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Muzaffer Derya Nazlıpınar

Dr. Gamze Sabancı

Contemporary Approaches in Literary Criticism

27th February 2012

THE THEME OF WOMEN’S LABOUR IN GASKELL’S NORTH AND SOUTH

Reading Elizabeth Gaskell in the 2000’s is a startling experience, because the writer

once perceived as the quintessential Victorian lady can now be seen to confront problems

familiar to contemporary women, problems of which are still attempting to solve. Successful

at coordinating domestic duties and career, Gaskell fits the image of ‘superwoman’, a term

used in the 1970’s to denote a woman who could effortlessly merge her public and private

roles.

However, Gaskell has been long overestimated, and unfortunately, she has not always

been taken as seriously as she deserves. Indeed, she has been misrepresented as docile and

submissive limited by conventionality and by a religious orientation. Yet, given the

constraints of Victorian culture, Gaskell’s novels may in fact be seen as radical, because they

challenge widely held assumptions about the nature of women, their propose sphere, and their

participation in labour. Gaskell’s treatment of work, in particular, is revealing, for it can serve

as a testing-ground for her attitudes and purposes. Work, after all, is a site where the dominant

ideology operates as it encodes separate roles for men and women. By examining the theme

of women’s labour in Gaskell’s North and South, this study will try to show the dimensions in

her thinking and art that have not been fully recognized by the critics.

Gaskell lived in a century which was riddled with change based on industrialization

and its dramatic effects on the organization of labour, so her fiction is in many ways a

response to changes which were occurring in her lifetime. Discussions about the work during

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the Victorian period proceeded under the assumption that the worker is male. For example,

Carlyle links true work with masculine power as he invokes an image of a work force

“heaving, struggling, all shoulders at the wheel; their heart pulsing, every muscle swelling,

with man’s energy and will… warriors in the true war” (230). On the other hand, the

identification of labour with masculine failed with the actual participation of women in the

labour force. Within the factories, in increasing numbers, were female workers who had to

work despite the low wages and little prestige. More hidden was the labour which women

performed inside home. Not surprisingly, the issue of women’s work became a topic which

sparked much passionate discussion, because according to domestic ideology in Victorian

society, being a wife or being a mother was itself a vocation. While men’s work met with

social approval, women’s participation in the work force was often viewed as the source of

social problems, particularly the degeneration of the family. The effect of such an ideology

was not to separate women from the workplace but to separate them from power (Swindell

1986).

Popular fiction during Victorian period took a similar stance toward working women.

Writers frequently represented women’s victimization as resulting from their work, but the

subject of work was particularly relevant for women writers, who experienced personal

conflicts because of their desire to be regarded both as domestic and womanly, and also

because of their need as artists to assert themselves in the performance of work. For example,

Charlotte Bronte focuses on this traditional conflict in the partly autobiographical Jane Eyre,

in which the kind of work that is accessible to Jane does give full play to her talents and

faculties. For Bronte, womanly and artistic duties were perpetually in conflict. Likewise, in

Writing Beyond the Ending, Rachel Du Plessis points out the dilemma of the Victorian

women in a culture which severely limits their choices: lacking serious options in work, she

must define herself through romantic choice. As Du Plessis states, there were only two

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rightful endings of nineteenth century novels about women: successful courtship and marriage

or death, both of which are resolutions of romance. The search for an independent purpose,

for a life’s work, which was such an important part of masculine self-definition, was socially

unacceptable for women. Women artists who were not satisfied with the narrow boundaries of

experience prescribed for women either expressed in their fiction the frustration of being

denied the opportunity of defining one’s own work, or more rarely, offered an alternative

view of importance of a new kind of work for women.

Against this background, Elizabeth Gaskell is an example of the latter. Unlike her

contemporaries, Gaskell presents the process of finding one’s vocation as central to a

woman’s life. While she does not eliminate courtship from the female narrative, neither does

she offer it as the sole interest in a women’s life. Also, unlike many other women writers,

Gaskell views women’s labour as generally empowering and enriching. Her characters have

such a measure of control over the circumstances of their lives. In this sense, Gaskell is

interested in presenting her female characters as powerful, by exploring the process by which

they choose a direction of their lives, Gaskell links women’s work with their empowerment.

In her life, as well as in her fiction, Gaskell was interested in creating arrangements

that would make it possible for women to have marriage and family in addition to some sort

of separate vocation. Despite the unconventional nature of Gaskell’s proposal, she was

extremely successful “having it all” in an era which did not recognize women’s need for an

identity separate from their roles in the family. What is remarkable about Gaskell is that she

managed to maintain both a respectable public image as a devoted Victorian wife and mother

and to create a surprisingly modern household in which it was possible for her to pursue her

chosen vocation of writing. Most important, she dared to suggest fulfilling possibilities for

women which her culture had not imagined.

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Gaskell’s particular advantages as an upper middle-class woman, besides her personal

skill in turning her personal circumstances to her own advantage, enabled her to write.

Moreover, her educational experiences and the perspectives she absorbed from her Unitarian

training gave her the confidence in her own gifts she needed in order to attempt writing.

Especially, Unitarianism freed Gaskell from some of the conventional and limiting views

regarding women’s proper activities. One of Gaskell’s letters contains an explicit statement

about her view of work:

I do believe we all have all some appointed work to do, which no one else can do so

well; what we have to do in advancing the Kingdom of God; and that first we first find

out what we are sent into the world to do, and define it and make it clear to ourselves,

(that’s the hard part) and then forget ourselves in our work. (Letter 68)

Gaskell’s ideas about the issue of work for women and her belief in women’s potential

for labour is clearly seen in one of her second industrial novel, North and South. In this novel,

coming from a more genteel family background, Margaret Hale undergoes the process of

defining her proper work, firmly rejecting the notion that idleness is fitting to a lady and

coming to understand that she is responsible for her own life. A clergyman’s daughter,

Margaret moves with her father to industrial Lancashire, where her former comfortable life of

privilege and freedom is replaced by the rigors of urban life in perception of power, willingly

accepting the task of mediating between the agricultural South and the industrial North.

Initially an outsider, Margaret Hale moves between the two classes, serving as an effective

intermediary who promotes communication and understanding. Margaret comes to see herself

as involved in the public sphere and abandons the position of observer. Although sometimes

this creates dilemmas and even pain, it is also an enlargement of identity for Margaret.

The novel traces the maturation of Margaret Hale, whose comfortable life of privilege

and freedom is replaced by the rigors of urban life. An overriding theme is Margaret’s efforts

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to define her own work and to carry it out. In the process of discerning her proper work,

Margaret rejects the notion that only domesticity is fitting to a lady, and comes to understand

that “she herself must one day answer for her own life and what she had done with it” (275).

Rosemarie Bodenheimer suggests in The Politics of Story in Victorian Social Fiction that

Margaret’s struggle to define her life is “presented as a battle against forms of idleness” and

observes that “how she is to spend her days is an explicit issue” in the novel (63).

Actually, this is clear from the opening chapter, “Haste to the Wedding”, in which

Gaskell contrasts Margaret and her cousin, Edith, whose days are largely spent dressing for,

going to and recovering from balls. By linking daytime drowsiness with an indolent and

luxurious existence in some of her women characters, Gaskell aims to portray her protagonist,

Margaret, as deviating from Victorian norms of feminine behaviour. For Margaret, marriage

is not the primary end of her existence. She defines herself against the Victorian standard that

would require women to be continuously on display as candidates in the marriage market and

conceives new possibilities for herself and other women, because these preparations are “the

never-ending commotion about trifles that had been going on for more than a month past ...

oppressed [women]” (7).

Although Margaret displays more depth of a character and intellect than the socially-

constructed females, she still lives a similarly privileged life in a country parsonage, Helstone,

where her days are filled visits to the rural folk – taking them food, reading to them, nursing

their children. In her visits, Margaret seems to perform useful social work, but her position in

relation to her neighbours is that of gracious patroness obtained due to being the daughter of a

minister. That is, Margaret does not have a self-constructed aim and identity. It takes several

crises for her to get rid off from this narrow field of action, and to pass into a setting where

she can find her own work. The first is her father’s announcement that he can no longer be a

minister in the Church of England, and the consequent necessity of leaving Helstone. Her

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father’s decision to confide in Margaret about his intentions throws more responsibility on

her. He even confers the task of enlightening Mrs. Hale on his daughter. A process of

individuation and distancing begins for Margaret when she is forced to take a leading role in

the planning of move to Milton because of her mother’s illness. Reflecting on her former lie,

she realizes the irreversible change has occurred:

She felt that it was a great weight suddenly thrown upon her shoulders. Four months

ago, all the decisions she needed to make were what dress she would wear for dinner,

and to help Edith to draw out the lists of who should take down in the dinner parties at

home. Nor was the household in which she lived one that called for much decision.

(31-32)

Within patriarchal family, Margaret has been sheltered and protected from difficult

decisions, but this step taken with the move to Milton, “now Margaret could work, and act,

and plan in good earnest”(32). For the first time in her life, Margaret takes a leading role in

directing the shape of events as they relate to her family. Margaret’s new-found authority

begins to extend outward, as she interacts with those outside her family, and this extension

grows bigger when she settles down Milton. Upon arriving the hotel where the Hales are

staying temporarily, Margaret’s “straight, fearless, dignified presence” (39) influences John

Thornton, the wealthy manufacturer, and he is rather taken aback because Margaret “seemed

to assume some kind of rule over at him at once” (39). Thornton immediately realizes that

Margaret is no ordinary woman and responds to her powerful presence. Similarly, when the

doctor comes to see her mother, Margaret quickly takes over him “with an air of command”

(81), and wants him to tell her the truth about the illness of her mother as she is capable of

handling them. The doctor is honest with her and leaves feeling great admiration for the

strong young woman. Her mother’s terminal illness is another major crisis that requires

Margaret’s energies and shows her what she is capable of. Caring for mother requires

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Margaret physical as well as emotional stamina, particularly as she cannot share the trial with

her father, who is not as strong as Margaret. In fact, while relating the scenes in which

Margaret tends her ailing mother, Gaskell tries to respond her culture’s association of true

womanliness with the sick chamber. In contrast to Sarah Ellis, who believes that nursing is the

sphere within which true womanliness develops, Gaskell does not glorify the self-sacrificing

which is a requirement of tending the sick. Nor does she sentimentalize it as anything less

than arduous, draining labour. Margaret needs strength to be an effective nurse, and she

develops into even stronger woman as a result of the experience. Faced with the necessity of

performing physical work, Margaret comes to believe that labour is not incompatible with

being a lady, because she is now sure that she can “have it all” (273).

Living in Milton gradually leads Margaret to view herself as a woman who works,

especially her friendship with a working-class woman, Bessy Higgins, supports Margaret

while she moves toward her chosen work slowly. With her rural background, Margaret is at

first somewhat shocked at the manners of the urban working class, but then, her friendship

with the Higgins helps and strengthens her as she faces the difficulties. In order to be effective

in her new environment, Margaret must learn to accommodate herself to the working class.

Through Bessy, Margaret discovers the value of female friendship based on shared

experience, which involves for both women sacrifice and work. As Bessy shares the details of

her gruelling life with her new friend, Margaret recalls with some shame those former days

when “other people were hard at work in some distant place, while [she] just sat on the

heather and did nothing” (65).

The longer Margaret lives in Milton, the more she adapts the industrial setting and its

language, her attitudes and behaviour change as she earns a right to speak for the workers. A

wave of strikes provides Margaret to take the position of a mediator between the masters and

the workers since she knows the both sides very well. Now, Margaret has a chance to use her

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domestic skills out of the house “to authorize herself as an expert, masculinised observer of

the social” (Elliott 27). Realizing that the private sphere cannot remain inviolate from the

conflicts of the public sphere, she takes up the issue with John Thornton, forcing him to

examine and justify his own actions. When the strike reaches its peak, Margaret urges

Thornton to face them “like a man” and encourages him to “speak to [his] workmen as if they

were human beings” (117). As a social mediator, Margaret is very skilful to understand and

communicate with both sides, because she is familiar with each side’s language and attitudes.

Most importantly, she has the “force connecting public and private life” (Elliott 41). Now,

Margaret is in the territory which is considered by the Victorian society to be off limits to

women. However, Margaret is very content with this new sphere, in which women, like men,

share common human responsibilities (Lansburry 1975). Based on these responsibilities,

Margaret persuades John Thornton accept help from herself, a woman, and teaches him about

new social possibilities. By doing so, through Margaret, Gaskell inverts the conventional

notions of gender by showing a woman instructing a man. Regarded among his fellows as a

“man of great force of character; of power in many ways” (107), Thornton at first resists

Margaret’s attempts to involve herself between workers and employers. When an ominous

crowd gathers outside the Thorntons’ house, threatening the lives of the wealthy family

inside, Margaret chooses to make a public appearance before the mob. Relying on a woman’s

presumed inviolability to shield Thornton, she steps between him and the enemies. When he

tells her, “Go away... This is no place for you”, she encounters, “It is. You did not see what I

saw” (118). A pebble grazes Margaret’s head, knocking her down, and she suffers the

humiliation of being misunderstood for her effort to defend Thornton. Yet, she expresses

scorn for conventional standards for femininity: “I would do it again, let who will say what

they like of me. If I saved one blow, one cruel, angry action that might otherwise have been

committed, I did a woman's work” (126). When Margaret takes the powerful position of

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public mediator, she relinquishes her immunity from the scrutiny of many eyes, and makes

herself the subject of all kinds of disturbing speculations. Gaskell is explicit on this point:

If she thought her sex would be a protection,--if, with shrinking eyes she had turned

away from the terrible anger of these men, in any hope that ere she looked again they

would have paused and reflected, and slunk away, and vanished,--she was wrong.

(118)

Margaret is stared at, physically wounded, and finally proposed to – all as a

consequence of her presence on a public stage. In her treatment of john Thornton’s response

to Margaret’s act, Gaskell indicates that the interpenetration of the public and private.

Interestingly, Margaret asserts the public nature of her behaviour while Thornton wishes to

see her behaviour as only an expression of private feeling. When he declares his love to her,

she immediately resists, denying her conduct “was a personal act” and insisting that “any

woman, worthy of the name of woman, would come forward to shield ... a man in danger”

(129-130). He, on the other hand, claims the “right of expressing [his] feelings” (130). In this

scene, gender distinctions get turned completely upside down as the woman takes a public

stand on behalf of a man, and a man speaks for romance, the centre of the private world. As a

result of Thornton’s declaration, Margaret is forced to confront her acknowledged feelings

about him. The memory of Margaret’s action makes her even more desirable to him, and her

preoccupation with his reaction to her leads her to self-understanding. One implication here

seems to be that the benefits of acting in the public sphere will ultimately outweigh its costs.

Although Thornton resists the idea that women have a public function, he is more

willing to make an exception for an exceptional woman like Margaret, who comes to see

herself as a reconciliation and change. Thornton accepts Margaret’s assessment of the public

situation and moves toward a possible solution by offering work to Higgins, thereby initiating

a system in which managers and workers will form personal relationships.

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Gaskell sets in motion a series of events inverting conventional expectations involving

both gender and class. First, she represents a woman, rather than a man, initiating a change in

the way public affairs are conducted. Secondly, she represents a manager seeking to placate a

worker, rather than the other way around. Here, Gaskell tries to show how change breeds

more change and how a shift in the power structure can lead to more equitable social

arrangements. The resolution of the novel continues the pattern of inversion and points to the

inextricable union of the public and private through the marriage of the central characters.

Though the ending is so conventional in accordance with the Victorian romance, and gets the

reactions of some feminist critics claiming that this marriage instates Margaret and Thornton

within the private rather than the public sphere, Gaskell uses marriage as an expression of her

stated social agenda serving “as a mask that naturalizes what is unconventional in her vision

of women’s role” and a metaphor for “the newly constructed social sphere demonstrates both

the possibilities and the limitations of that space for a middle-class women”(Elliott 47-49).

Despite these limitations and difficulties, Gaskell affirms that it is possible to create better

social and private arrangements, and that the two spheres are tied together. That is, although

sometimes she is harshly criticised due to her conventional ideas, Gaskell’s willingness to

challenge the assumptions of her culture, particularly in regard to received ideas about the role

of women in the workplace, makes her engaging figure for the future readers. It is an

undeniable fact that, Elizabeth Gaskell, through her character Margaret Hale, at least

challenges the expectations of her patriarchal society and presents an alternative

representation of women and women’s realities.

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Works Cited

Bodenheimer, Rosemarie. The Politics of Story in Victorian Social Fiction. Ithaca: Cornell

University Press, 1988.

Carlyle, Thomas. The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. Vol. 23. Ed. Jane

Welsh Carlyle. Durham: N.C. Duke UP, 1970.

Cecil, David. Victorian Novelists. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934.

Davis, Deanna L. "Feminist Critics and Literary Mothers: Daughters Reading Elizabeth

Gaskell." Signs 17.3 (1992): 507-32.

DuPlessis, Rachel. Writing Beyond the Ending: Narrative Strategies of Twentieth-Century

Women Writers. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.

Elliott, Dorice Williams. “The Female Visitor and the Marriage of Classes in Gaskell’s

North and South”. Nineteenth-Century Literature 49.1 (1994): 21-49.

Ganz, Margaret. Elizabeth Gaskell: The Artist in Conflict. New York: Twayne, 1969.

Gaskell, Elizabeth. North and South. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1995.

______. The Letters of Mrs. Gaskell. Ed. J.A.V. Chapple and Arthur Pollard. Cambridge:

Harvard University Press: 1967.

Huber, Caroline P. "'Heroic Pioneers': The Ladies of Cranford." Gaskell Society Journal

21 (2007): 38-49.

Lansbury, Coral. Elizabeth Gaskell. Boston: Twayne, 1984.

Swindell, Julia. Victorian Writing and Working Women. Minneapolis: University of

Minnesota Press, 1986.