Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
•Industrial novel that addresses both public and political life from domestic perspective; domestic fiction
•The novel explores the subjective experience of social hierarchy and the resultant category confusion that occurs when reciprocal recognition cannot be achieved
•Margaret Hale was critical of Thornton's industrial capitalism until she could moralize his business practices
•However, Margaret's dominance over Thornton occurs through the accumulation of inherited wealth, so the union between industrialized social classes is a myth because it is only achieved by rare circumstances involving love, marriage, and inherited wealth
•Margaret's privilege (race, inherited wealth) is not threatening to masculinity's superiority, but she threaten the boundaries between gendered public/private life later in the novel. Because she eventually earns her transgression of these boundaries when she inherits ownership of Thornton's business, she is portrayed as the evolving "angel of the house" and moral compass to Rochester's industrialist masculinity
•Margaret was a part of the socialistic bourgeois with her fascination with Bessy's lower-class life. Still, she only desired to be educated about their class differences, like Bessy’s hazardous working conditions and her father’s potential participation in a workers’ strike. Margaret extended her individual sympathy without acknowledging ways she could contribute to change, like advocating for Mr. Higgins with his boss and her friend, Thornton. Instead of instituting material changes to the Higgins’ lives, Margaret denies herself guilt for the pain of the working class by interjecting herself into their lives as a moral influence.
-
-
-
