Dialect

A notable feature of Eliot's writing is her use of local dialect in dialogue to express her characters' educational and social class. For example, Mr. Tulliver tells his wife, "What I want is to give Tom a good eddication.... I should like Tom to be a bit of a scholard, so as he might be up to the tricks o' these fellows as talk fine and write with a flourish." Mr. Riley, who is an auctioneer and somewhat better educated, does not use dialect when he tells Tulliver, "There's no greater advantage you can give him than a good education. Not that a man can't be an excellent miller and farmer, and a shrewd sensible fellow into the bargain, without much help from the schoolmaster."

Bob Jakin, who is of an even lower class than the Tullivers, uses more marked dialect; for example, when he is discussing a...