Gaskell, for all her sympathy for the lower orders, responds to questions posed by differences of class with a conciliatory spirit. She writes like a social realist, but when she is confronted with taking a position, ...Gaskell, for all her sympathy for the lower orders, responds to questions posed by differences of class with a conciliatory spirit. She writes like a social realist, but when she is confronted with taking a position, she often opts for reconciliation or even escapism. Gaskell＇s ambivalent attitude towards social classes is brought to the forefront in Mary Barton （1847）, which she originally entitled John Barton. The change of the title has led to critical argument that the novel is an artistic failure, and the shift from a political novel with a clear social purpose to a domestic romance which covers up social discontent is too unprepared and comes across as a fantasy on the part of the novelist. This peculiar structure of the novel reveals the limitation of Gaskell＇s social vision as a novelist. In North and South （1852）, Gaskell presents the precarious situation of workers and their tense relations with industrialists in a more balanced way by giving more attention to the thinking and perspective of the employers, a narrative perspective far different from her treatment in Mary Barton which adopts the view of the working poor. The on-going social mobility and the shift of social gravity from the aristocracy to the mercantile, a historical reality which Matthew Arnold clearly delineates in Culture and Anarchy, are truthfully observed and represented by Gaskell and her representation of this new ruler class marks her progressive social view, expressing her optimistic belief in England＇s progress towards an industrial future. In an interval of seven years between the publications of the two novels in question, Gaskell＇s social vision had matured into critical realism.展开更多
文摘Gaskell, for all her sympathy for the lower orders, responds to questions posed by differences of class with a conciliatory spirit. She writes like a social realist, but when she is confronted with taking a position, she often opts for reconciliation or even escapism. Gaskell＇s ambivalent attitude towards social classes is brought to the forefront in Mary Barton （1847）, which she originally entitled John Barton. The change of the title has led to critical argument that the novel is an artistic failure, and the shift from a political novel with a clear social purpose to a domestic romance which covers up social discontent is too unprepared and comes across as a fantasy on the part of the novelist. This peculiar structure of the novel reveals the limitation of Gaskell＇s social vision as a novelist. In North and South （1852）, Gaskell presents the precarious situation of workers and their tense relations with industrialists in a more balanced way by giving more attention to the thinking and perspective of the employers, a narrative perspective far different from her treatment in Mary Barton which adopts the view of the working poor. The on-going social mobility and the shift of social gravity from the aristocracy to the mercantile, a historical reality which Matthew Arnold clearly delineates in Culture and Anarchy, are truthfully observed and represented by Gaskell and her representation of this new ruler class marks her progressive social view, expressing her optimistic belief in England＇s progress towards an industrial future. In an interval of seven years between the publications of the two novels in question, Gaskell＇s social vision had matured into critical realism.
