The Dorlcote Mill is both a setting and a symbol. It is the setting for Maggie and Tom’s happy and carefree childhood, but it develops into a symbol for the demolition of their relationship and the conflict between the Wakem and Tulliver families. Mr. Tulliver is proud of the mill because it is the physical manifestation of the Tulliver family name and history. When he loses the mill due to his own folly, the loss is less about the mill itself and more about the ruptured honor that accompanies losing the mill. Maggie and Philip’s relationship is forever doomed because of the mill as well, as Tom’s determination to regain the mill and his enduring hatred for the Wakem family makes an accepted union between the lovers impossible. Thus, the mill is an important location, but it is also symbolic of family honor and the grudges people hold for years when that honor is threatened.

Literature and music are motifs of escapism and modes of honest communication throughout the novel. Literature provides Maggie with a source of imagination as a child. Her voracious reading defines her well-developed intellect. She even reads adult books that the adults in her life deem inappropriate for a girl, making her thirst for literature emblematic of her subversive nature.