(II) Maggie & Tom: their Nature and the Natural World

The Mill offers a unique opportunity in its charting of the lives of Maggie and Tom over the span of over a decade. Tom and Maggie are two siblings who we come to know are united by more than ties of blood alone; they share a distinct awareness of the Natural World that outlines their sphere of existence. Their “happy mornings” are defined by the time they spend indulging in the pleasantries offered by “the mill with its booming; the great chestnut-tree under which they played at houses; their own little river, the Ripple, where the banks seemed like home” and “above all, the great Floss” (I, V). It can be argued that their great appreciation for their habitation is rooted in their great hope for the continuity that nature here represents extending to their own lives. Their two great hopes are that “these things would always be just the same to them” and that “they would always live together and be fond of each other” (I, V). Of course, one does not have to read past the first few chapters of the book to know that “life did change for Tom and Maggie” (I, V). Although Maggie and Tom harbor a shared love for the outdoors, it is evident that the influence that nature has had on their lives differs greatly. Maggie credits all “her favorite outdoor nooks about home” as she does her parents in “nurturing and cherishing her” (IV, III). In fact, Maggie’s greatest dependency seems to fall on nature: she goes on daily walks to satisfy “her need of the open air” and when circumstances prevent her from this, she resorts to “sitting out of doors” (IV, III). Tom, on the other hand, displays a tendency towards dominance and uses any medium accessible, including nature, for this purpose. When ordered to stay within the premises (which does not extend past the garden), Tom resolves that there is no pleasure to be sought in “so prim a garden” except to defy the restriction that it posed and thus mediates “an insurrectionary visit to the pond, about a field’s length beyond the garden” (I, X). We find that the variation observed here is dependent on perception which may indeed be reflective of the (somewhat) defined characteristics of Tom and Maggie. However, this perception is subject to change even as is made evident by Maggie’s altered impression of the Red Deep, a place which, “in her childish days” she held in “very great awe” (V, I). This “awe” was fueled by “visions of robbers and fierce animals” haunting the place. Over time, her “habitual” visits of the place renders it just as charming as any other “broken ground, any mimic rock and ravine” (V, I). This is indicative of a shift in Maggie’s “temporal understanding of the natural world” (Bewell, 269). Wordsworth explores this process extensively in his writing: “Wordsworthian nature is deeply linked with memory, nostalgia, childhood, past modes of being, and loss” (Bewell, 269). In the case of Maggie, there is no “static conception of nature”; it is as variable as her own imaginative nature permits (Bewell, 15).