More than siblings? : A study of the incestuous relationship between Maggie and Tom in George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss

Sammanfattning: Because of the many similarities between the life of George Eliot and the lives of Maggie and Tom Tulliver in The Mill on The Floss, Eliot’s novel has been understood as an autobiographical novel. The aim of the essay is to, by using a psychoanalytical perspective, examine if the fictional characters could be said to be engaged in an incestuous relationship even though they do not engage in a sexual relationship. Though their relationship never becomes sexual, there are factors which could support a claim that brother and sister are engaged in an non-sexual incestuous relationship.