Construction Of A Harmonious World-an Ethical Literary Reading Of Mrs. Gaskell’s North And South

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865), a celebrated Victorian woman writer,has become a figure of growing importance in the literary field during recent years. Inher twenty-year writing career, she produced works of great variety and scope,including seven novels, five novelettes, twenty-two stories, eleven articles and essays,a major biography, two prefaces, and a poem.North and South, one of her masterpieces, was considered as a work that “will beread when we are all dead and buried” by David Masson, a famous editor in themid-19thcentury (Angus Easson,1991:517). It distinctly reveals such Victorian socialproblems as environmental crisis, class antagonism and gender biases, which wereaggravated on the road of industrialization and urbanization. This thesis tries toanalyze Mrs. Gaskell’s ethical ideas and ethical thoughts within this text withreference to the theory of Ethical Literary Criticism.The thesis is composed of5chapters.Chapter1is the introduction part which briefly sketches Mrs. Gaskell’s life andher major literary achievements, and the status quo of Gaskell study at home andabroad. Besides, this chapter also combs the development of Ethical LiteraryCriticism and anatomizes the feasibility and significance of my study.Chapter2offers an illustration of Mrs. Gaskell’s ethical consciousness from theperspective of human-nature relationship. To begin with, the ecological ethical crisisin the novel, including Milton’s environmental pollution and its consequences ispresented. And then this dissertation clarifies Mrs. Gaskell’s ecological ethical appealthrough depicting the protagonist—Margaret’s longing for nature and the author’sappeal for a harmonious homeland.Chapter3focuses on the human-other relationship in the text, including twokinds of relations—gender relationship and labor-capital relationship. The first partanalyzes Mrs. Gaskell’s yearning for an equal male-female relationship by thedepiction of the unequal gender relationship in the Victorian era and Margaret’sstriving for gender equality. The second part illustrates Mrs. Gaskell’s hope ofbuilding a harmonious labor-capital relationship by transforming the clash betweencapitalists and workers into their compromise.Chapter4explores Mrs. Gaskell’s aspiration for a harmonized self. This chapter intends to expound two characters’ pursuing of self-salvation and sublimation: Mr.Hale’s spiritual redemption and Mr. Thornton’s moral relief through their respectiveethical choices.Chapter5is a summary of the thesis. In the novel, Mrs. Gaskell voices her deepconcern about environment, society and human beings, expresses her genuine appealfor a balanced ecosystem, gender equality, class mutuality, and a peaceful mind, andpresents her deep longing for a harmonious world and a happy homeland.