The Characters of the Mill

Exploring the souls who shape Maggie's world

"Every human soul has its own unique melody"
— George Eliot

Maggie Tulliver

The wild-hearted • The misunderstood • The river's child

An intelligent woman who loves knowing new worlds by reading and rejecting social norms.

Maggie's journey represents the universal struggle between self-expression and social acceptance, particularly for intelligent women in Victorian society.

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Tom Tulliver

The rigid • The dutiful • The unyielding

Maggie’s brother. Tom is serious, duty-bound, and often unforgiving. His sense of justice and family honor frequently clash with Maggie’s free spirit.

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Philip Wakem

The gentle • The artistic • The wounded

A sensitive and deformed artist who always suffered discrimination. He is the one who pushes Maggie with intellectual and emotional interests.

"You are the only person who ever seemed to love me."

Philip offers Maggie rare intellectual companionship and unconditional acceptance, representing the possibility of a life lived through the mind rather than societal conventions.

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Stephen Guest

The charming • The tempting • The complication

Charming and self-confident, Stephen’s attraction to Maggie introduces a moral dilemma, testing her loyalty and her principles with all her family.

Stephen's character serves as a mirror to Victorian society's double standards—his actions, while similar to Maggie's, carry entirely different consequences based on their genders.

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