Struggling In The Male World-A Feminist Reading Of North And South

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell portrayed many female characters. Some people take her as a pro-patriarchy while some others hold that she is an advocate of women independence. North and South was written in the mid-term of her literary career. It is one of her masterpieces. This thesis will try to explore her feminist points in her novel North and South based on feminism and demonstrate that Elizabeth Gaskell is an woman writer with advanced views on women's existence in the society.North and South was serialized on Dickens' Household Words in 1855 and 1856. when it was to be published in book-form, the writer did some revisions. This thesis will firstly analyze the physical pain women had to suffer in the male-dominated society, even it may cost their lives. And next it will explore the spiritual pain the heroine had to suffer in her confrontation with males in the patriarchal society. She had to face up to people's gossip and the police's inspection, from which she was terribly tortured. Lastly it will demonstrate her fight against the patriarchal society and grew to be an independent woman. The thesis aims to show for contemporary readers that the harmony between males and females is an important part of the construction of a harmonious society nowadays.