Mary Barton: more social lessons and good storytelling from Mrs. Gaskell

After reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South and enjoying it immensely, I made a goal to read all of her novels. Of course, I decided to start at the beginning of her writings, so I picked up Mary Barton. While I have to say that I did not like it as much as North and South, I still found a good amount of enjoyment and lessons on social issues in the novel.

The novel tells the story of the title character, a girl living in poverty in the mill city Manchester. Her father is a mill worker, and her mother passes early on in the novel. The story tells of the hardships of the Bartons, with particular emphasis on Mary's struggles with vanity and selfishness. After Mary's mother dies, she and her father, John, encounter hardships that take much comfort and peace out of their existence. After a mill fire, John is unable to find work, and as a result, Mary's brother, a young boy, dies from "clemming," or starvation. The plot follows the struggles of the Bartons as well as their neighbors. One of the most heartbreaking struggles is that of the Davenports', who, due to the father not being able to find work, must live in a low-cost, dank, dirty cellar. Gaskell describes the scene in her usual frankness but with a delicateness that is characteristic of Victorian literature:

"It was unpaved: and down the middle a gutter forced its way, every now and then forming pools in the holes with which the street abounded. Never was the old Edinburgh cry of Gardez l'eau!** more necessary than in this street. As they passed, women from their doors tossed household slops of every description into the gutter; they ran into the next pool, which overflowed and stagnated. Heaps of ashes were the stepping-stones, on which the passer-by, who cared in the least for cleanliness took care not to put his foot...You went down one step even from the foul area into the cellar in which a family of human beings lived. It was very dark inside. The window-panes, many of them, were broken and stuffed with rags, which was reason enough for the dusky light that pervaded the place even at midday. After the account I have given of the state of the street, no one can be surprised that on going into the cellar inhabited by Davenport, the smell was so foetid as almost to knock the two men down. Quickly recovering themselves, as those inured to such things do, they began to penetrate the thick darkness of the place, and to see three or four little children rolling on the damp, nay wet brick floor, through which the stagnant, filthy moisture of the street oozed up; the fire-place was empty and black; the wife sat on her husband's lair, and cried in dark loneliness." ~Chapter 6

**literal translation: "Watch out for water!" This term was used in the Middle Ages in England to warn pedestrians to be careful of human waste, which was thrown from chamber pots out of windows and onto the streets.

To read this text truly wrung my heart because I know that Gaskell's descriptions come from what she saw and experienced in Manchester. Everything is black, wet, empty, almost as though the family is drowning in the pool of filth in which they reside. The last image of the children rolling on the wet floor, probably because they are hungry and trying to quell their aching for food, and the mother crying is a rather poignant one. It further shows that they are hopeless, helpless, reduced to living in the dark. It's interesting that Gaskell used the medieval reference, Gardez l'ieu!, in the text. It's as though she wanted her readers to realize that the idea of human waste in the streets is in fact a medieval idea and that those part of the progress of the Industrial Revolution should realize that the time for people to live in this animal-like manner should be long past. Alas, it was not.

Among the other hardships of the characters in Mary Barton are the absolutely heart-wrenching death of the Wilsons' very young (probably about six or seven years old) twin boys; the loss of sight, hearing and eventual stroke of Alice, a near relative of the Wilsons'; John Barton's gradual addiction to opiates and embittered state of mind; the blindness of Margaret, Mary's closest friend; and the general downfall of Mary's aunt, Esther, who runs away with a sailor, suffers through the death of her only child and becomes a ragged, wretched, alcoholic prostitute. Gaskell was indeed very graphic in the difficulties of her impoverished characters, and I'm sure this was the best way to stir her more affluent readers into action or at least into deeper thought of the lives of the poor.

The heroine, Mary Barton, is always effected in some way by all the hardships of the characters, which makes Gaskell a good weaver of relationships and relevance. As the tragedies of the people around her are laced into Mary's individual story, the reader will see Mary grow and change, eventually becoming a selfless, humble, sincere young woman. She is a character who, at first, is silly and materialistic and determined to live a life of comfort with the brash casanova, Harry Carson. She eventually learns that a life of comfort is not comfortable at all without love and regrets her refusal of the honest, hard-working Jem Wilson, who has dedicatedly loved her since they were children. From the moment she realizes the fact, which is--quite awkardly I have to say--very sudden, she sets out to make things right, only to see everything go wrong. It is at this point that the plot quickens and becomes engrossing. Murder, mystery, adventure: these words succintly describe the plot, which I will not reveal to you and spoil. However, this excitement in the story does not begin until about halfway through the book, so the novel does require some patience. Don't worry, though, I didn't lose patience (and some interest) like I did in Little Dorrit.

On the whole, I do recommend this novel. Though the plot is slow to pick up, Mary Barton presents a vivid and realistic description of the suffering of the poor, a page-turning adventure and memorable characters. Gaskell evens adds a touch of comedy and lightheartedness, so the novel is not so much a "heavy" read. The book is overall enjoyable, and it provides a great look into poverty during the Industrial Revolution. However, if you read Mary Barton, be sure to read North and South as well, as I think that this novel, written a few years after Mary Barton, shows a more developed Gaskell style.

Many writers during the Realist and Romantic movements questioned the changes that resulted from the Revolution and asked their readers whether these changes were a step forward or a step backward for humanity. If you would like to read up on the Industrial Revolution for some background, it's on Wikipedia here. Of course, you will not find in-depth information from this link. But for those who would simply like to know a little more, I think it suffices for quick reference and a good starting point for learning about this interesting era in history.

North and South: an enjoyable read and a lesson in mid-19th century social isssues

As I am a huge fan of Victorian realism novels, I am embarrased to admit that I only recently heard of Elizabeth Gaskell. I read North and South about a month ago, and I enjoyed it immensely. As the title indicates, Gaskell compares and contrasts southern English country life to northern English urban life. The heroine, Margaret Hale, moves with her family to Milton, a fictional mill city, which is likely representative of Manchester. As Margaret tries to understand her new surroundings and the starkly different lifestyle of city dwellers, Gaskell delivers images of squalid living conditions and the tried and tired mill workers among the poor. Margaret befriends a family in these conditions and sees their suffering and hardships firsthand. All the while, Margaret keeps encountering John Thornton, a no-nonsense, business-minded mill owner who is rough, as you find out through the novel, only around the edges. I won't give any details away about the plot, since you may want to read North and South and would be disappointed if I told you the whole story here.

Gaskell not only portrays the astonishing differences between the poor and the wealthy as well as the comfortable middle class (much like Dickens), but she also portrays impressive growth in her characters. I will say that Margaret Hale is one of my favorite heroines of classic literture, but halfway through the novel, I would not have said anything of the kind. After moving to Milton, the middle- and upper-class shelter in which Margaret has been encased is abruptly removed. Although her concern for the poor is sincere, she comes across as well...a bit whiney. But aren't we all at 18-ish? By the end of the novel, you admire Margaret and hope to embody some of her characteristics. And as far as John Thornton goes, let's just say that he's ideal. More ideal than Mr. Darcy, even. :)

I've often told others that I enjoyed North and South better than anything I've read by Jane Austen, which was all of Mansfield Park and about one third of Northanger Abbey. Perhaps if I give up watching the Kiera Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice for awhile, I'll read the novel and may have a different opinion. I can't compare Gaskell and Austen too much, though. After all, they each lived very different lives and wrote in different decades. I think it's fair to say that they both wrote about what they knew and wrote it well. However, I found more depth in characters, plot and social significance in North and South than in Mansfield Park.

Like I said, I didn't know much of anything about Elizabeth Gaskell until I decided to pick up North and South, which stemmed from my glancing at UCLA's reading list for their master's program in English. I encourage you to read more about her. She was the wife of a Unitarian minister, a mother of six, and a good friend and biographer of Charlotte Bronte. See her wikipedia article here.

And while we're on the subject, why didn't I know more about her? I was surprised that nothing I read in my undergraduate courses was written by her. In fact, many lit geeks like myself I've spoken to about this book say they haven't heard much about her either. Do you think Gaskell should be included in more undergrad reading lists? How about high school? Dickens is included in these lists, so why not Gaskell? She was highly commended by Dickens.