Summary Of Elizabeth Gaskell's 'North And South'

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The fictional story of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is an engaging story of realism, pastoral dialect and family drama. The protagonist of the story, Margaret Hale is very well educated. She begins her life in South England, in a hamlet called Helstone. She is uprooted by her father, a pastor who by conscience feels he can no longer serve the church of England, to the industrial Northern town of Milton. Margaret’s first impression of the town is negative but over time she learns to empathise with a man named John Thornton, an owner of one of the main factories in Milton. Conflict arises when the two main characters share two different ideals, Thornton thinks he has the right to pay his employees whatever wage he chooses. Whereas Margaret believes the he is morally obligated to pay as …show more content…

You see the source for every tradition is from family. Clearly Margaret’s traditions have been deeply predisposed by her parents. The same can be said for Mr. Thornton. In his case you can see how possessive his mother is of him. During this era the “key to entrepreneurship was the family.” “Resources could be manipulated by strategic marriages.” Thornton’s mother numerously mentioned her distaste for Margaret to her son using her economic status as reasoning. "What business had she, a renegade clergyman 's daughter, to turn up her nose at you!” She was irritated when she heard that Margaret acted arrogantly toward her son. In her opinion, your only worth anything, if you have money. But in retrospective Mrs. Thornton thinks her son is the best thing to ever walk this earth. “Boy and man, he 's the noblest, stoutest heart I ever knew. I don 't care if I am his mother; I can see what 's what, and not be blind." Family provides structure and models how children and later adults should treat the people surrounding us. Both characters in the book treat people the way they were raised too. This novel has an array of family

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