Question- Critically examine the artistic and the philosophic dimensions of the ending of The Mill on the Floss in the light of the view of the individual and society presented in the novel.

Or
"In her handling of the aftermath of Maggie's crucial choice, George Eliot has disappointed many?" Discuss. Or
Do you agree with the view that the denouement of The Mill on the Floss in entirely flawed. TheViews of Critics on The Ending of the Novel.

Answer-

The ending, and the denouement of The Mill on the Floss has come in for a great deal of criticism even from competent critics. Henry James agrees that the novel's ending is defective and shocking, and says that it He might have been an afterthought on George Eliot's part. Leslie Stephen calls the end "Pathetic" but "with a strain which jars most painfully upon the general harmony." F.R. Leavis places the ending in the category of the typically Victorian "dramatic" ending. He calls it "something so like a kind of day dream indulgence." Joan Bennett indirectly criticises the ending by attributing it to the novelist's desire to bring about a kind of poetic justice- Tom at last recognises Maggie's superiority. But the ending seems a "dishonest contrivance" at the end of a serious naturalistic novel. "George Eliot has cut the knot she was unable to unravel"

In the last pages of the novel, Maggie in agony falls on her knees in prayer: "Oh god, if my life is to be long let me live to bless and comfort"-at that very moment, Maggie felt a startling sensation of sudden cold about her knees and feet, it was water flowing under her. At this climatic moment one cannot but feel that the novel comes perilously close to the ludicrous, so promptly is Maggie's prayer answered, so pat upon its cue does the river enter. It is all forced unnatural, and melodramatic. And the disquiet we feel here is mainly the result of enforced speed. This over compression may also give rise to more serious doubts; to the view for instance, that the catastrophe is really an evasion by George Eliot of the moral problems she has posed in the rest of the book, rather than a true and satisfying conclusion (W.J. Harvey). It all strikes one as a moral melodrama.

According to Robert Speaight, the death of Tom and Maggie comes upon us as something fated and waited for, but not as something inevitable. There was no reason why Maggie, having surmounted her crisis, should not have re-made her life. She could plausibly have gone off with Stephen and reaped the bitter fruit of selfishness: she could plausibly have committed suicide. In either case, we should have said that she was a creature of extremes and that her end was already in her character. As it is, we are only prepared to say that her end was already in her fate. It is an unhappy accident but it is not a necessary doom.

Floods in the End is not an Afterthought of the Novelist

However, the objection that the ending is not properly linked with the preceding part of the story, and that it comes absolutely unexpectedly, is not correct. There are several references to earlier floods, as well as to the legend that whenever the mill changes hands the river becomes angry and gets flooded. There is a long reference to the patron saint of the town, and to his boat which it is believed, can be seen on the river whenever it is in flood. Mr. Tulliver speaks of a previous flood more than once. The question whether the ending by flood was a part of George Eliot's original intention or a tardy after- thought on her part, can also be answered without hesitation. Not only did George Eliot intend to use the flood as an incident in the novel but originally intended it to play a much larger part than it does at present. We can reach this conclusion on the basis of the fact that she carefully read and noted down reports and accounts of earlier floods in newspapers.

The End has a Certain Note of Fantasy

Several critics have maintained that the pathetic ending of the story is painfully inharmonious, and that it is melodramatic. It is how, we may suppose, Maggie, would dream to end her life. The implied criticism is that George Eliot yields to the sort of fantasy which is natural only to Maggie and which, as creator, she should have been able to resist and rise above.

Certainly there is a note of fantasy or wish-fulfilment in the present ending of the story. Maggie cannot bear to take either of the two very difficult courses that are open to her. It seems that George Eliot is not prepared to adopt the course either of Maggie's marrying Stephen or of her remaining celibate all her life and, therefore, adopts the third course. Moreover, she allows Maggie to have an upper hand, morally, speaking not only in the flood scene but in the entire closing section of the novel. We may call that Maggie is fully exonerated by the letter which Stephen writes to his parents. Philip not only forgives her but expresses admiration for her moral courage. Similarly, Lucy compliments Maggie on having done what she herself would not have been able to do in Maggie's place. The only discordant note is Tom's disapprobation of Maggie's moral character, and the flood enables her to prove it to him that she deserves not just to be forgiven but admired by him We may also object to the timing of the flood-it comes too dramatically, just after Maggie has uttered a prayer that if her life is to be a long one, let her live to bless and comfort others. It is as though the flood is the ironical answer to Maggie's prayer.

The End Not Fully Developed

In the novel, Stephen isn't adequately realised. He is really never there as a force at all. It is not the fact that he is a shallow dandy, an unworthy object of Maggie's passion, that is at fault; rather it is the fact that aesthetically he simply isn't substantiated. Stephen is only a sketch, he is gestured at, not portrayed; certainly he is insufficiently elaborated to make his relationship with Maggie convincing. And the simple truth of the matter is that George Eliot had not time to portray him; given the space left at her disposal, she could no more than sketch in a few gestures. It is not the difference in the quality of Maggie's and Stephen's character, but the difference book's disharmony.

"Given this disproportion-Maggie fully and leisurely portrayed, Stephen hastily sketched in-we can see the increasing tempo of the book as indicating not the natural crescendo of the catastrophe but rather the breathless rush to finish things off within the limits of the conventional three- decker novel. This is particularly apparent in the device which George Eliot uses to reach her conclusion, a fully premediated conclusion as we learn from a letter: "To my feeling, there is more thought and profounder variety in The Mill than in Adam; but Adam is more complete, and better balanced. My love of the childhood scenes made me linger over them; so that I could not develop as fully as I wished the concluding book in which the tragedy occurs and which I had looked forward to, with much attention and premeditation from the beginning." As George Eliot herself realised there remains a gap between intention and achievement. intecai

The Moral Issues Remains Unresolved

The end of the novel leaves the moral issues raised in the course of the story unresolved. Maggie has come to a very definite decision of discarding marriage with Stephen. The novelist, however, does not show whether this choice was justified or not. Maggie's decision had been prompted by her urge of duty. Is she right ? Philip and Lucy are to suffer in any case. If Maggie had married Stephen, Lucy and Philip would have felt unhappy for a time, but they would have understood the situation. It is in any way better for them to know that they are not really loved. How is Maggie's choice going to effect them in the long run? Stephen is correct to point out that suspicion and jealousy would always be in the background if they married outside their love. None of these issues are tackled, for the flood conveniently comes and Maggie does not have to face the real consequences of her choice.

Again Maggie did not take a moral decision in fetching Tom; she acted on a level below that of moral concepts. Having raised certain moral issues, George Eliot does not fulfil the expectations of a subtle moral analysis. We are left with the thought-"What does it all come to except that human life is inexplicable?"

Conclusion

However, we can conclude that the novel's present ending is anticipated from the beginning, in many references to death by drowning, the recurrent river imagery, the superstition of the people of St. Ogg's and above all the destruction caused by the floods. Also the death of Maggie seems to be necessary because without it Stephen would not have married Lucy. After burning Stephen's letter, Maggie has nothing left to hope for, except death, and the floods provide this opportunity.

Moreover, "George Eliot's serious characters are envisaged exclusively in their moral aspect." Thus if her intelligence have pleaded her that the practical course was to make Maggie marry Stephen, her powerful moral feeling refuses to do it.

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