Alienation And Redemption Of Human Nature Of Seamstress In Mary Barton And Ruth

Elizabeth Gaskell（1810-1865）is an important realistic novelist in England during themid-nineteenth century. Her works cover a wide range of subjects and profound thoughts,which attract the great attention from domestic and overseas critics, especially the issues likethe contradiction of the capital and the labor, humanitarian care and ethical problem in herworks. However, less attention has been paid to the problem of alienation of human nature.The famous American psychologist Erich Fromm puts forward the theory of “alienationof human nature”. He thinks that alienation is the experiential process of human’s spirit andmentality. It means that human’s certain physiology and psychology start to change under thepolitical and economic factors of capitalist society, then which lead to the alienation of humannature. While Fromm hopes that the alienation of human nature could be eliminated by loveand tolerance, thus establishing a humanitarian public ownership society. Fromm’s “alienationof human nature” provides theoretical basis and prospective to study the alienation andredemption of human nature which embody in Gaskell’s novels Mary Barton and Ruth.With Fromm’s theory of alienation of human nature, the thesis pays attention to theanalysis of the seamstresses Mary Barton and Ruth’s alienation and redemption of humannature in Mrs. Gaskell’s novels Mary Barton and Ruth. It explores Mrs. Gaskell’s reflectionand critique towards the exploitation of capitalist system and traditional moral concept, andfurther reveals Gaskell’s view of humanism which base on love and tolerance. Chapter oneintroduces alienation of seamstress’s human nature. Facing the oppression and bondage ofthe traditional patriarchal social system in nineteenth century and the feeling of lonelinessand helplessness in the process of women’s individualization, Mary and Ruth take thealienated ways of pursuing fanciful love and accepting hopeless thought of being a sinfulorigin in people’s eyes to live. The second chapter analyzes seamstresses Mary and Ruthescape from alienation of human nature. They try to escape the completely alienated lifethrough acting as a good woman in the family and engaging themselves in work, thus theycould return themselves to the society. Chapter three examines the redemption ofseamstress’s alienation of human nature. Mary Barton finds her true love bravely and buildsup a harmonious home and Ruth gains the respect from the society for paying her life by taking care of the people who once abandoned her. The seamstresses regenerate themselvesby the way of the love and tolerance. The thesis expresses Mrs. Gaskell’s wish to puthumanism into force in capitalist society and aligns well with the harmonious ideas ofmodern society through the elaboration of the alienation and redemption of human nature ofseamstresses.