The Mill on the Floss

Tom Tulliver is Maggie’s older brother. As a son, he is brought up differently from his sister. While not as intellectually gifted as Maggie, he is nevertheless granted better educational opportunities by their father, who hopes that Tom will be able to pursue a career and achieve social mobility. However, Mr. Tulliver’s plan is in direct violation of Tom’s own desires, as Tom loves the traditional rural life and wishes to follow in his father’s footsteps by running the mill. When Mr. Tulliver loses all his wealth and becomes ill, Tom is immediately forced to step into the role of family patriarch, working long and hard to support his family and pay off the family’s debts. Tom’s life, like Maggie’s, is therefore shaped by gender expectations—regardless of what his own personal preferences might be, he is often pressured into setting aside his own wants in order to fulfill his duties as a man and as a son.

Tom is guarded, suspicious of others, and easily judgmental. Unlike Maggie, there is a streak of cruelty in his character: His resentment of Philip, both as a child and as a grown man, is rooted in both his jealousy of Philip’s intellect and, later, his hatred towards Philip’s father over the lost lawsuit. His determination to keep Maggie and Philip apart speaks to his selfishness and inflexibility, which only seeks to further weaken the once-close bond between the siblings. When he sides with the town gossips over Maggie after the boating incident with Stephen, the extent to which Tom has lost sight of Maggie’s importance as both his sister and as a human being is readily apparent—he, unlike Maggie, has entirely lost his ability to empathize with others and respond humanely to suffering. His death in Maggie’s arms at the novel’s end enables the siblings to reunite both physically and emotionally, but there is a lingering sense that Tom’s treatment of Maggie has actively facilitated the tragic end of both.

Philip Wakem is Maggie’s love interest in the novel. His father and Maggie’s father are rivals who carry on their grudges towards one another through the years, which in turn affects their children.

Philip represents a very different sort of man from Tom Tulliver. Philip has a hunchback, a physical deformity that makes people in his society treat him like a fragile object. He is raised to believe that he should not be active, have a job, or marry, creating a situation in which his life is severely limited. These limitations—as well as the patronizing attitude of others towards him—makes his situation closer to that of a woman like Maggie than to that of a typical Victorian man. Instead, Philip lives in Maggie’s world of literature, art, and music. This connects him to Maggie on a deep level. Their intellectual connection is also that of two outsiders acknowledging one another’s worth.

Philip is Maggie’s staunchest supporter and could provide her with a good life if she married him. However, he too faces pressures both social and familial that often thwart his own plans. In spite of his love for Maggie, he feels compelled to seek the permission of both his father and Tom before they can unite, revealing that he, too, is dependent upon his father’s wealth and support in order to survive. His perpetual singlehood and isolation at the novel’s end render him a tragic figure, whose chance at happiness—like Maggie’s—has been swept away by forces beyond his control.  

Mr. Tulliver is Maggie and Tom’s father. He is an important character in the novel because he is the foundation of the Tulliver household and the reason for the major plot twist. Mr. Tulliver is proud of his family name and the inheritance of the mill. He also has an intense desire for social mobility: His adult fortune is significantly more than the socio-economic status with which he grew up, and he dreams of Tom becoming educated and even more successful.

Unfortunately, Mr. Tulliver makes a series of mistakes that inadvertently robs his family of their financial security and regresses his socio-economic status. Mr. Tulliver fails because of his pride, ignoring the opinions and warnings of his wife and in-laws in his pursuit of an ill-fated lawsuit. When faced with financial ruin, Mr. Tulliver responds with resentment and a deep hatred for the Wakem family instead of taking responsibility for his losses—it is significant that he dies after attacking Mr. Wakem right when Tom has finally cleared the family debts. Mr. Tulliver’s character arc embodies the theme of the unpredictability of life, while also illustrating the corrosive effects of choosing anger and vengeance over humanity.