Imperfect Fiction and Criticism im Stillstand: A Reading of The Mill on the Floss

This study of The Mill on the Floss combines Ramon Fernandez’s theory of personality with Walter Benjamin’s anti-subjectivist philosophy to propose a different interpretation of George Eliot’s novel, one that engages with the critical strategy of surface reading. While a less tragic light is shed on the novel’s ending, my approach entails the reader’s recalibration of both the character of the protagonist and the personality of the narrator.