The Masculinity Representation In Mrs. Gaskell's Mary Barton

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell is one of the prominent female writers in the Victorian period of Britain.Her works are rich in content and wide-ranging in subject matter.Mary Barton,published in 1848,is her first novel that is replete with class conflicts and social problems at that time.As a result,this novel can well serve as the representative of the"industrial novels" which are the direct literary products of the Industrial Revolution.In this novel,Mrs.Gaskell creates many distinct male and female charactersThis thesis aims at demonstrating various representations of masculinity in the novel through which Mrs.Gaskell's new perspectives and expectations on men are displayedThe main body of this paper consists of three chapters,whicn reflects different masculinities from three perspectives.The first chapter mainly analyzes masculinity from the perspective of gender relations.Through delineating some common qualities such as sympathy,tenderness and emotional expressivity shared by most of the male characters in the novel,Mrs.Gaskell challenges and breaks the rigid dichotomy of gender roles in the Victorian age.The second chapter mainly analyzes the masculinity and class relations.Mrs.Gaskell shows sharp moral contrast between the working and middle-class men and holds opposite attitudes towards them.Moreover,the moral regression of both classes bespeaks Mrs.Gaskell's positive attitude towards male identity.The third chapter mainly analyzes masculinity in spatial-temporal relations.In the industrial and imperial era,men of intelligence and action make the new category of masculinity that fits into the new social context.To sum up,through depicting men of feelings.men of morality,men of' intelligence and men of action,Mrs.Gaskell questions,supplements and foresees the mainstream masculinity in the Victorian era,which is still of great significance to the study of masculinity at the present.