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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Tom think of Maggie?

2. Why does Mr. Tulliver change his mind about asking the Mosses to pay their debt?

3. Why does Maggie leap to Tom's defense while Mr. Tulliver discusses Tom's education with Mr. Riley?

4. How does Tom feel about the argument with Philip?

5. Why is it particularly bad timing for Mr. Tulliver to lose the lawsuit?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why are the townspeople at St. Ogg's not surprised when the river starts to flood?

2. Why is Maggie having such a bad day on the day after the aunts and uncles come to dinner?

3. What conclusions do you draw about gender roles in the village of St. Ogg's based on Mr. Tulliver's conversation with Mr. Riley?

4. Why do you think that Dr. Kenn offers Maggie a job as a governess when she returns from her boat trip with Stephen?

5. What kind of person is Mrs. Glegg?

6. Why do you think that George Eliot ends Book III with Mr. Tullivan's assertion in the Bible that he wishes Wakem evil?

7. What do you think horrifies Tom the most about Maggie meeting Philip, the fact that Philip is a hunchback, or that he is the son of Mr. Wakem? Why?

8. How does Philip put Tom's mind at ease after the accident?

9. How does Maggie feel about Philip when she finally sees him again at her cousin Lucy's house?

10. Mr. Wakem at first reacts with violent opposition to Philip's proposal to marry Maggie, and then he changes his mind. Why do you think that he changes his mind?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

George Eliot depicts Maggie as much more able, intellectually, than her brother Tom. Some critics read The Mill on the Floss as an early feminist novel, calling for the full education of women and for women's equality. Socially conservative critics, however, have a different perspective on the novel, and view it as making an argument for better educating women in order to make them more effective within the family. Choose a critical perspective that makes the most sense to you, based on your own background and beliefs. Use examples from The Mill on the Floss to make a feminist argument for the emancipation of women, or to make a socially conservative argument for full education of women on behalf of their role in the family.

Essay Topic 2

How does Maggie's childhood relationship with Tom foreshadow the relationship she has with him as an adult? Compare Tom's tendency to alternately indulge and shame Maggie as a child with the way he treats her as an adult, when he interferes in her relationships with men. Support your answer with examples from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Write a paper analyzing the plot development in The Mill on the Floss. What do you feel is the climax of the plot? How does Eliot build tension prior to that point? How does she wind the book down after the climax?

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