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Book 2, Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Mill on the Floss, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory and Childhood
Knowledge and Ignorance
Women’s Roles and Social Pressures
Tolerance and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
When Tom returns to school, Mr. Stelling informs him that he has a new companion—Philip Wakem, the fifteen-year-old son of the lawyer Wakem. When Tom first sees Philip in the study, he thinks that Philip is rather pale and puny, and dislikes the idea of having a humpbacked boy as a companion. However, he sees that Philip’s drawings are very good, which inclines Tom to like him. Philip also offers to help Tom with his Latin lessons. Tom confides that he hates Latin, but Philip says that it’s “part of the education of a gentleman.”
Philip’s comment that Latin is part of “the education of a gentleman” points to the way that certain forms of knowledge are valued and associated with higher class standing. To be a “gentleman” is to lead a life that does not involve manual labor and thus to study subjects that might seem esoteric and lofty, like Latin. Philip feels very comfortable in a “gentleman’s education,” while the more working-class Tom struggles with those subjects.
Themes
Philip loves his studies and enjoys the stories of the Greeks in The Odyssey, which he promises to tell Tom. Feeling intimidated by Philip’s knowledge, Tom asks him if he wants to go fishing—an area where Tom knows he is superior—but Philip says he thinks fishing is a waste of time.
Tom tries reassert himself by emphasizing his skills at activities requiring practical knowledge— like fishing—in contrast to the bookish knowledge of the schoolroom.
Themes
