabeth no chance of expression. Maggie‟s quest of self-
as Tom was to Maggie, is the right person to educate knowledge and realization, then, is totally different
her with the ways of the world. Elizabeth is not as from Elizabeth‟s that ends in sexual appetite and,
heroic and tragic a character as Maggie was, and the ironically enough, the self-realization of her ignorance
turn in the novel shows a female figure in a power and being far behind Darcy her only chance of
play unable to resist the shaping forces that make her survival. Again ironically, Darcy stops/holds
realize that she does love, indeed, Darcy. Elizabeth, Elizabeth while Maggie refuses to become silenced
first a hater of Darcy, finds herself in love with him as by marrying either Philip or Stephen. Neither
a desirable figure which shows how powerful Elizabeth nor Maggie can remain free from societal
property and position are. As a hater of Darcy, expectations, nor oppose them, therefore the former
Elizabeth knows herself to be superior, and remains grows in becoming a social member, and gives up to
proud and prejudiced. However, her meeting of the the social milieu to guarantee economic survival, and
societal expectations begins the process of her the latter decides to grow in autonomy. Their
maturation and development as a transformed lady destinies, though, are not different: the heroine as a
who knows that as an individual and without a rich rebellious individual does not exist anymore.
man, the chance of survival—experiencing hap-
piness—would be too slim. The following lines that CONCLUSION
show Elizabeth‟s humiliation and submission, and
how different Maggie‟s and Elizabeth‟s self- Women have always felt the burden of their intellect
realization is, are insightful: upon their weak shoulders in patriarchal societies that
She grew absolutely ashamed of herself.—Of welcome regressive, silent and marginal members.
neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, The Victorian novel shows, just too well, how the
without feeling that she had been blind, partial, society as a complex mechanism puts everything in
prejudiced, absurd. „How despicably have I the proper place. The probable end for any ideological
acted!‟ She cried.—„I, who have prided myself conflict is absolutely death/silence. Perhaps the alert
on my discernment!—I, who have valued reader is reminded of Thomas Hardy‟s Jude the
myself on my abilities! Obscure (1895) where Jude and Sue decide to seek
Who have often disdained the generous candour refuge in the societal expectations which empty Sue
of my sister, and gratified my vanity, in useless of her vitality and kill Jude for his aggression and
or blameable distrust.—How humiliating is this transgressions of Victorian discourses which shows
discovery!—Yet, how just a humiliation!—Had that every individual/subject is an individual against
I been in love, I could not have been more the world. George Eliot‟s genius lies in the
wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been magnificent end she decided on for her novel:
my folly.—pleased with the preference of one, Great God! There were floating masses in it, that
and offended by the neglect of the other, on the might dash against her boat as she passed, and
very beginning of our acquaintance, I have cause her to perish too soon. What were those
courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven masses?
reason away, where either were concerned. Till For the first time Maggie‟s heart began to beat in
this moment, I never knew myself. (PP, p. 177). an agony of dread. She sat helpless—dimly
conscious that she was being floated along—
Submission appears in the ideological form of more intensely conscious of the anticipated
accepting Victorian female ignorance which paves clash. However, the horror was transient: it
Aggression or Regression: A Comparative Study of Heroines 59

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