Tulliver, Mrs. Elizabeth (Bessy)

Maggie and Tom Tulliver's mother ; the handsomest and stupidest of the Dodson sisters, "a blonde, comely woman," utterly without any sense of humour. "Mrs. Tulliver was what is called a good-tempered person— never cried, when she was a baby, on any slighter ground than hunger and pins; and from the cradle upwards had been healthy, fair, plump, and dull-witted; in short, the flower of her family for beauty and amiability. But milk and mildness are not the best things for keeping." "Mrs. Tulliver was a thorough Dodson, though a mild one, as small-beer, so long as it is any thing, is only describable as very weak ale; and though she had groaned alittle in her youth under the yoke of her elder sisters, and still shed occasional tears at their sisterly reproaches, it was not in Mrs. Tulliver to be an innovator on the family ideas. She was thankful to have been a Dodson, and to have one child who took after her own family." She bemoans the fact that Maggie is not a Dodson like her cousin, Lucy, and when Mr. Tulliver fails and she loses her cherished household gods her little world is upset, and she does not know how to readjust herself. In spite of her preference for her son Tom, as "the child who took after her own family", she stands by Maggie when Tom turns against his sister.

<em>The Mill on the Floss</em>

Text