Thematic Development From Mary Barton To North And South

Studies upon Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton and North and South conducted by Chinese critics are mostly centered on the wretched life of the working class or the class struggle. And foreign scholars' researches about Mrs.Gaskell are also very limited. These foreign researches just make general introduction to Mrs.Gaskell's novels. Some books try to interpret Mrs.Gaskell's works from the perspective of feminism, but fail to explore deep connotation.This thesis attempts to reinterpret the themes of Mary Barton and North and South and to explore the continuity of the themes in the two novels. The two novelshave double structures—the industrial problems and women's self—awareness.Mary Barton is often considered as "representation of the working class". But, after examining Mrs.Gaskell's background and life experience, the author of the present paper finds that it is impossible for Mrs.Gaskell to write on behalf of the working class. During those years when she lived in Manchester, Mrs.Gaskell was appalled by the crushing poverty and degrading conditions of the workers there and she recorded these experiences in Mary Barton. In this novel, Mrs.Gaskell expresses deep sympathy for the workers and condemns the social inequality and the manufacturers' indifference. And she reveals the fierce struggle between workers and masters and attempts to analyze the real causes of the social unrest. Though Mrs.Gaskell's sympathies go to the workers, she objects to the labor movement, and expresses worries about the workers' struggle. Actually, Mary Baron and North and South are full of multiple voices — Political economy, Marxism and humanism. In the two novels, Mr. Thornton and Mr. Carson are the representatives of the classical political economy. And the workers' struggle is influenced by Marxism. The two texts thronged with two voices of two classes tend to come to compromise eventhough there exists hard class struggle, because another voice — humanism,represented by Mrs. Gaskell, surpasses them . Mrs.Gaskell admits the rigidity of the political economy which precipitates the misery of the workers, but also acknowledges the social advancement brought about by the impulse of the political economy. She feels sympathetic towards the workers but tries to exculpate the masters and criticizes the labor movement for causing social unrest.Then, the author of the present paper analyzes the change of the focus from...