The Working Class Female Imagery In Mary Barton:A Marxist Feminist Reading

The Victorian era of English history is well-known for its rapid development of economy and society. Numerous writers in that period become famous with their realistic works about the industrial social life. Elizabeth Cleghorn stands among those writers, and stands out for her contribution to detailed records of the class conflict. Especially in her first novel Mary Barton, Mrs. Gaskell presents a telling picture of the working class situation, elaborating their pain and suffering under poverty caused by the exploitation of capitalism. Mary Barton has long been regarded as an industrial novel that focuses on class conflicts. Many critics analyze the novel from the perspective of social conflict while ignoring the gender problem, which marginalizes the female characters in Mary Barton as well as undervalues feminist reading. However, in this novel, there is a gallery of vivid pictures of the working class female who are under the double suppression of capitalism and patriarchy. While feminist critics begin to notice this novel, their focus lands on the paternal oppression, rarely taking note of the intricate cooperation between patriarchy and capitalism. Therefore, to achieve a better understanding of the capitalist society and of the position of working class women in it, Marxist feminist theory provides a method to analyze the novel within the combination of patriarchy and capitalism.Through the lens of Marxist feminist theory, the thesis aims at exploring Mrs. Gaskell’s efforts of making women stronger and her failure under capitalism and patriarchal ideology. The whole paper contains three parts, including introduction, body part that is composed of three chapters and conclusion. The three chapters respectively deal with the oppression women suffer in work, home and cultural sphere. The first chapter investigates working-class female’s marginalization from the work force under the men’s desire to safeguard their economic superiority. The second chapter uncovers the root of women’s subordinate position in domestic environment. The last chapter turns to the obstacles working class women meet in the field of culture. In the inveterate patriarchal society, Mrs. Gaskell reveals the exploitation of capitalism, however, she ignores the oppression from the male. Then it is clear to see Mrs. Gaskell’s efforts at empowering women and her doomed failure under the fixed social traditions for women to obey.