An Analysis Of The Androgynous Character Margaret In North And South

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) is a British realist writer in the nineteenth century. Gaskell is eulogized by Marx as "one of outstanding British novelists" with her contemporary writers such as Dickens, Thackeray and Gorge Eliot. She is famous for her industrial novels and North and South is one of the Mrs. Gaskell’s important urban industrial novels. Its description presents the comparison and collision between the primary social structure with the feudal nature and the emerging industrial capitalist social structure under the rapid development of capitalism. Under this industrial society, femininity of women has been weakened, while the masculinity of theirs has been reinforced. In North and South, Mrs. Gaskell consciously embodies her characters with androgynous characteristics and creates the androgynous protagonist.As an ancient notion, androgyny was introduced to the literature field by Virginia Woolf in the1920s. Woolf’s notion of androgyny holds the opinion that the brain of human beings is marked by the characteristics of both sexes. Androgyny is an ideal relationship between men and women who both possess femininity and masculinity and then respect each other to reach the state of equality and freedom. In this thesis, based on a close reading of the novel, we attempt to use the Virginia Woolf’s androgyny theory to interpret the androgynous character Margaret Hale in North and South. The thesis, based on Woolf’s notion of androgyny, aims to do a character study of protagonist Margaret in the novel. It fits into five parts. Introduction of the thesis briefly introduced Mrs. Gaskell and North and South, the literature review and then states the general principles of androgyny theory and the structure of this thesis. Chapter One discusses the femininity embodied in Margaret from the feminine virtues and feminine defects. Chapter Two explores the masculinity embodied in Margaret’s masculine rebellion and domination. Chapter Three presents the harmonious co-existence under the influences of the androgynous character, namely, the changes of Margaret, Mr. Thornton and Higgins. The last part makes a conclusion:as the female protagonist, the androgynous character Margaret reflecting the feminine charm and the masculine strength profoundly brings about influences upon the characters in the novel. And it also expresses Mrs. Gaskell’s theme of encouraging and advocating the gender equality and pursuing the gender harmony. Only by discarding the patriarchy, can men and women be in a state of equality; only by showing the internal great masculine strength, can women achieve a harmonious co-existence with men.In a word, by analyzing the androgynous character, the thesis will help us from the perspective of feminism to have a higher level of comprehension of the novel itself, a deeper understanding of the author and the comprehensive overview of the then society.