The Mill on the Floss

Maggie's jealousy reaches a boiling point when Tom ignores her to play with their cousin Lucy instead. Feeling excluded and replaced, Maggie follows Tom and Lucy to the forbidden pond area, where her hurt feelings explode into action—she pushes innocent Lucy into the mud. The aftermath is swift: Tom tells on her, Lucy is traumatized and dirty, and the adults are horrified. Mrs. Tulliver blames herself as a bad mother, while Aunt Pullet sees this as proof that the Tulliver children are uncontrollable. When the adults go looking for Maggie to punish her, they discover she's vanished entirely, sending her mother into a panic about drowning. This chapter shows how jealousy can make us lash out at the wrong person—Lucy never did anything to Maggie, but became the target simply because Tom favored her. Maggie's impulsive act of revenge only succeeded in making everyone miserable, including herself. Eliot captures the painful reality of sibling rivalry and how children can feel genuinely threatened when they sense their place in someone's affection is being challenged. The chapter also reveals the class anxieties of the time—the adults are mortified by the children's 'improper' behavior, seeing it as a reflection of their family's respectability.