Representation of Anti-Feminine Mental Habits in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss

Chayanin Nuamphummarin

Authors

Chayanin Nuamphummarin Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

Keywords:

female protagonists, theories of habit, nineteenth-century psychology, anti-feminine mental habits, mental scientists

Abstract

This article situates The Mill on the Floss (1860) in nineteenth-century theories of the mind, particularly the implications of psychological theories of habit on gender. Significantly, “anti-feminine mental habits,” the term I have coined here, refer to mental habits in female protagonists that contradict the psychological writings of major nineteenth-century psychologists, who typically assigned to women traits that served to degrade them while elevating the status of men as the superior sex. In fact, William James, Herbert Spencer and Henry Maudsley—all major figures in nineteenth-century psychology—agreed that women were more susceptible to mechanical thoughts and actions than men, contributing to the prevailing binary opposition that pitted feminine mental weaknesses against masculine mental powers. Additionally, mental habits that were considered feminine all placed women far below men in terms of free-thought, free will and originality. I argue that, in an attempt to rewrite misogynistic nineteenth-century physiological psychology and refute prominent evolutionary theories proposed by major mental scientists, George Eliot created a female protagonist in The Mill on the Floss who possesses superior mental habits, namely a spirit of enquiry, independence of mind, and suspense of judgement (as opposed to hurried judgement).

References

Allen, K. M. (2013). Habit in George Eliot’s The mill on the floss. Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, 50(4), 838–852. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40928290

Atkinson, J. (2015). Explanatory notes. In G. S. Haight (Ed.), The mill on the floss (pp. 491–507). Oxford University Press.

Bodenheimer, R. (2019). A woman of many names. In G. Levine & N. Henry (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to George Eliot (2nd ed., pp. 19–36). Cambridge University Press.

Carpenter, W. B. (1875). Principles of mental physiology with their applications to the training and discipline of the mind, and the study of its morbid conditions (2nd ed.). Henry S. King and Co. (Original work published 1874)

Crichton-Browne, J. (1892). The annual oration on sex in education. The British Medical Journal, 1(1636), 949–54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20246036

Darwin, C. (1889). The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex (2nd ed.). D. Appleton and Company. (Original work published 1871)

Davis, M. (2006). George Eliot and nineteenth-century psychology: Exploring the unmapped country. Routledge.

Davis, M. (2011). Psychology and the idea of character. In J. Kucich & J. B. Taylor (Eds.), The Oxford history of the novel in English: Vol. 3. The nineteenth-century novel 1820-1880 (pp. 492–508). Oxford University Press.

Dickens, C. (2010). Dombey and son. Vintage Books. (Original work published 1848)

Eliot, G. (1855). Margaret Fuller and Mary Wollstonecraft. Leader, 6(290), 988–89.

Eliot, G. (2000). Middlemarch (B. G. Hornback, Ed.; 2nd ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. (Original work published 1871)

Eliot, G. (1954). The George Eliot letters: Vol. 2. 1852–1858 (G. S. Haight, Ed.). Yale University Press.

Eliot, G. (2015). The mill on the floss (G. S. Haight, Ed.). Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1860)

Ellis, S. S. (1842). The daughters of England: Their position in society, character, and responsibilities. Fisher, Son, and Company.

Flint, K. (2019). George Eliot and gender. In G. Levine & N. Henry (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to George Eliot (2nd ed., pp. 136–154). Cambridge University Press.

Fraiman, S. (1993). Unbecoming women: British women writers and the novel of development. Princeton University Press.

Hirsch, M. (1983). Spiritual bildung: The beautiful soul as paradigm. In E. Abel, M. Hirsch & E. Langland (Eds.), The voyage in: Fictions of female development (pp. 23–48). University Press of New England.

Hadjiafxendi, K. (2013). Gender and the woman question. In M. Harris (Ed.), George Eliot in context (pp. 137–144). Cambridge University Press.

James, W. (1931). The principles of psychology (Vol. 2). Henry Holt and Company. (Original work published 1890)

Judge, J. (2013). The gendering of habit in George Eliot’s Middlemarch. Victorian Review, 39(1), 158–181. https://doi.org/10.1353/vcr.2013.0007

Karl, F. R. (1996). George Eliot, voice of a century: A biography. W. W. Norton and Company.

Lewes, G. H. (1874). Problems of life and mind (Vol. 1). Trübner and Co.

Maudsley, H. (1867). The physiology and pathology of the mind. D. Appleton and Company.

Mill, J. S. (2015). Utilitarianism. In M. Philp & F. Rosen (Eds.), On liberty, utilitarianism, and other essays (pp. 115–177). Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1869)

McDonagh, J. (2019). The early novels. In G. Levine & N. Henry (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to George Eliot (2nd ed., pp. 76–94). Cambridge University Press.

O’Toole, S. (2013). Habit in the English novel, 1850-1900: Lived environments, practices of the self. Palgrave Macmillan.

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Acute, adj., sense 4. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 10, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3154392943

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Cognitive science, n. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 5, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2654254189

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Fallen woman, n. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 8, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4398573634

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Free-thinking, n. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 10, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1116741182

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Free will, n., sense 1.a. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 10, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/8120083692

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Habit, n., sense iii.9.e. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 10, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1336320015

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Hesitation, n., sense 1.a. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 10, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2451544010

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Independence, n., sense 1.a. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 10, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7577637301

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Independence, n., sense 1.c. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 10, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/8760220155

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Originality, n., sense 2. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 10, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1094084168

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Reflex, n., sense 6.a. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 7, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1080851601

Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Self-flattery, n. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved September 7, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4484477714

Paxton, N. L. (2016). George Eliot and Herbert Spencer: Feminism, evolutionism, and the reconstruction of gender. Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1991)

Secord, J. A., The Editors of the Darwin Correspondence Project, Lewes, G. H., & Darwin, C. (2022). The correspondence of G. H. Lewes and Charles Darwin. George Eliot–George Henry Lewes Studies, 74(2), 94–109. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48751470

Spencer, H. (1864). Education: Intellectual, moral, and physical. D. Appleton and Company.

Spencer, H. (1864). The principles of biology (Vol. 1). Williams and Norgate.

Spencer, H. (1896). The principles of psychology (3rd ed., Vol.1). D. Appleton and Company. (Original work published 1855)

Spencer, H. (1897). The principles of sociology (Vol. 3). Williams and Norgate.

Vrettos, A. (2000). Defining habits: Dickens and the psychology of repetition. Victorian Studies, 42(3), 399–426. https://doi.org/10.1353/vic.2000.0084

Wollstonecraft, M. (2008). A vindication of the rights of men; A vindication of the rights of woman; An historical and moral view of the French revolution (J. Todd, Ed.). Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1792)