Theme Of Industrialism In Mary Barton

Elizabeth Gaskell, within her novel Mary Barton, appears stuck in this dichotomy. Greenblatt stipulates that the novel ‘portrays the painful consequences of industrialism’ , which suggests Gaskell sympathises with the working class, something that is certainly prevalent throughout. However there also seems to be elements that suggest she is fearful of potential working class violence, something that Greenblatt overlooks in his statement. Eagleton highlights the issues of this contradiction by suggesting ‘that on one hand, she is sympathetic to the working class, but on the other hand she is both profoundly puzzled as to how the situation could be resolved and is fearful of possible violence’ . In Eagleton’s argument, Gaskell is presented as

Guy uses alcohol as an example to argue that Mid-Victorian authors ‘tended to see drunkenness as a form of personal immorality’ going further to suggest that there was a failure to connect these social issues ‘with other problems such as poverty and unemployment’ . In essence, this argument generalises an idea that the view on recreational evils such as alcoholic and drug abuse Victorians is a personal rather than a social problem. Whilst this may be the case on a majority scale, Guy fails to provide any evidence of Victorians that fail to recognise the apparently updated idea that drug and alcohol abuse is closely related to the social issues more prevalent in the Condition of England

This is signified through her authorial narrators voice where she directly addresses the readers ‘"But before you blame too harshly this use, or rather abuse, try a hopeless life, with daily cravings of the body for food. Try, not along being without hope yourself, but seeing all around you reduced to the same despair, arising from the same circumstances; all around you telling…that they are suffering and sinking under the pressure of want. Would you not be glad to forget life, and its burdens? And opium gives forgetfulness for a time." Clearly, Gaskell adheres to Guy’s suggestion that the Victorian public, tend to see drug abuse as an example of individual immorality. However, Gaskell distances herself from this view, by portraying drug abuse as a product of the ‘hopeless life’ that John Barton has suffered. This close reading shows that certainly, in the case of Gaskell, there are instances where she is able to connect social issues such as drug abuse, with other social situations that require a form of social change to eradicate them. Guy’s limitation within his own argument here is that there is a failure to recognize a select few who differentiate themselves from his generalisation. In my view he would be more correct in signifying a majority rather than an entirety, because,