2. Elizabeth Gaskell in Context
◦ Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on 29 September 1810
◦ Her father, William Stevenson, was a Unitarian minister who resigned
his orders on conscientious grounds
◦ Interest in the English country life and the divide between rich and
poor.
◦ 1832: Elizabeth marries William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister, charity
worker, and pioneer in the education of the working class
◦ Charles Dickens’ Household Words
◦ North and South: 22 weekly parts (September 1854 – January 1855)
◦ Industrial Revolution: 1760-1850.
◦ Abundance of coal in England
◦ Cheap raw materials from the colonies*
3. ◦ https://www.jstor.org/stable/45179789?seq=1
◦ Death and Variations: "North and South" and the Work of Adaptation
◦ PETER GARRATT
◦ The Gaskell Journal
◦ Vol. 26 (2012), pp. 73-87 (15 pages)
◦ Published By: Gaskell Society
4. Structure
◦ London – Edith’s wedding to Captain Lennox
◦ Helstone – Margaret returns to her parents’ home in the countryside
◦ Mr Henry Lennox proposes to Margaret—she rejects him
◦ Mr Hale, Margaret’s father, leaves the Church of England and decides to move to the North.
◦ Milton-Northern – The Hales meet Mr Thornton, Mr Hale’s first pupil*
◦ Margaret meets the Higgins family (working class)
◦ Mr Thornton’s proposal—Margaret rejects him
◦ Helstone – Margaret visits Helstone
◦ London – Margaret becomes independent
◦ Non-verbal proposal = Mutual understanding
5. Opposites
◦ Rural South
◦ Gentry
◦ Femininity
◦ Sentimentality
◦ Domesticity
◦ Private
◦ Idleness
◦ Old generations
◦ Freedom
◦ Industrial North
◦ Labourers/Mill Owners
◦ Masculinity
◦ Reason
◦ Globalisation
◦ Public
◦ Industriousness
◦ New generations
◦ Responsibility
6. ◦ “I dare say I am talking in great
ignorance; but from the little I know, I
should say that the masses were already
passing rapidly into the troublesome
stage which intervenes between
childhood and manhood, in the life of
the multitude as well as that of the
individual. Now, the error which many
parents commit in the treatment of the
individual at this time is, insisting on
the same unreasoning obedience as
when all he had to do in the way of
duty was, to obey the simple laws of
‘Come when you're called’ and ‘Do as
you're bid!’ But a wise parent
humours the desire for independent
action, so as to become the friend and
adviser when his absolute rule shall
cease.”
Dependence vs Independence
7. Female sphere – Ideal femininity
Condemned/Regarded with contempt
“'Well, I suppose you are all in the depths of
business — ladies' business, I mean. Very
different to my business, which is the real true
law business. Playing with shawls is very
different work to drawing up settlements.
'Ah, I knew how you would be amused to find
us all so occupied in admiring finery. But really
Indian shawls are very perfect things of their
kind.’”
Encouraged
◦ “'Only don't be strong-minded,' pleaded
Edith. 'Mamma wants you to have a footman of
your own; and I'm sure you're very welcome, for
they're great plagues. Only to please me,
darling, don't go and have a strong mind;
it's the only thing I ask. Footman or no
footman, don't be strong-minded.’”
8. Gentleman vs. Man
External vs. Internal attributes
◦ Noble birth (rank/class)
◦ Aristocratic education
◦ Moral merit
19th century: Traditional social concepts begin to
shift
“…more democratic and character-based conception
of gentlemanliness” (Antinucci 134)
Aristocrats and Merchants
◦ Thornton: ‘large and strong and tender, and yet a
master’
9. Gentleman vs. Man
“I take it that ‘gentleman’ is a term that only describes a person in his relation to
others; but when we speak of him as ‘a man’, we consider him not merely with regard
to his fellow men, but in relation to himself, - to life – to time – to eternity. A cast-away
lonely as Robinson Crusoe- a prisoner immured in a dungeon for life – nay, even a
saint in Patmos, has his endurance, his strength, his faith, best described by being
spoken of as ‘a man’. I am rather weary of this word ‘gentlemanly’ which seems
to me to be often inappropriately used, and often too with such exaggerated
distortion of meaning, while the full simplicity of the noun ‘man’, and the
adjective ‘manly’ are unacknowledged.” (164)
10. Male sentimentality
The Lennox brothers
◦ Male vanity
◦ Women as subordinate (companions or
adornments)
◦ Henry Lennox is saddened and troubled to see
how much Margaret likes Helstone
◦ Special focus on Margaret’s inheritance
John Thornton
◦ Emphasis on his inner life (and his appreciation
of Margaret’s own inner life)
◦ Thornton emphasises his feelings above
financial matters—he never dwells on the Hales’
financial state
◦ Margaret offers to aid him financially of her
own volition
11. The Lennox brothers
◦ “[Margaret] was very fond of [Captain Lennox], excepting
when he was anxiously attentive to Edith’s dress and
appearance, with a view to her beauty making a sufficient
impression on the world.” (373)
◦ “Margaret, I wish you did not like Helstone so much —
did not seem so perfectly calm and happy here. I have
been hoping for these three months past to find you
regretting London — and London friends, a little…” (28-29)
◦ “How she was learning to depend on him” (433)
John Thornton
◦ “I am a man. I claim the right of expressing my
feelings.” (195)
◦ “One word more. You look as if you thought it tainted you
to be loved by me. You cannot avoid it. Nay, I, if I would,
cannot cleanse you from it. But I would not, if I could. I
have never loved any woman before: my life has been too
busy, my thoughts too much absorbed with other things.
Now I love, and will love. But do not be afraid of too
much expression on my part.” (196)
◦ “'I wanted to see the place where Margaret grew to what she
is, even at the worst time of all, when I had no hope of ever
calling her mine.” (436)
12. Masters vs Hands
◦ “I believe that this suffering, which Miss Hale
says is impressed on the countenances of the
people of Milton, is but the natural
punishment of dishonestly-enjoyed
pleasure at some former period of their lives. I
do not look on self-indulgent, sensual people as
worthy of my hatred; I simply look upon
them with contempt for their poorness of
character." (126)
◦ “Once brought face to face, man to man, with
an individual of the masses around him, and
(take notice) out of the character of master
and workman, in the first instance they had
each begun to recognise that ‘we have all of us
one human heart’” (419).
◦ “The advantages were mutual; we were both
unconsciously and consciously teaching
each other” (431)
13. Marriage Plot
Political
“…and even then I am sure that it would lose its vitality, cease to
be living, as soon as it was no longer carried on by that sort of
common interest which invariably makes people find means
and ways of seeing each other, and becoming acquainted with
each others' characters and persons, and even tricks of
temper and modes of speech. We should understand each
other better, and I'll venture to say we should like each
other more.” (432)
“’Miss Hale, I had a round-robin from some of my men …
stating their wish to work for me, if ever I was in a position
to employ men again on my own behalf. That was good, wasn’t
it?’
‘Yes. Just right. I am glad of it.’
‘I knew you would like it.’” (432)
Sentimental
◦ “..if you would take some money of mine, eighteen thousand
and fifty-seven pounds, lying just at this moment unused in
the bank, and bringing me in only two and a half per cent. —
you could pay me much better interest, and might go on
working Marlborough Mills.' Her voice had cleared itself and
become more steady. Mr. Thornton did not speak, and she
went on looking for some paper on which were written down
the proposals for security; for she was most anxious to
have it all looked upon in the light of a mere business
arrangement, in which the principal advantage would be
on her side. (435)
14.
15. Structure
◦ London – Edith’s wedding to Captain Lennox
◦ Helstone – Margaret returns to her parents’ home in the countryside
◦ Mr Henry Lennox proposes to Margaret—she rejects him
◦ Mr Hale, Margaret’s father, leaves the Church of England and decides to
move to the North.
◦ Milton-Northern – The Hales meet Mr Thornton, Mr Hale’s first pupil*
◦ Margaret meets the Higgins family
◦ Mr Thornton’s proposal—Margaret rejects him
◦ Helstone – Margaret visits Helstone
◦ London – Margaret becomes independent
◦ Non-verbal proposal = Mutual understanding
◦ Mutual understanding between Mr Thornton (Masters) and Mr Higgins
(Workers)
Out of “Human
interest”—
not out of a conception of
female duty ordained by the
Church or by the gentry (or
as a daughter/wife)
Independence
