My apologies in advance for the lack of page numbers- my e-text doesn’t have any!
Reading Chapter III of The Mill on the Floss, I was struck by the use of the language of education to convey credit, particularly that of Mr. Stelling. Mr. Tulliver wants his son Tom to go to a school where he can learn a skill set more appropriate for a middle-class career, and seeks the advice of his middle-class friend Mr. Riley. Mr. Riley realizes the capability of education to raise one’s social credit, and recommends the Clergyman Mr. Stelling, recognizing that an education from a person of this profession will add to Tom’s social credit. The lower-class Mr. Tulliver seems to have difficulty understanding this, and is concerned that a Parson would “be almost too high-learnt to bring up a lad to be a man o’business” such as Tom, while expressing that Clergymen possess “a sort o’ learning as lay mostly out of sight”. While Mr. Tulliver recognizes that Clergymen have great learning, he is unable to identify this knowledge exactly and labels it as “out of sight”, yet the Clergyman’s educational credit leads Mr. Tulliver to assume it exists. However, Mr. Tulliver does not initially see this form of credit as being applicable to Tom’s, who will be going into ‘business’, which Mr. Riley refutes by stating: “a clergyman is a gentleman by profession and education and besides that, he has the knowledge that will ground a boy, and prepare him for entering on any career with credit”, implying that educational credit is required in order to start a career that generates credit in itself.
Towards the end of the chapter, we learn that Mr. Riley is also forming assumptions about Mr. Stelling’s qualifications, as he does not actually know him. However, Mr. Riley is able to recommend him based on other people of credit, stating that “he believed Mr. Stelling to be an excellent classic, for Gadsby had said so, and Gadsby’s first cousin was an Oxford tutor; which was better ground for the belief even than his own immediate observation would have been, for though Mr. Riley had received a tincture of the classics at the great Mudport Free School, and had a sense of understanding Latin generally, his comprehension of any particular Latin was not ready”. Mr. Riley takes on a role similar to Roxana at this moment, whose own account is not reliable but is validated by other creditable sources, and can therefore be taken as truth.
Interestingly, Mr. Riley’s assumption of Mr. Stelling’s credit, though he knows it is not founded in personal experience, convinces him of Mr. Stelling’s merits. By the end of the discussion, Mr. Riley has decided, “that if Mr. Tulliver had in the end declined to send Tom to Stelling, Mr. Riley would have thought his ‘friend of the old school’ a thoroughly pig-headed fellow”, expressing both his newfound conviction of Mr. Stelling’s qualifications and of his own class-based credit over Mr. Tulliver. It is also based in the credit of other people that Mr. Riley is able to make assumptions about Mr. Stelling’s economic credit, including the amount Mr. Stelling would charge for his time and services, and about what Mr. Stelling is qualified to teach. Though “he knew very little of that [Stelling’s] M.A. and his acquirements”, Mr. Riley still feels confident enough to tell Mr. Tulliver that “when you get a thoroughly educated man, like Stelling, he’s at no loss to take up any branch of instruction.” This passage demonstrates a moment where education becomes synonymous with personal credit and economic credit in the text, which, if Tom goes on to be educated by Mr. Stelling, might be a continuing theme in the novel.
Any thoughts about the relation between education and credit, or anything to add about this passage?
Hi Taylor,
Great points. I like your point about education being a form of credit in this episode. While reading it, I thought of Mile’s distinction between social and cultural capital. In this case, it would seem that Mr. Tulliver sees education as a form of cultural capital–of obtaining education as a tool for upward mobility. Mr. Tulliver mentions that without education, his son will be fated to be a Miller, just like himself.
However, I also thought it was interesting that Mr. Tulliver didn’t stop with this idea. He wants Tom to study so that he (Mr. Tulliver) can keep his wealth to himself.
p. 16 “…if I made him a miller an’ farmer, he’d be expectin’ to take to the Mill an’think o’ my latter end…I’ve seen enough o’ that wi’ sons…I shall give Tom an eddication an’ put him to a business, as he may make a nest for himself, an’ not want to push me out o’ mine.”
This indicates, to me, that Mr. Tulliver has accepted (or at least ascribes to) the ideals of capitalism. He doesn’t believe in inherited wealth or familial ownership. He seems to come at economics from an individualized mindset.
On another note:
Unlike the Tulliver’s pursuit of cultural credit and upward mobility, Luke (p.30) clearly states that he is content with his station, and in fact rebukes people who try to think or reach for more.
“I can’t do wi’ knowin’ so many things besides my work. That’s what brings folks to the gallows–knowin’ everything but what they’n got to get their bread by. An’ they’re mostly lies, I think, what’s printed i’ the books: them printed sheets are, anyhow, as the men cry i’ the streets.”
I’m not sure I’m interpreting this correctly, but it seems like Luke is saying that when people spend more time gaining knowledge and less time working, they focus on being discontent and think themselves ‘above’ work which ultimately leads to destitution. Luke would say, it would seem, that cultural capital, or seeking to improve one’s fortune through knowledge is not noble, it’s stupid.
I would guess that Luke is an example of what Mr.Riley would call “people of the old school” (p.15)
Taylor, I really like your points about seeing education as a form of social credit. I was also intrigued by the fact that Mr. Riley recommends Stelling him based on what he has heard of him by other “credible” people; in this case, Gadsby because he is associated with someone who is an oxford tutor. Mr. Riley believes Gadsby because his cousin is an Oxford tutor, not because Gadsby is an Oxford tutor himself. Similarly, Mr. Tulliver believes Mr. Riley because he associated with Mr. Stelling who has an Oxford education, even though there are doubts about Mr. Riley’s education level. This just shows how important and significant it is to be even just associated with someone who is educated to gain social credit and trust.
Another part of this passage that I found interesting was the end of the chapter (sorry I have an e-text so no page numbers either!), when the narrator talks about nature and parasites in relation to Mr. Riley’s recommendation. Mr. Riley recommends Mr. Stelling to Mr. Tulliver in order to build his own credit with Stelling. The narrator asks readers not to blame Mr. Riley because of his semi-unreliable recommendation because it is not possible for people to be “good-natured all around”. Nature itself places parasites on animals without intending to cause harm and we see it as nature caring for the parasite. By linking the two instances, it seems as though Mr. Riley’s “selfish” behaviour is natural since, after all, he is “a man of business”. Recommending Stelling is an opportunity for Mr. Riley to benefit himself, which is a natural reaction. Just as the parasite depends on the animal to live on, people depend on each other in this kind of circulating economy and that is what is healthy/“natural”.
Hi all! I was reminded of a scene in book IV when reading over your comments. In Ch. 7 (A Day of Reckoning), Tom has told his father that he has come up with enough money to pay off his (Mr. Tulliver’s) debts. After the extended family has gathered together to hear the good news from Tom’s own lips, the narrator tells us that “Tom looked so gentlemanly as well as tall and straight, that Mr. Tulliver remarked in an explanatory manner to his friends on his right and left that he had spent a deal of money on his son’s education” (459).
I found this interesting, in correlation with the comments above, in that it’s an explicit example of how education is cultural capital. The adjectives “gentlemanly… tall… straight” seem to almost be synonymous with educated — as if Tom couldn’t have them to such a degree without his education. However, Tom’s success didn’t actually have to do with his education — sure, he probably learned the correct pronunciation of certain words while at school to make him sound good, but he made the money to pay off his father’s debts through something he was not taught in school : speculation. Even Bob Jakin, a bag-man about as uneducated as you can get, can and does speculate successfully. In this way Bob is almost like Harriet Smith from Emma, in that he is a bit fluid, a bit un-pindown-able, able to navigate through wealth and capabilities that shouldn’t necessarily be his. He also presents a threat to the old system of land and money equaling status, just as Harriet was a new uncertainty thrown into the mix of Hartford’s society. Even Tom, who isn’t as poor as Bob but is definitely poorer than his immediate family, is a bit threatening in the power and wealth he can achieve.
The assumption that education = status isn’t reflected in real-life (even today). However, Mr. Tulliver’s boast is evidence that the concept, however flawed, is very real, and influential, to some. The other comments here show this further in the case of Mr. Stelling’s reputation and Mr. Riley’s internal justifications for recommending him.