The Charity Narration In Mary Barton From The Perspective Of Phelan’s "Ethical Position" Theory

As a distinguished representative of Novel of Social Condition in Victorian age, Mrs.Gaskell not only engaged herself in various charity activities, but also fused her charitythoughts into her literary creation, hence she expected to solve social problems andmaintain social stability through her works. As one of the representatives of Novel ofSocial Condition and Mrs. Gaskell’s masterpiece, Mary Barton is one of her such efforts.Through the vivid and detailed depiction of Mancunian labors’ plight and struggle, thenovel embodies her deep sympathy for the labors and her charity thoughts, such as theadvocate of female charity, her attack to the hypocritical charity of bourgeois and theappeal for the true charity of bourgeois, the praise of the effective charity of non-bourgeoismiddle-class, her call for institutional charity and so on. Yet, the retrospective result ofcurrent studies indicates that charity, an important theme of Mary Barton, exposes manyproblems in Victorian charity culture, which has been rarely explored, let alone from theperspective of narrative ethics which is one of essential, influential and potent tool instudying the interaction between narrative and (charity) ethics.Based on the above understanding, this thesis analyzes the ethical positions ondifferent voices on the major charity forms in Victorian age, namely private charity andinstitutional charity in Mary Barton in the light of narrative ethics, especially JamesPhelan’s ethical position theory—the ethical positions of characters, of narrator, of impliedauthor and of readers, hence to explore Mrs. Gaskell’s charity thoughts reflected in MaryBarton and reveal her ethical criterion for charity. Specifically, this thesis first explores theethical positions of characters, of implied author and of readers on private charity to revealMrs. Gaskell’s ethical criterion for private charity and its nature. Second, this thesisinterprets the ethical positions of characters, of implied author and of readers ongovernmental charity and organizational charity to reveal Mrs. Gaskell’s ethical criterionfor institutional charity and its nature. The above analysis indicates that, by presentingdifferent voices on private charity and institutional charity, the implied author—Mrs.Gaskell reveals her ethical criterion for charity which is a hybrid thought of Unitarianism, patriarchic relique, utilitarianism, colonialism and other thoughts—“group interests first”,that is, charity implementation should give priority to group interests.“Group” here firstrefers to one’s own class, then his/her society, last the country—Britain which is thecounterpart to colonies and other countries.In short, this thesis studies the ethical positions on charity narration in Mary Bartonby Phelan’s theory of “ethical position”, thus expects to enrich the study on Mary Barton,provide a new way to the interpretation of Mrs. Gaskell’s charity thoughts and offer anobjective and valid case study for Mrs. Gaskell’s works and thoughts. Meanwhile, byemploying “ethical position” theory to study Mrs. Gaskell’s charity thoughts, this thesisalso aims to offer a convincing evidence for the feasibility of Phelan’s narrative ethics andthus to contribute to the application of post-classical narratology in literary study as well.