Elizabeth Gaskell : an historical perspective
Date
1975
Authors
Palumbo, Steven Louis
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Abstract
In her novels, Elizabeth Gaskell provides a picture of what life was like in early Victorian England. The novels deal chiefly with two aspects of nineteenth century England: the effects of urban industrialism and the changing pattern of rural life. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate Elizabeth Gaskell's portrayal, to determine how well it reflects the actual history of the period.
Elizabeth Gaskell's representation of Manchester and its ethos, of the conditions of working-class life and labour, of working-class consciousness, of trade unionism, of Chartism, and of the industrial middle class when compared to the various parliamentary papers, to other official documents and to the remarks of social critics, such as Taine and Tocqueville, is accurate and comprehensive. Her portrayal of country life and the aristocratic ideal, if less grim than her picture of urban life, is no less correct within its limits. The changing role of the professional middle class, the effects of Evangelicalism and scientific farming, and the elaborate lines of social demarcation in rural England as described in Elizabeth Gaskell's novels are well documented in reliable historical source materials. Of course she could not cover all the multifarious aspects of either the industrial city or the country. Her concern is with social rather than political or economic history, and she writes from what in the twentieth century would be called a liberal middle- class perspective. Within these boundaries, Elizabeth Gaskell's novels are a valuable source for any student of the early Victorian period.