Abstract: George Eliot is one of the three outstanding female writers in Victorian period, together with Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte. The Mill on the Floss is her second novel after Adam Bede. Since its publication, George Eliot has received unflagging attention from critics. This article tries to summarize these criticisms mainly from four perspectives: dichotomies of her morality and religion, ambivalent feminism, tragedy of Maggie’s ending and archetype analysis.
Key Words: morality, religion, feminism, tragedy, archetype analysis.
Despite so many controversies about her and her novels, George Eliot has won great reputation in English literary history. In The Mill on the Floss, she portrays the life of a girl in Victorian period with her unique thinking method, which displays her view on religion, morality, politics and feminism of Victorians. It can be understood from different fields and areas, which need further researches and studies.
