Contradiction And Harmony-an Analysis Of Mrs. Gaskell And Her Work Mary Barton

Although many literary critics have analyzed Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton on its class issues, women issues and ethical concerns, compared with the studies on Mary Barton abroad, the domestic studies on Mrs. Gaskell and her works were less considerable. Many researches just make general introduction to Mrs. Gaskell's novels. Some books try to interpret Mary Barton from the perspective of feminism, but fail to explore deep connotation. So making an absolute research on Elizabeth Gaskell and her work Mary Barton and finding out her influences given to the society is of great necessity.Based on the theory of materialist dialectics, this thesis starts from the philosophy theory of contradiction and unity to analyze Mrs. Gaskell and her masterpiece Mary Barton. By analyzing Mrs. Gaskell and her work Mary Barton, this thesis attempts to explore contradiction and harmony of Mrs. Gaskell and her works. For giving a penetrating analysis to the work, this thesis also has applied some methods like exemplification, contrast and comparison, explanation, definition and so on.Detailed studies lead to three findings. Firstly, the unstable situation of early and middle stage of Victorian Age makes the contradictory mind of Mrs. Gaskell. At that time, the edifice of feudal society was wavering but the bourgeois was rising. Its economy was developing rapidly. However, the tremendous change on politics and economy brought not only many conflicts and tumults in society but also impingements and reforms on ideology. For faced with capitalist society and patriarchal society, Mrs. Gaskell was inclined to contradictory attitude. These impingements on ideology reflect obviously in her work Mary Barton, especially the impingement on the concepts about women's status. Secondly, Mrs. Gaskell's contradictory mind decides the development of plot of her novels that is contradiction and harmony. Contradiction is all over the world, and both sides of contradiction have unity and contradiction, and unity will take the dominant position in the development of things at last. Mrs. Gaskell pursues goodness to establish harmony among people, she advocates that people should care and love each other, and her maternity with male characters and the independent female characters will establish the harmony among male and female characters. Thirdly, Mrs. Gaskell advocates love and care to establish relationship between people, which has great theoretical and practical meaning to the construction of contemporary harmonious family and society.