REZUMAT

After the marriage of her cousin with whom she was raised in London, eighteen-year-old Margaret
Hale happily returns to live with her parents in Helston, a small village in Hampshire, southern England.
However, his life was turned upside down when the doubts of his father, a minister who had become a
dissenter out of intellectual honesty, led him to leave the established Church. He decided to abandon his
parish and rectory of Helstone, to go as a private tutor to Milton-Northern, an industrial town in Darkshire
specializing in textiles, at the suggestion of his old friend Mr. Bell, himself born in Milton and owner of a
cotton mill, Malborough Mills.
First contacts are hard. The Hales arrive at the end of October, and Margaret discovers the misery
and difficult life of textile workers. She also meets John Thornton, the young head of Malborough Mills,
her father's favorite student, as proud as she is. She considers him harsh and unfeeling, even cruel, while
he sees in her a proud and haughty young woman who refuses to understand the convictions that animate
her, which does not prevent her from admiring and admiring her.
However, during the eighteen months or so she spent in Milton, Margaret gradually learned to
appreciate the Black Country and to love its workers, especially Nicholas Higgins, a Union official, and
her daughter Bessy, whom she befriended, before her death, ultimately caused by inhaling cotton dust.
His relationship with John Thornton is rather conflicted. A series of misunderstandings during the violent
events following a strike make them even more painful, and she defiantly refuses to marry him when he
proposes. The secret arrival of her exiled brother, whom their mother wishes to see again before she dies,
adds to the misunderstandings as she lies to protect him, denying that she was at the station one evening
when Thornton saw- o there The death of her mother, then her father a few months later, brought her back
to London, to her cousin, in the comfort and luxury of Harley Street.
During the year he spends in London, unable to forget Milton, he returns one day to Helston with
Mr. Bell, but Helston has lost its charm. She then confesses this lie to him which, she believes, has
discredited her in Thornton's eyes, but Mr. Bell dies before she sees the young man again, and Margaret
fears that she will never be able to justify her lie. John Thornton, for his part, learned to appreciate
Higgins, to know and understand his workers better, but his situation, weakened by the previous year's
strike, market uncertainty, and lack of financial reserves, deteriorated. He is forced to stop his production
and is forced to start again almost from scratch.
But Margaret is now of age and decides to take her destiny into her own hands. The death of Mr.
Bell, who made her an heiress, made her the owner of Malborough Mills , and she offers John Thornton,
when he comes to London, to help him financially to resume his activities, in disguise. love.

Private- domesticity, Public, stability, respectability

Gaskell's position
North and South belong to the canon of "condition of England" novels (also known as social-
problem, industrial or social novels) which analyse Victorian social realities, offering "first-hand detailed
observations of industrialism, urbanism, class, and gender conflicts". It attempts to answer questions
posed by contemporary changes positioning itself between the individual worker freedom championed by
John Stuart Mill (author of The Claims of Labor, published in the Edinburgh Review in 1845) and
developed by Thornton in Chapter 15 and the responsibility of employers to their employees promoted by
John Ruskin and Arthur Helps. It represents a certain paternalism, challenging the cutoff between public
and private spheres, freedom and responsibility, workplace and family life, trying to define a balance in
relations between employers and workers. Through Margaret and her father, Gaskell criticises the
autocratic model which infantilises workers and is defended by Thornton (who does not feel accountable
to his workers for his actions or decisions). She advocates for an authority which takes into account the
needs of workers, a social and economic contract as advocated by John Locke in Two Treatises of
Government, where masters and workers are in solidarity. After the strike, Thornton finally acknowledges
that "new forms of negotiation between management and labor are part of modern life";the strike, which
ruined him, was "respectable" because the workers depend on him for money and he depends on them to
manufacture his product.
In the class struggle which victimises some (such as Boucher and Bessy), Gaskell does not offer
definitive conflict resolution: Thornton's hope for strikes, for instance, is that they no longer be "bitter and
venomous". He and Higgins reach a level of understanding beyond a "cash nexus" through Margaret's
"ongoing involvement in the process of social change" by urging communication between masters and
workers. If the holders of economic power agree to talk to their workers, to consider them as human
beings (not tools of production), it may not eliminate social conflicts but will reduce their brutality.The
protagonists experience personal transformations which unite them in the end, what Stoneman calls a
"balanced emancipation".
According to Catherine Barnes Stevenson, Gaskell may have found women doing factory work
problematic; she often referred to "masters and men" and used one dying factory worker (Bessy) to
represent women workers, who constituted more than half the factory workers at the time. Stevenson
wrote that Gaskell's relative silence on female factory workers may reflect her struggle with the "triumph
of the domestic ideology" by the middle class of the mid-1800s. Gaskell hints at the difficulties families
such as the Hales have keeping female domestic workers (like Dixon) in their proper – subordinate –
place and becoming like members of the family (blurring class differences), a scenario facing industrial
workers as well.

Roles and functions

Margaret Hale: The protagonist, is proud and spirited and very fond of her parents (especially her
father). She is 18 years old at the start of the story, before she returns to Helstone, and has been living
mainly with her aunt (Mrs. Shaw) and her cousin Edith in London since she was nine years old.
John Thornton: Owner of a local mill, a friend and student of Margaret's father, and Margaret's love
interest.
Nicholas Higgins: An industrial worker whom Margaret befriends. He has two daughters, Bessy and
Mary.
Hannah Thornton: John Thornton's mother, who reveres her son and dislikes Margaret (especially after
Margaret rejects his proposal).
Fanny Thornton: John's younger sister.
Bessy Higgins: Nicholas Higgins' daughter, who is fatally ill from working in the mills.
Mary Higgins: Nicholas Higgins' youngest daughter.
John Boucher: A worker and the father of six children, who has conflicted emotions during the strike.
Richard Hale: Margaret's father, a dissenter who leaves his vicarage in Helstone to work as a private
tutor in Milton.
Maria Hale: Margaret's mother, from a respectable London family. At Helstone she often complains that
the air as too damp and "relaxing", and not good for her health.
Dixon: Servant of the Hales, who served Maria Hale before her marriage and is devoted to her. Dixon
disapproves of Richard Hale (who is socially inferior to Maria), and regards her mistress's marriage as her
social downfall.
Mr. Bell: Old friend of Richard Hale and godfather of Margaret.
Mrs. Shaw: Margaret's aunt, Edith's mother, and Maria Hale's sister. The widow of General Shaw, she
lives in Harley Street in London. Although she is well-off compared to Maria, she believes herself less
fortunate since she did not marry for love.
Edith: Margaret's pretty cousin, who is intellectually inferior to her, feeble-minded, innocent and spoiled
like a child, but not malicious and sees Margaret as a beloved sister. She marries Captain Lennox early in
the story.
Henry Lennox: Young lawyer and the brother of Captain Lennox. Meticulous and intelligent, he loves
Margaret and considers her "queenly". Margaret sees him as a friend, and rebuffs his romantic interest
early in the story.
Frederick Hale: Margaret's older brother, a fugitive living in Spain since his involvement in a mutiny
while serving under a cruel officer in the British Navy.
Leonards: Frederick's fellow sailor, who did not mutiny and wants to turn Frederick in for a reward
Miss Margaret Hale: She is eighteen years old at the beginning of the story and is happily
preparing to return permanently to her parent’s home in the parish of Helston, as her cousin Edith, with
whom she has grown up since the age of nine, is getting married and leaving England. Until then, she
only spent her vacations there.
She is serious and caring, likes to read and draw. Her father, a concerned and scrupulous man
whom she adores, relies heavily on her. What he confesses to him, the termination of his tenure and his
decision to go where "nobody knows Helstone" to "earn his family's bread" devastates him. But she is
strong ( Halemeans "vigorous"), brave and determined not to be defeated. In Milton, she matures greatly
in contact with Higgins and bravely endures successive trials and bereavement. Returning to London with
her cousin after the death of her parents, she does not appreciate the shallow and idle life she leads there.
When she comes of age, financially independent and free of family obligations, she decides to take charge
of her life. With the help of Henry Lennox, she learns to manage the fortune she has inherited.
She is beautiful, but not according to the canons of the time, rather a haughty beauty and a little
cold at first, with a reserve that makes you think she is contemptuous. Her generous curved mouth is a bit
too big and not "like a rose" . Her heavy raven hair (inherited from her father) contrasts with her ivory
skin, but she doesn't blush easily and looks at people honestly, not hesitating to give her opinion or ask
questions, which is not true. you are a well behaved victorian girl. Physically and morally, she resembles
her brother Frederick. She is proud (her father sometimes reproaches her for this), aware of her worth, but
with great intellectual honesty, which makes it difficult for her to bear the guilt of lying - a cardinal sinin
her eyes - which she must have. to protect her brother and which adds to the misunderstandings that build
up between Thornton and her and that she comes to admit that a number of prejudices she had against
Milton and Thorton were unfounded.
Mr. John Thornton
The head of the Marlborough Mills spinning mills is a willful man (Thorn is the thorn, the sting),
brave, used to fighting for him, life is a battle in which the strongest wins. Still a teenager, he had to
overcome the ruin and suicide of his father and rebuild the family fortune. He is tough, tenacious,
passionate, proud and does not allow himself to be easily diverted from what he has decided. Margaret
finds him to seem inflexible and Higgins compares him to a bulldog, who never lets go of what he has
grabbed. He is interested in technical progress and innovation. He is not a philanthropist, but practical: he
collects his industrial fumes not to comply with regulations, but because it saves him coal, allows the
creation of a canteen, because workers who eat better work better. Sincere, honest, he is listened to and
respected among his peers.
 He is tall with broad shoulders. His clear gaze is serious, penetrating, incisive. A rare, almost
childish smile, the first thing Margaret will love about him, sometimes lights up his face. In his thirties, he
falls deeply and permanently in love with Margaret, all the while being aware that she despises what he
stands for. Higgins finds that he has two incompatible personalities, the inflexible master and the
generous man because beneath his rigid industrial shell hides a sensitive heart and an ability to pay
attention to others. He feels for his mother’s affection and respect, for Mr. Hale a deep (mutual)
friendship.
PEOPLE FROM THE SOUTH
Margaret's father is the vicar of the small rural parish of Helstone, which does not bring him
much income. A cultured and scrupulous man, but restless, hesitant, and weak, always looking indecisive,
because he is divided between his family and social duties, he is convinced that he "must" leave the
Church, because he is "eaten. Of doubts" (smoldering doubts). Therefore, he becomes a dissident ( a
dissident). The nature of her doubts is not specified - Margaret does not dare to ask her, which adds to the
inconsistency and vagueness of the character. Only their consequences appear, for himself (a change of
situation and even a loss of social status) and for his family: for his wife, painful misunderstanding and
the probable acceleration of his illness, for his daughter, family and domestic responsibilities and
obligations. adapt to a very different society. In that sense, he is a functional character. The exile of his
son and the death of his wife affected him deeply.
There are several possible designs for Mr. Hale. Elizabeth Gaskell was inspired by her own father,
William Stevenson, professor at Manchester New College and Unitarian minister at Dob Lane Chapel,
who left the ministry in 1792 on grounds of conscience and was a farmer, publisher, writer, before
settling in London in 1806. Even though this event happened before her parents were married, she
suffered the consequences throughout her childhood. But she also mentioned, in a letter to William
Fairbairn in 1855, that she knew a "clergyman who left the Church for matters of principle and in that
sense he did perfectly well, but [whose] daily life is a constant regret he did not admit because he had
done it, although he would do it again if it should be done".
Mrs. Maria Hale
Margaret's mother, Miss Maria Beresford, and her elder sister, "The Two Rutlandshire Beauties „,
were wards of Sir John and Lady Beresford, of Beresford Court, Torquay. He made a love marriage, not
very financially satisfactory, even though the position of a clergyman it is socially honorable. She has
retained a certain noble pride, which prevents her from going to her niece's wedding, as her husband
cannot afford a new toilet for the occasion. He complains easily when he lives in Helstone, but sees
leaving for Milton as a real social degradation. He is true of fragile health. The illness she has suffered
from for a long time, which her faithful Dixon helps her hide and from which she eventually dies, is not
specified, but Margaret extracts from Dr. Donaldson "two short sentences" that make her turn pale and
hide as long as possible. to his father about the seriousness of his mother's condition. She also suffers
from the absence of her beloved son Frederick and hopes to see him one last time before she dies.
Lieutenant Frederick Hale, Margaret's older brother, had to go into exile in South America to
escape a Royal Navy death sentence for his involvement in a mutiny on the Orion. With no hope of being
pardoned, since he could produce no witnesses for the defense, he decided to rebuild life under another
name in Cadiz, Spain, where he married DOLORES Barbour, a Papist, to Dixon's annoyance. He risked
returning to England to see his dying mother again.
The character is probably inspired by Elizabeth's older brother John Gaskell, who was in the
merchant marine and disappeared at sea around 1827 when he was 18.
Dixon
 Mrs. Hale's maid, who is fifty years of age, was already in her employ when she was the young
and pretty Miss Beresford. Attached to "rank" and grandeur, she "always looked upon Mr. Hale as the
scourge that destroyed the future prospects of his young mistress," but did not want to leave her when he
married and follows her to Milton. He serves her with loyalty and affection. Frederick was her favorite,
but she admired Margaret's strength of character. He looks down on the people of Milton and is glad to
return to London to serve Margaret.
LONDONERS
Mrs. Shaw: Margaret's aunt, the beautiful Miss Anna Beresford, is now a wealthy, self-centered,
somewhat hypochondriac widow, used to seeing herself as the victim of a marriage of convenience. In
fact, she married without special affection a rich general, but much older than her, and she imagines that
her sister Maria, who made a love marriage but with a clergyman of very modest income, is happier that
she lacks nothing. She owns a house in Harley Street, a posh part of London. Her income allows her to
travel and go on holiday to different cities in Italy when her daughter is in Corfu.
Edith Shaw :
Margaret's cousin, who is only a year older than her, is a spoiled child, very cute, capricious and
useless. At nineteen she married Captain Lennox and accompanied him to Corfu where her regiment was
stationed. They do not return to England until after the birth of their little boy, Sholto, who does not
support the climate of the island. She gives birth to their second child at the time of Mr. Hale's death.
"Margaret loves her with all her heart" and loves Margaret "with the piece of her heart she has" ( as much
of her heart as she can spare ) said Mr. Hale. Delighted to welcome her home when she is an orphan, she
nevertheless fears his independent spirit and laments his lack of flirtatiousness.
Captain Lennox: Edith met this handsome, nonchalant officer (whom she sometimes calls Cosmo,
sometimes Sholto) at a dinner where he reluctantly accompanied her mother, and they liked each other.
He is especially proud of his wife's beauty, elegance and perfect manners. Amiable, courtly, unambitious,
he sold his patent to return to London, where he leads the vain and frivolous life of the idle rich.
Henry Lennox: This bright young lawyer, ambitious but penniless ( due to birthright), is the
younger brother of Captain Lennox. He is attracted to Margaret to the point of coming to Helstone to
propose, a few months after Edith's wedding to her brother, despite his lack of wealth and convinced that
he is not indifferent to her. But she pushes him gently. She would not see him again until three years later,
when she returned to London after the death of her parents. First helping her try to defend Frederick, he
became her financial adviser when, on Mr. Bell's death, he suddenly found himself a very wealthy
landowner and building owner in Milton. Edith, unaware that she has already turned him down, would
like him to marry her cousin to create a warm family cocoon around her. Margaret appreciates her skill,
intelligence and decision-making spirit, but less appreciates her sarcastic and caustic side. The narrator
suggests that he is calculating and dry hearted. Reuniting with her when she returns to live in London and
admiring her latent beauty and intellectual abilities, he considers using the opportunities he has to meet
and advises her to try to win her over now that she is a wealthy woman. allow him an extraordinary social
rise. Elizabeth Gaskell leaves the reader guessing as to why she finally gives up, telling Edith, emerging
from a three-hour lecture with Margaret, "I've already wasted too much time here" and "Miss Hale
wouldn't like". And I won't ask her to marry me, „leaving the field open to John Thornton.
The people of Milton:
They are divided into two antagonistic categories, the rich bosses and bankers on the one hand, the poor
workers, the "labor force" ( hands ) on the other. The latter Margaret sees first, touched by their misery,
their harsh pride, and their great dignity. Elizabeth Gaskell reproduces their dialect terms and their
particular pronunciation.
Higgins. Nicholas Higgins: Fat, intelligent worker, even if he happens to drink a little too much, he is a
respectable member of the "Union" (today we would say a "unionist") who called the strike when the
bosses cut costs. He has two daughters, Bessy, who is the same age as Margaret, and Mary, two years
younger. He gradually becomes friends with Margaret, whom he appreciates with sincerity and affection
for Bessy. Despite their initially conflicted relationship, he and John Thornton, thanks to Margaret, learn
to talk to each other on a human-to-human basis and gradually form a kind of friendship. When the ruined
Thornton must stop production, Higgins will present him with a petition, signed by all the workers willing
to return to work as soon as he is able to work. The character is heavily inspired by George Cowell, one
of the leaders of Preston Long Strike . Local journalist Charles Hardwick described him as a calm,
intelligent, healthy man with "a strong and quite active mind" . But Cowell was also a decidedly sober
Methodist .
Bessy Higgins: Nicholas Higgins' eldest is the same age as Margaret Hale. An innocent victim of the
industrial system, she suffers from what is not yet called an occupational disease , an inflammation of the
bronchi induced by the continuous breathing from her childhood of cattle and cotton dust. Humble,
enthusiastic and very religious, he especially likes the Apocalypse of Saint John, which he often quotes,
and enlightens Margaret on several topics related to the working of Milton and the psychology of his
workers. He died shortly after the strike ended.
Maria: Bessy's young sister, a tall, abrupt, silent girl, goes to work in a fountain-cutting shop during the
strike, because, as Bessy says, "We must live." We will not get there with what the union gives us" . She
worked with the Hales for a while, then took care of the little butchers her father more or less adopted
after their parents died. Then he comes to help the cook of the canteen created in Marlborough Mills.
The Thorntons. Mrs. Thornton: Hannah Thornton has an exclusive and jealous love and boundless
admiration for her son. She is a whole, strong, austere woman, with the same stamp as him, proud of what
she built and revolted by its ruin. He has an unconscious contempt for the weak, ignores intellectuals
(lazy) and southerners (sissies). She dislikes the Hales, Margaret's "big tunes" in particular, admitting to
herself that she has character. She is relieved to learn that he does not want to marry her son but is furious
that she is making him suffer and has not recognized his worth. Shy, she is not used to social events.
Underneath a cold and angry air "was actually hiding a tender soul" . He lost a little girl once.
Fanny Thornton :John's sister is spendthrift, demanding and shallow, much to the dismay of her
mother who surrounds her with attention because she knows she is weak and fearful. She will marry
Watson, the owner of the factories "beyond Hayleigh". It is "a very good marriage" because he is rich but
much older than her.
John Boucher : It symbolizes the imprudent, weak, characterless worker, unable to control his
sexuality, a traditional image among moralists and economists of the poor, ultimately destroyed by the
system because, morally depraved, he has no will to leave. That he has Irish blood aggravates his case, so
tenacious is the national prejudice against the Irish. His mocking death emphasizes his character as a
victim: in the end he showed courage, but only that of killing himself. His wife was ill and died shortly
after him, and many of his children were too young to work, as the oldest was only eight years old.
Leonards : The son of a Southampton clothier, "a wicked scoundrel who nearly killed his father
with grief," according to Dixon, he became a sailor and was on the Orion when Frederick was lieutenant
there under Captain Reid, and that he was involved in this riot for which he was sentenced to death in
absentia . He wants to report him to collect his reward.
Mr. Bell : This old friend, who is about sixty years of age, and suffers from chronic attacks of the
gout , which suggests that he is a great lover of good food, is a former colleague of Mr. Hale, now a
fellow of Plymouth College, Oxford . Born in Milton, he owns the land on which Malborough Mills were
built , for which Thornton pays rent, but hates what his home town has become, preferring to live in
Oxford. A caustic-spirited old boy, he discovered a fatherly affection for Margaret, the literal and
figurative "Pearl" in his eyes.
Doctor Donaldson: Thorntons' family doctor, he helps Mrs. Hale through the last days of her
illness, easing her pain to the best of his ability. She could not hide from Margaret the seriousness of her
mother's condition, and she admired the young girl's proud courage.
HELSTON The small parish of Helstone is located in Hampshire , a heavily wooded agricultural region,
the New Forest , west of Southampton . For Margaret, this place "is like a village in a Tennyson poem "
and she returns happily to live with her parents in the poor little parish. The local society is quite small,
but Margaret can spend long hours walking in a nature with peaceful and harmonious landscapes. Once in
Milton, Margaret further idealizes her homeland, the peaceful life in tune with the seasons. But when
Higgins, after the strike, proposes to go and work in the south as a farm hand, she discourages him,
pointing out all the disadvantages of the peasant world: poor food, while he is used to eating meat.,
difficult work in the open air, the dampness that brings rheumatism ... Later, during the summer after her
father's death, she returns there on pilgrimage with Mr. Bell. If the landscapes still delight her and the
innkeeper, Mrs. Purkis, welcomes her with joy, she discovers that in three years the paradise of her
childhood has changed a lot: the trees have been felled, the small schools have grown up., The rectory is
transformed by its new occupants, Hepworth, a priest member of a Temperance Leagueand his large
family. He is horrified to discover hints of paganism and witchcraft in the backward practices of peasant
women. She is initially overwhelmed by change and disappointment, but it doesn't last: The ordinary
sounds of life were there more harmonious than anywhere else in the whole world, the light more golden,
the existence quieter and fuller of delicious reveries. She understands that for her this place will always
remain the most beautiful in the world, but now it is part of her past: it is too loaded with happy memories
and she does not want to return.
MILTON-NORTHEN The big, smoky, noisy working-class cotton town is inspired by Manchester,
where Mrs. Gaskell had lived since her marriage in 1832, which explains why her description of the
working-class town is well documented. The industrial revolution certainly made the city rich, but it also
made much of the population miserable. Milton is shown to Margaret, who approaches her by train with
her father to look for a house to rent there, first visually under a thick gray cloud blocking the horizon,
then olfactory: a slight taste and smell of smoke. Along the railways, the straight, deserted streets are
lined with identical brick cottages, with here and there the "rectangular mass of great factories" belching
out "unparliamentary" black smoke. Main Street, New Street, was once a lane whose widening thirty
years earlier had increased the value of Mr. Bell's properties. The streets are crowded with all kinds of
vehicles carrying raw cotton and cotton products; and while the passers-by appear properly dressed, the
scrupulous and careless aspect of their attire strikes Margaret, accustomed to the "shabby clothes of
ragged elegance" of poor Londoners. The local newspaper is simply called the Milton Times. Hales finds
accommodation in the healthiest neighborhood, Crampton, on Crampton Crescent. The Higgins live at 9
Frances Street, "the second entrance on the left after the Golden Dragon „ in the slums of the Princeton
district; The Thorntons live in Marlborough Street, about two miles from Crampton, in a fine house built
"some fifty or sixty years earlier," but now adjoining the noisy factory and warehouses. The passing of
the seasons is only visible in the city through the "yellow mists of November", rising food prices and
sticky humidity in winter, the "sad gloomy spring sun" (long sunny days of spring), and the oppressive
heat of summer.

Title
 The novel's title North and South (originally called Margaret Hale, after the principal character,
until Charles Dickens made Gaskell change it) focuses on the difference in lifestyle between rural
southern England, inhabited by the landed gentry and agricultural workers, and the industrial north,
populated by capitalist manufacturers and poverty-stricken mill workers; the north–south division was
cultural and geographical. The story centers on haughty Margaret Hale, who learns to overcome her
prejudices against the North in general and charismatic manufacturer John Thornton in particular. Gaskell
would have preferred to call the novel Margaret Hale (as she had done in 1848 for her novel Mary
Barton), but Dickens prevailed. He wrote in a 26 July 1854 letter that "North-South" seemed better,
encompassing more, and emphasizing the opposition between people who are forced by circumstances to
meet face-to-face.
Working on the final chapters of the novel in December at Lea Hurst, Florence Nightingale's
family home near Matlock in Derbyshire, Gaskell wrote that she would rather call her novel Death and
Variations because "there are five dead, each beautifully consistent with the personality of the
individual". This remark, although probably a joke, emphasizes the importance of death in the story.
Death affects Margaret profoundly, gradually encouraging her independence; this allows Gaskell to
analyze the character's deep emotions and focus on the social system's harshness in the deaths of Boucher
and Bessy.

Feminine and masculine roles

The notion of separate spheres dominated Victorian beliefs about gender roles, assuming that the
roles of men and women are clearly delineated. Public life (including work) is within the masculine
domain, and private life (domesticity) is within the feminine. The expression of feelings is considered
feminine, and aggression is seen as masculine. Resolving conflict with words is feminine, and men are
likely to resort to physical resolution (including war). The mistress of the home is the guardian of
morality and religion and "The Angel in the House". The public sphere is considered dangerously amoral
and, in the work of authors such as Dickens, disasters ensue when characters do not conform to
contemporary standards.

Narrator and focalization

Third-Person Omniscient. At first, it might seem like the narrator of this book is third-person
omniscient, since it sticks pretty closely to Margaret Hale's point of view. But as the story gets going, the
narrator seems to get more and more comfortable with bouncing around between different characters and
perspectives. One of the first major breaks from Margaret's point of view occurs in Volume 1, Chapter 9,
which tells us "[in] Mr. Thornton's house, at this very same time, a similar, yet different. This sudden
flash to a completely different house shows us that the narrator is totally capable of moving around. One
weird aspect about the point of view in North and South is that there are parts of this book where the
narrator uses the word "I." This ain't third-person omniscient at all. But these incidents are so rare that
you're better off calling this book third-person omniscient. One of these "I" cases happens at the end of
Volume 2, Chapter 4, where the narrator says, "But [Mr. Thornton] was no great analyzer of his own
motives, and was mistaken, as I have said." While these rogue "I's" might make you want to label this
book's point of view as first-person, don't. Overall, it leans way more toward third-person omniscient.

Margin – center
 Why did Elizabeth Gaskell write North and South? Elizabeth Gaskell lived during the great
upheavals caused by the industrial revolution. She was well aware of the difficult living conditions and
health problems of Manchester workers. His concern for historical accuracy is well known. In North and
South, she uses one of the causes of conflict between bosses and workers, the installation of ventilators in
card shops, to show that the greed of some and the ignorance of others hinder social progress; echoes, but
does not insist on, the extremely strong anti-Irish prejudice in a city where they are a very strong
minority. Through Thornton's reasoning, she exposes industrial conceptions and reasoning. Mrs.
Thornton brutally expresses what the bourgeoisie think of workers: they are „ungrateful dogs" and about
the union: "paid delegate scoundrels".

Themes: 1
North vs. South. The title of Gaskell's novel details the central conflict in the text, North vs. South. The
North represents modern industrialisation whereas the South represents the traditional rural world. These two ways
of life were still battling for dominance when Gaskell was writing North and South. Margaret can be seen as
representing the southern way of life while John Thornton represents the northern. John Thornton exemplifies new
industry and opportunities as he has built himself up from poverty.
Love. North and South is also a love story between Margaret Hale and John Thornton. Because they
represent the north and south, this is also linked to the previous theme. At the beginning of Gaskell's novel, the two
are very different people and agree on little. Margaret thinks John is too harsh and he thinks her too snobby. But
they develop a respect for each other as North and South progresses. Margaret convinces John to be more humane
and use his money for charitable purposes. And Margaret's interactions with John teach her to accept others' points
of view and to respect those who have made money in new industries.

2. Authority and rebellion An important theme is that of rebellion against authority when it is
seen as unjust. And the official authorities, whether they are the Church, the Navy, or even the University,
are shown to be self-absorbed, inhuman, or selfish, and therefore fallible. At the center of the novel is the
strike of workers who just want "to be able to feed their children" (They have food for their child). Their
helpless struggle is like a war, the terms of which are dictated by those who maintain their power by
force.
But first there are Hale's various rebellions: Mr. Hale breaks with the official Church whose
rigidity he no longer supports and forces his family into exile in the North; Frederick Hale, involved in a
mutiny against an inhuman captain, lives in forced exile and even his mother approves of what he has
done, "more proud to see him stand against injustice than if he had been a good officer". Margaret herself
often acts differently from what is expected of her, demonstrating her individual freedom in the face of
conveniences and laws: she refuses to marry an ambitious lawyer, she defies established power by lying
unflinchingly to the police officer in order to -protect his brother. . She learned from him that if loyalty
and obedience are due to one who wields power wisely and justly, "it is more beautiful to challenge an
arbitrary power, if it is unjust and cruel, not for oneself, but in the name of those who are more unhappy" .
Therefore, the theme of power is also central. Thornton is a man of power, he actually represents
three aspects of the authority of the ruling class: he is a recognized chief among his peers (economic
power), he is a magistrate (judicial power), he calls on the army (political power) to quell the rebellion.
Margaret admires the "energy, strength, indomitable courage in battle" she sees in the people of Milton.
She shows herself to be a woman of power from her first meeting with Thornton, then in her verbal
contests with him, forcing him to think about the validity of his power, and finally causing him to lose
sight of workers as mere perpetrators. intelligent individuals capable of thinking. When she came of age,
at 21, she took charge of her life, determined to rule it according to her own tastes and" to perform the
duties of his choice, since he had neither husband nor children" . And finally, she masters the financial
vocabulary and participates in the management of the property inherited from Mr. Bell.
Head woman in the Victorian Era Two types of women are presented through the two cousins,
Edith Shaw and Margaret Hale. Edith, at the beginning of the novel, is sleeping and is compared to
Sleeping Beauty and Titania , waiting for the arrival of Prince Charming to wake them up. It symbolizes
the feminine ideal of the Victorian era : beauty, innocence, purity. In the end, she proves herself a perfect
hostess, with a shallow and vain social life, content to fill her time with outings, dinners, receptions,
frightened by her cousin's freedom of mind.
The character Margaret Hale has traits of her creator and reflects the latter's admiration for the
action of Florence Nightingale, which feeds her reflections on the roles that women of her social class can
play in society. She is brave, independent, not interested in the usual ladies' topics of conversation:
clothing, marriage, jewelry. He reads, walks with a determined step, tries to understand others. She does
not behave with that "modesty" considered to be the fundamental feminine quality by Victorian standards.
She even has a physical "presence" that draws the male gaze, Lennox's, Thornton's, and the workers on
the streets of Milton. But she constantly asserts another feminine value, much more essential in her
eyes,"the need to preserve life" in the context of class struggle and acts as a mediator, pushing Thornton
and Higgins to talk to each other as men of heart., not from commander to employee. She is constantly
torn between her moral need to act honestly and the need to behave with the necessary "feminine
modesty". Thornton, although he defends her in public, finds it difficult to understand and accept this
"dual" nature, "practically unable to separate Una from Duessa " when he dreams of her.
This is why he refuses to admit that he has personal reasons to protect Thornton or that he is lying
to the police inspector: to act as he did in the face of the riots or to be out at night with an unknown young
man. it is not done when you are an "honest" young woman. Her feminine modesty suffers from knowing
how everyone interprets her gesture of keeping Thornton after urging him to endanger himself: "I have
done well, [...] wearingfool me ' ( I did something good [... of] being ashamed of myself ): the virtue of a
Victorian lady and the Christian virtue of charity are incompatible. Unable, at this point, to admit that she
already felt an attraction to Thornton, Margaret greeted his marriage proposal as "a prisoner falsely
accused of a crime she hated and despised", as well as refusing to consider the idea that she might have
mistaken Frederick for a lover and be jealous of him. When she learns from the policeman that she knows
and is hiding her lie, she feels disproportionately guilty. She imagines herself degraded, humiliated, fallen
to the end in her eyes. She falls silent and begins to blush under his gaze, something she has never done
before.
Masculine and feminine spheres
The notion of "reserved domains", separate spheres , the public sphere reserved for men and the
domestic sphere the responsibility of women, is a commonly accepted idea in the Victorian era . While
the expression of feelings is considered to be reserved for women (who thus have free time to cry, blush,
faint... when they are not working), men are in a relational mode that favors aggression, considered a
quality masculine. Bessy also presents the struggle between bosses and workers as "the great battle of
Armageddon " and Mrs. Thornton as a war. The ideal housewife is also the domestic guardian of
morality and religion, the angel of the house, while the public sphere is seen as dangerously amoral. In the
works of authors such as Dickens , catastrophes occur when characters do not conform to the dominant
norm, but in North and South this notion of "reserved domains" is called into question.
Mr. Hale is benevolent but also a weak and unresolved man, aptly described as "feminine" and
"delicate" in his demeanor, and Frederick is overwhelmed with grief at his mother's death, while Margaret
is driven by circumstances to behaves "masculine" : to arrange Helstone's departure for his parents and,
once at Milton, to learn to "carry the burden alone" and give courage to his father, "behaving like
Romain's daughter". As Higgins slips and her father trembles in terror, he tells Mrs. Boucher of her
husband's death and cares for the whole family with dedication and efficiency. For her mother, she takes
the initiative to bring her brother and then protects his departure. In the end, she even invested in the male
world, as she manages the fortune inherited from Mr. Bell.
Thornton and Higgins, on the other hand, don't deny their masculinity by letting their hearts speak.
Higgins, in particular, whom Thornton considers a " perfect demagogue , loving power at any cost to
others" , by welcoming and raising the little butchers, embodies the maternal values of tenderness (which
Mrs. Thornton lacks) and strength (which Mrs. Hale doesn't have it) with great dignity. For John
Thornton, the narrator states that "there was tenderness in his heart, what Nicholas Higgins called a 'soft
spot' ( a soft spot ), but he showed some pride in hiding it". This capacity for sympathy, which he has
difficulty in expressing, can be seen in the private sphere, in his affection for his mother, or in the tender
attentions he gives to Hales. Finally, he manifests himself in the public sphere, when he develops human
relationships with his workers and no longer has purely financial relationships ( the cash connection ) and
when he presents the results of his "experiments" to the MP, Mr. Colthurst. This even goes as far as the
total confusion between the public and private spheres in the establishment of a canteen for the factory
staff (the preparation of meals which usually falls within the internal sphere), canteen where they are
sometimes invited to participate. workers.
In the final chapter, Thornton and Margaret converge and both have learned the "way of
humility" . They have partially freed themselves from the shackles of separate spheres : he has
"experienced" friendships at work, she asserts her independence from the kind of life a good young
woman of her time should lead, the one led by her cousin They. It is she who initiates their meeting,
which he presents as a business discussion and which he chooses to interpret as a statement, himself
speaking in "a voice trembling with tender passion" . Elizabeth Gaskell wondered how to end her novel,
keen not to weaken Thornton's masculinity, whose character must remain"cohesive with himself, strong
and firm and tender, and yet a master " . In the final scene, they find themselves for a moment in the
same position as during the riot, but now she is in financial control of the situation and he is in emotional
control. The last two lines show that there is no longer a northern industrialist and a southern lady face to
face, but only "a man" ( that man ) and "a woman" ( that woman ).

Time, order, frequency and duration

Time- North and South is a social novel published in 1855 by English writer Elizabeth Gaskell
The story begins in 1792 when Mr. Hale leaves the parish for reasons of conscience and settles in
London in 1806 with his family.