International Journal of English Literature and Culture

Vol. 12(1), pp. 21-29, January 2024

 ISSN: 2360-7831

https://doi.org/10.14662/ijelc2023200

 

Review

 

Abstract

 

The oppression of women by men in patriarchal societies is based on the belief that women do not have the same physical and intellectual capacity as men. Because of this belief, women do not enjoy the same opportunities as men when it comes to education in life. This study analyses the various literary devices used by George Eliot to denounce the denial of women’s rights to education. It documents the violation of female character’s rights to education in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss. The liberal feminist theory developed by Mary Wollstonecraft who advocates mixed education for gender equality is used in this study. How the novelist develops a literary irony on female intellectual capabilities to study the same subjects as men is highlighted in this study. The literary irony is used to denounce the violation of women’s rights to education. It has revealed how the novelist promotes a genderless education for the benefit of both women and men in order to reach a social progress in the world.

 

Keywords: Oppression-Education-Rights-Women-Intellectual-Capability-Satire  

 

Cite This Article As: BAFANA, K. (2024). Satire on Female Intellectual Capabilities in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss (1860). Inter. J. Eng. Lit. Cult. 12(1): 21-29