Tom gets a very old-fashioned "gentleman’s" education, which doesn’t help him in the modern business world. This was very much a world in transition, as we can see through Tom’s education. Reputations were also lost quickly in a small community that had very strict Victorian social codes, which were even stricter for women. Tulliver’s disastrous lawsuit, people could lose everything (home, money, possessions) very quickly. And business and the law often made this society very precarious, or unstable. Business, industry, and legal procedures were a growing part of this society. In other words, these people weren’t all just farmers, and the wealthy people in the novel (like the Deanes) made their money through business as opposed to inheritance.
Lots of the people living in the Midlands in this period made their living in some sort of business profession.
This gives us some insight into our characters. The Midlands were the major site for England’s Industrial Revolution. It’s important to note that this novel is set in the Midlands and takes place largely at an industrial mill. So, we’ve got time period out of the way. There are also references to political figures, like the Duke of Wellington, and political issues that place the novel around the 1820s. Poulter would have taken place sometime after Napoleon was defeated, so after 1815 basically. Poulter fought in the "Peninsular War," which was a conflict involving Napoleon. We never get an actual date in this book, but a couple of historical references have led scholars and critics to place it around the 1820s. Warwickshire is a county located in the middle of England, or the "Midlands." Though published in 1860, The Mill on the Floss is set about forty years prior, around the 1820s. Ogg’s and Dorlcote Mill are actually based on Eliot’s own childhood home in Warwickshire, England.
Ogg’s, Dorlcote Mill, and surrounding communityįun fact to kick things off: St. Early 19th century England, the Midlands, St.
0 kommentar(er)
