This study applies Louis Althusser's theory of ideology and subject formation on George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss (1860), focusing particularly on identifying the most dominant Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) and Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs), and the process of interpellation in Maggi Tulliver's life. Although previous scholarly studies have mostly examined Maggi Tulliver's life path and her conflicts within Victorian society, insufficient investigations have been done about how ideological and repressive institutions shape her subjectivity and how interpellation determine her destiny. By using a qualitative method, this study performs an Althusserian reading of the novel to identify the influences of ISAs and RSAs in Maggi's life from her childhood to her tragic death. Additionally, the study examines the coordinated relation of ISAs and RSAs in interpellation process and their dominancy in Victorian period. The findings of this study demonstrate that family is the most dominant and powerful ISA which has a life-long and continuous role to shape Mggi's struggles with her personal desires and social norms. Educational and cultural ISAs reinforce gender-based restrictions by limiting Maggi's intellectual development and imposing the conventional feminine portrayal which is considered acceptable for women in Victorian society. On the other hand, religious ISA exhibits reduced influence corresponding to Victorian historical transformations. The court functions as the dominant RSA and its verdict leads to Tulliver's financial crisis and transforms the family's social position. The dominant RSA is in a direct cooperative relation with dominant ISA, the family, and they both accelerate Maggi's interpellation process. Eventually, the results reveal that Maggi's interpellation remains unresolved, consistently caught between rejection and obeying social expectations, she represents what Althusser describes as a ''non-subject'' whom the ideological order does not accept and eliminates through social deprival and ultimately death. This study advances Althusserian theory of ideology and subject formation by analyzing the function of ISAs and RSAs and their cooperative relation within Victorian society and provide fresh insight into Maggi Tulliver's tragedy as essentially ideological and social rather than merely personal.
