The Mill on the Floss · Chapter
Tom Is Expected explained
Maggie is disappointed she cannot accompany her father to fetch Tom home.
What happens
Maggie is disappointed she cannot accompany her father to fetch Tom home. In a fit of defiance, she wets her hair to avoid curls, then retreats to the attic where she vents her frustrations on a wooden doll. A sudden beam of sunshine draws her outside, where she whirls joyfully at the prospect of Tom's return. She visits the mill with Luke, discussing books and her love for Tom, but learns that Tom's rabbits have died under her neglect, causing her distress.
Themes in this chapter
Gender Roles and Limitations
Maggie is denied the adventure of fetching Tom because she is a girl, and her mother emphasizes proper appearance and behavior, highlighting the restrictive expectations placed on young women.
Family Obligation and Conflict
Maggie's love for Tom is central, but her neglect of his rabbits creates tension, foreshadowing future conflicts between sibling duty and personal forgetfulness.
Education and Self-Improvement
Maggie tries to educate Luke about books and fellow creatures, but he dismisses book-learning as irrelevant to work, contrasting her intellectual curiosity with practical labor.
Characters to notice
- Maggie Tulliver
Frustrated by not being allowed to go fetch Tom, she rebels by wetting her hair, then seeks solace in the attic and mill. She expresses deep love for Tom but is distraught upon learning his rabbits died due to her neglect.
- Mrs. Tulliver
Scolds Maggie for her naughtiness and threatens to tell her aunts, lamenting Maggie's behavior as a judgment.
- Tom Tulliver
Expected home from school; Maggie eagerly anticipates his return and worries about his anger over the dead rabbits.
- Luke
The head miller, who converses with Maggie in the mill, shares news of the dead rabbits, and invites her to his cottage.
- Yap
Maggie's terrier, who dances and barks around her as she celebrates Tom's impending return.
Key passages
“Maggie suddenly rushed from under her hands and dipped her head in a basin of water standing near, in the vindictive determination that there should be no more chance of curls that day.”
Maggie impulsively plunged her head into a basin of water to ruin any possibility of having curls, as an act of defiance.
Illustrates Maggie's rebellious nature and her resistance to feminine grooming expectations.
“Three nails driven into the head commemorated as many crises in Maggie's nine years of earthly struggle; that luxury of vengeance having been suggested to her by the picture of Jael destroying Sisera in the old Bible.”
Maggie had driven three nails into the doll's head to mark past grievances, inspired by a biblical image of Jael killing Sisera.
Shows Maggie's vivid imagination and her use of symbolic violence to cope with frustration.
“Oh dear, Luke! What! the lop-eared one, and the spotted doe that Tom spent all his money to buy?”
Maggie exclaims in horror upon learning that the specific rabbits Tom bought with his own money have died.
Highlights Maggie's guilt and fear of Tom's anger, emphasizing the importance of the rabbits to Tom.