The Theme Of Growth In The Mill On The Floss

This thesis attempts to analyze the theme of growth in George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss in terms of Bildungsroman. The study mainly focuses on the heroine's spiritual and emotional growth, revealing how she steps out of the predicaments and then achieves the perfection in her growth. Through the study of the growth theme represented in the novel, this thesis is expected to make a contribution to researches on George Eliot and The Mill on the Floss.This thesis mainly consists of an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. The introduction includes the literature review on The Mill on the Floss, the significance of this thesis and the outline of this thesis.Chapter One describes The Mill on the Floss as a Bildungsroman and elaborates the notion of Bildungsroman and the evolution of it to build a systematic framework for the whole thesis. Then it analyses in detail Eliot's growth experience represented in the novel as most of novels with growth theme contain more or less autobiographical elements. The coming part traces Maggie's growth process in general from the perspective of spirit and emotion so as to highlight the growth theme in The Mill on the Floss. This chapter mainly reveals the fact that the growth theme in the novel is well reflected in Maggie's growth process.Chapter Two illustrates the development in Maggie's spiritual growth in detail. Maggie has a great desire for spiritual growth. But on the journey of her spiritual growth, Maggie encounters lots of difficulties. The second part analyzes her conflicts with outer world and her agonizing sufferings. The last part of this chapter makes a detailed description of the perfection in Maggie's spiritual growth.In Chapter Three, Maggie's process of growth is discussed mainly from the emotional aspect. This section first introduces the companions, Philip and Stephen, and their influence upon Maggie in her emotional growth, and then it explores her emotional conflicts with people involved. The last part of this chapter deals with the perfection in Maggie's emotional world after renouncing her self-centeredness. The conclusion is drawn that in Maggie's growth, she grows from an adolescent of being self-centered into a woman of altruism and achieves the perfection in her spiritual and emotional growth.In conclusion, through the above analysis, this thesis points out that the heroine's growing process belongs to a certain period in history. The study of her growth experience in spirit and emotion is an access to our understanding of the female situation of that time, thus it obtains its realistic as well as social significance.