The Mill on the Floss · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Maggie Tulliver
major
Also known as Maggie, Magsie, Miss Maggie, cousin Maggie, Maggie Tulliver
Maggie Tulliver grows up clever, impulsive, and starved for approval in a family that prizes her brother's plodding respectability over her restless mind. At the charity bazaar she knits and sells with downcast grace while Stephen Guest circles her and old Wakem buys politely, every small courtesy charged with old quarrels and new attractions. Her need to be loved and her inability to be ordinary drive the book's central ache.
Tom Tulliver
major
Also known as Tom, Master Tom, Tom Tulliver, cousin Tom
Sent to King's Lorton to be made a gentleman, Tom finds Latin, elocution, and bashfulness a misery after the easy triumphs of Mr. Jacobs's academy. He clings to a boy's dream of becoming a substantial man like his father, riding, hunting, and commanding respect. His rigid sense of fairness and family name will make him both Maggie's protector and her harshest judge.
Mr. Tulliver
major
Also known as Tulliver, old Tulliver, honest Mr. Tulliver
Mr. Tulliver is a man of active Hotspur temper, sober but quick to boil, who farms by instinct and litigates by stubbornness. His long lawsuit against Wakem drains the mill and darkens his household, yet he dreams of Tom's education as the family's redemption. His pride, his flashes of triumphant rage, and his tenderness toward Maggie shape the catastrophe that falls on Dorlcote.
Philip Wakem
supporting
Also known as Philip, Wakem, dear Philip, Phil
Philip Wakem is the lawyer's son, physically deformed and inwardly refined, drawn to Maggie's mind and warmth from childhood. He moves quietly through St. Ogg's, avoiding crowds, buying up what others reject, and nursing a love that the Tulliver name makes dangerous. His friendship with Maggie becomes the novel's tenderest and most forbidden bond.
Stephen Guest
supporting
Also known as Guest, Mr. Guest, Mr. Stephen Guest, Stephen
Stephen Guest is a privileged young man in St. Ogg's, admired for his looks, his fortune, and his easy way with everyone. At the bazaar he flirts with Lucy, buys nothing from Maggie, and wears a scarlet fez with the confidence of a man who carries all before him. His charm and his weakness for the woman he cannot rightly have set the novel's most painful temptation in motion.
Mrs. Tulliver
supporting
Also known as aunt Tulliver, poor Mrs. Tulliver, Amiable Mrs. Tulliver
Mrs. Tulliver is a soft, fussing woman who measures love in household order and dreads the disgrace of debt almost as much as the loss of her possessions. As the mill's fortunes sink, she is scolded by her own servant and reduced to fetching in the drying clothes herself. Her helpless tenderness and her small vanities make the family's decline feel intimate and domestic.
Bob Jakin
supporting
Also known as Bob, Poor Bob, Jakin, The ingenious Bob
Bob Jakin scrambles up from muddy scuffles with Tom to become a wandering trader whose loyalty outlasts the shame Tom feels at the old intimacy. He measures the world by a rough ledger of good turns and black eyes, and his return in the Tullivers' hour of trouble reveals a stubborn, self-made decency. His shrewdness and his memory of the pocketknife quietly seed later help the family cannot foresee.
Lucy Deane
supporting
Also known as Lucy, Miss Lucy, Little Lucy, dear Lucy, Lucy Deane
Lucy Deane is the small, gentle cousin everyone calls the bell of St. Ogg's, and she moves through the Tulliver circle with an unjealous generosity that makes her the natural center of its social hopes. She believes she knows the state of every heart around her, including her own, and it is precisely this serene confidence that lets her miss the subtle currents gathering between Stephen and Maggie. Her warmth draws the cousins back together and sets in motion the very gatherings that will test her faith.
Mrs. Glegg
supporting
Also known as sister Glegg, aunt Glegg, Glegg
Mrs. Glegg is the eldest and most formidable of the Dodson sisters, a woman who regards herself as the family's constituted check on weakness and extravagance. She clashes openly with Mr. Tulliver over money and pride, yet her quarrel is never so final that she cannot speak civil when spoken to. Her sharp tongue and sharper accounts make her the measuring rod against which the Tullivers' precarious respectability is judged.
Mr. Glegg
supporting
Also known as good Mr. Glegg, uncle Glegg, Glegg
Mr. Glegg has retired from trade expecting ease and instead spends his days among flowers and vegetables, doing the work of two gardeners while his wife counts the wages saved. Mild, uxorious, and quietly content, he embodies the Dodson prosperity without its sharper edge. His placid presence in family councils offers a soft counterpoint to Mrs. Glegg's judgments and helps keep the Tulliver quarrels from becoming permanent ruptures.
Mrs. Pullet
supporting
Also known as sister Pullet, Pullet, aunt Pullet, Mrs. Pullet
Mrs. Pullet lives at Garum Firs and descends on St. Ogg's in a cloud of ailments, remedies, and unsolicited advice about dress and complexion. She pities Bessy's bad luck with her children and half-proposes sending Maggie to a distant boarding-school, all while taking quiet pride in the finery she can afford to give away. Her hypochondria and her vanity make her a comic Dodson voice, but her visits also carry the family's judgments into the mill.
Mr. Deane
supporting
Also known as sister Deane, Deane, uncle Deane
Mr. Deane is Lucy's father and a man of business who has risen by his own wits, believing firmly that any young man who fails to rise has only himself to blame. He takes Tom on as a clerk, watches him for seven years, and finally offers him a share in the concern because he sees the right habits and no flashiness. His practical patronage gives Tom the means to redeem the Tulliver name and quietly reshapes the family's fortunes.
Mrs. Moss
minor
Also known as Moss, aunt Moss, Poor Mrs. Moss, good Mrs. Moss
Mr. Tulliver's kind but impoverished sister with many children.
Dr. Kenn
supporting
Also known as this Dr. Kenn, Kenn
Dr. Kenn is the one clergyman in St. Ogg's willing to stand by Maggie when gossip turns her into a scandal, resisting a parishioner's demand that he withdraw his countenance. But his conscience cuts both ways: he cannot decide whether persevering is principle or mere obstinacy, and the fear of seeming to sanction evil finally moves him to urge her away. His painful advice — that she leave town and take a governess post — marks how even the sympathetic can be constrained to hardness, deepening Maggie's isolation at the story's crisis.
Mr. Riley
minor
Also known as Riley, Mr. Riley
Auctioneer and advisor who recommends a school for Tom.
Luke
minor
Also known as Good Luke
Loyal mill hand who works for the Tulliver family.
Lawyer Wakem
supporting
Also known as Mr. Wakem, Wakem, old Wakem, lawyer Wakem
Wakem is the shrewd lawyer Tulliver blames for every legal entanglement, and the enmity runs deep enough that the miller reads malice into chance itself. Yet the novel lets us see him plainly: a punctual, aquiline-nosed professional who listens courteously even to Mrs. Tulliver's pickle-errand plea, and whose motives may be less diabolical than Tulliver's fevered portrait suggests. His feud with the Tullivers drives the lawsuit, the loss of the mill, and the bitter inheritance Tom and Maggie must carry into adulthood.
Mr. Stelling
minor
Also known as Mr. or Mrs. Stelling, Stelling, the Rev. Mr. Stelling
Tom's schoolmaster who also tutors Philip Wakem.
Bessy
minor
Also known as Poor Bessy, poor Bessy
Mrs. Tulliver's maiden name; used affectionately by her husband.
Mrs. Stelling
minor
Also known as Mr. or Mrs. Stelling
The schoolmaster's wife who hosts Maggie during her visit.
Mr. Poulter
minor
Also known as old Poulter, Poulter
Local soldier who teaches Tom sword exercises.
Mumps
minor
The Tulliver family dog.
Yap
minor
Maggie's small dog that she carries around.
Kezia
minor
The Tulliver family's maid servant.
Mr. Moss
minor
Also known as good Mr. Moss
Mrs. Moss's husband, a poor farmer.
Mrs. Wooll
minor
Also known as Mrs. Wooll of St. Ogg
A resident of St. Ogg's mentioned in passing.
Lizzy Dodson
minor
Also known as Lizzy, the eldest Miss Dodson, Elizabeth Dodson, Miss Elizabeth Dodson
One of the Dodson sisters, known for her strict propriety.
Minny
minor
Lucy Deane's small pet dog.
Mr. Turnbull
minor
Doctor who attends to the Tulliver family.
Sally
minor
Servant at the Tulliver household.
Mr. Pivart
minor
Also known as Pivart, a Pivart
Landowner whose irrigation plans cause conflict with Mr. Tulliver.
Mr. Gore
minor
Also known as Gore, Lawyer Gore
A lawyer involved in Mr. Tulliver's legal affairs.
Mrs. Jakin
minor
Bob Jakin's mother.
Gritty
minor
Also known as poor Gritty, aunt Gritty
Another name for Mrs. Moss, Mr. Tulliver's sister.
Furley
minor
A man who holds a mortgage on Dorlcote Mill.
Mrs. Kenn
minor
Also known as poor Mrs. Kenn
Dr. Kenn's deceased wife, mentioned in the story.
Laura
minor
Also known as little Laura, the little cherub Laura, Miss Laura
A young girl at the school where Maggie briefly teaches.
Susan Dodson
minor
Also known as Miss Dodson, Miss Susan Dodson, Susan
One of the Dodson sisters, later Mrs. Deane.
Mr. Jacobs
minor
Also known as Jacobs
A tradesman who deals with Tom Tulliver.
Dix
minor
A friend of Bob Jakin.
Spouncer
minor
A schoolfellow of Tom's at Mr. Stelling's.
Mrs. Sutton
minor
Also known as old Mrs. Sutton
An elderly woman in the neighborhood.
Louisa Timpson
minor
Also known as Timpson
A girl mentioned in the Dodson family circle.
Miss Firniss
minor
A teacher at the school Maggie attends briefly.
John Wakem
minor
Lawyer Wakem's first name, rarely used.
John Gibbs
minor
A man who works for Mr. Tulliver.
Mr. Spray
minor
An auctioneer who sells the Tulliver household goods.
Sir John Crake
minor
A local landowner mentioned in conversation.
Mr. Hyndmarsh
minor
A client of Lawyer Wakem.
Gell
minor
A carrier or tradesman in the village.
Mr. Carr
minor
A friend of Stephen Guest.
Miss Torry
minor
Also known as young Torry
A young woman at a party in St. Ogg's.
Cousin Abbott
minor
Also known as Abbott
A cousin of the Dodson family.
Baxter
minor
A man who works for Guest & Co.
Winship
minor
A clerk at Guest & Co.
Ralph Tulliver
minor
Also known as the clever Ralph
A deceased relative of the Tulliver family, mentioned as a clever man.
Mrs. Pepper
minor
A neighbor of the Tullivers.
Miss Unit
minor
A teacher at the school Maggie attends.