An Analysisof Margret Hale’s Feminist Consciousness From The Perspective Of Marxist Feminism

Elizabeth Gaskell(1810-1865) is a famous female writer who enjoys equal popularity with Bronte sisters and Gorge Eliot in the Victorian era. North and South is acknowledged as her last work on social problems and industrial literature. This novel reflects the real and sharp contradictions between capitalist class and working class. The novel mainly describes Margret’s life experiences in Milton to show the social reality of the middle class women who are trying to go out of their family, take part in the social activities and be independent gradually under the influence of the Industrial Revolution.The thesis applies the Marxist Feminism to analyze the economic and ideological oppression in order to explore the relationship between the economic basis and female independence by comparing Margret’s family values and marital views with other contemporaneous women characters from the perspective of women and social gender roles, so as to study the independence of Margret compared with “angels in the house ” in the Victorian era and seek the unique charm of Mrs Gaskell’s works.There are six chapters in total. Introduction gives a brief account about Elizabeth Gaskell, her writing career, the main content of North and South, and the statement of literature review. Chapter One is the theoretical foundation. It introduces theoretical connotation of Marxist Feminism, including three aspects: women’s economic and ideological oppression; women and social gender roles and women’s economic and ideological emancipation. Chapter Two discusses the economic oppression suffered by women through analyzing the miserable fate of a woman worker, Bessy Higgins and the poor preacher’s wife, Mrs Hale. The ideological oppression is presented by the “angels in the house” under the man-dominated society and the trauma of Margret’s marginalization. Chapter Three focuses on the awakening of Margret’s feminist consciousness by comparing Margret’s family values and marital views with the other women characters so as to show Margret’s resistance of the traditional family gender roles. Margret’s brave behaviors of saving a male character John Thornton in the riot and taking part in the discussion with men reflect her resistance of the social gender roles. Chapter Four emphasizes on the subversion of women’s economic and ideological subordinate positions. Becoming a shareholder of John Thornton’s factory, Margret possesses her own independence in economy in the factory management and her conciliatory role turns into the decision-making role. In addition, Margre’s fight against the fusty social conventions and her humanitarianism of mediation of the contradiction between the working class and the capitalist class are unique in her era, showing her ideological subversion of the patriarchy society.The conclusion gives the overall summary of the thesis. Even though Margret goes through hardship, she is also confident and faithful to her life. With the economic and personality independence, she engages in men’s world and brings her talents into play to realize herself.