When Success Changes Everything — The Mill on the Floss

Tom's fortunes have dramatically turned around, he's about to regain the family mill after the current tenant had a drunken accident. The family gathers at Aunt Pullet's to celebrate, and suddenly everyone treats the Tullivers with newfound respect and generosity. The aunts compete to give Tom household gifts, and there's talk of how wonderful it is that the family's reputation is restored. Lucy arrives early, hoping to use this moment of triumph to convince Tom to accept Maggie's relationship with Philip Wakem.

She believes that with Tom so happy about the mill, he'll be flexible about everything else. But Lucy fundamentally misunderstands Tom's character. When she explains how Philip used his influence with his father to help Tom get the mill back, she expects gratitude.

Instead, Tom becomes even more rigid in his opposition to any connection with the Wakem family. The chapter reveals how some minds work, Tom's type of personality actually feeds on prejudices because they provide certainty and moral authority in a complex world. His success doesn't make him more generous; it reinforces his sense of righteous judgment.

Lucy's well-intentioned meddling backfires completely, leaving Tom more convinced than ever that Maggie will do something 'perverse', likely marry Philip. The chapter shows how family dynamics shift with fortune, how success can reveal rather than change character, and how the same information can be interpreted completely differently by different personality types.