Mary Barton - Elizabeth Gaskell

Mary Barton is another of those mid-19th century novels about the working class in industrial Britain. It is apparently one of the earliest novels of this sort, and may be worth reading for that reason alone. I'm not sure that all of you will have the patience for the melodrama, and this style of writing, but if you do it's an interesting book. The story follows Mary, her father John, their family friends and her suitors, through a simple enough plot involving a murder and subsequent trial (and some remarkable coincidences, of course). Compared to authors such as Thomas Hardy, Gaskell avoids the idealisation of working class life - in fact, she emphasises the hardships - but a strong religious element rather blunts the effect, and I expect that people with more Marxist views will disagree with her beliefs.

My political science lecturer pointed out in one of our classes that people who lead revolutions (at least the 'People's Revolutions' kind) tend to be well off - not the people that the revolutions are meant to help. This could be extended to say that authors of books protesting the 'condition of the working class' are also generally middle class and comparatively wealthy, which is interesting - hypocritical, perhaps? (Maybe this isn't the right place for that particular discussion...) Anyway, when I first started reading Mary Barton I was expecting something similar, but found that Gaskell isn't protesting inequality as much as lamenting the consequences. Her view seems to be that, while class divisions are perfectly acceptable, the wealthy should, out of the kindness of their hearts, do as much as they can for the poor. When wages are cut, it is so that the factory owners can continue cheap production and therefore stay in business, which would be beneficial to the workers. Apparently the problem is that the working class doesn't understand this, and the industrialists don't know how much their workers are suffering. This bothered me throughout the novel, enough to make me want to throw things at Gaskell, but is one of the reasons that I'd recommend reading it (it's good to know what other people think, after all).

The original title was 'John Barton', because the story was meant to focus on Mary's father and his struggle (as a trades' unionist) against the industrialists of Manchester. However, the publisher required a name change - it's easy enough to see that Mary does end up playing the main role, whatever Gaskell's intentions were. The story of Mary's two love interests (the son of a factory owner, and her childhood friend, who is a factory worker) is meant to link back to the theme of 'the suffering of the poor', and the activities of the more radical trades unionists, but in many aspects manages to detract from it. Nevertheless it's important to keep this in mind while reading the book, because John Barton makes some interesting decisions in his frustration with the industrialists, which are significant in the themes, not just as a plot device.

Another point of interest is the way the lives of the characters are described. The first few chapters, in particular, are quite readable, showing the friendships between the characters - I felt that this was later sacrificed to the plot, but at least there was something to think back fondly on while mentally throwing things at the author. The religious element surfaces most strongly at the end of the novel, with deathbed confessions and redemptions and whatnot (Gaskell was married to a minister, after all) and was another annoying feature. However, the views expressed in the novel are might be quite liberal for Victorian England (alright, so she 'redeems' the prostitute, but never condemns her in the first place).

It doesn't look like I have that many good things to say about Mary Barton but it's worth reading for a different opinion, however frustrating it may be, and I don't think any of you will have trouble with the actual writing style, and it's less than 400 pages which isn't much compared to some of the massive tomes I see you lot with. I can't say that you'll enjoy it, but hopefully it'll make you think.