Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1848

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Chapter 8

Chapters 9-15

Chapters 16-24

Chapters 25-32

Chapters 33-38

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

The Divisive Nature of Industrialization

One of the main subjects of Mary Barton is the suffering the Victorian working class faced at the hands of their employers. Gaskell’s novel explores how growing industrialization divided people of different classes and led them to view one another not as fellow humans but as antagonists. This theme is personified by the characters of John Barton and Carson, who exemplify men who dehumanize others on the other side of the divide to further their own worldviews.

The novel establishes Barton’s dislike for people of the upper class early on in the novel. When Wilson remarks that Barton “never could abide the gentlefolk,” Barton asks, “And what good have they ever done me that I should like them?” (12), highlighting the hatred he has toward the mill owners who keep him poor. Industrialization caused a large gap in both wealth and power for the owners of mills and their workers. Where the former saw the profits from production, the latter’s need for work was exploited as cheap labor, leading to a widening gap in income, opportunity, and education. One mill owner meeting with his workers calls them “the cruel brutes; they’re more like wild beasts than human beings,” leading the narrator to question in an aside: “who might have made them different?” (211). This reductive view of people of the opposite class as being less than human is what later drives Barton to kill Harry Carson. The ironic tragedy of Barton’s decision is that he becomes the violent, “cruel brutes” caricatured by the mill owners.

Gaskell uses the character of John Carson to further explore the social divisions caused by industrialization. Carson comes from a working-class family and gained his wealth and power by rising to a mill ownership. As such, he is an example of the rare social mobility that occurred during the industrial revolution, a concept held up by pro-industrialists to support the myth of meritocracy. Because of Carson’s background, Barton and Wilson believe he should sympathize with his impoverished workers, knowing of their struggles firsthand. They characterize him as a class traitor for not doing so, although his social and economic rise is predicated on the exploitation of those poorer than himself. The juxtaposition between Carson and the lives of workers such as Davenport shows the breadth of this divide. The Carsons are only mildly affected by the burning of their mill, yet the workers are left without a means of providing for themselves and their families. In Chapter 6, while Davenport dies of a fever and cannot work, leaving his family starving, the Carsons discuss trivial subjects like flower arrangements and enjoy their leisure time. Barton sells many of his belongings to raise five shillings for Davenport, while Harry gives that same amount to Wilson to help Davenport merely because that is the loose change he has in his pocket. Gaskell presents industrialization as a huge inhumane machine, driving a wedge between the classes and reducing their capacity for universal compassion.

Different Perspectives: The Need for Empathy

Gaskell’s novel consistently shows that empathy is needed for people to be able to live happy and satisfied lives and that this is fostered by a variety of perspectives. The strength of this theme lies in Gaskell’s highly populated novel, in which the perspectives and experiences of many individuals are presented and explored, often without explicit judgement or comparison. Gaskell creates a novel that exemplifies the power of multiple voices and shared experiences. Mary Barton actively portrays political discourse, strong opinions, and disagreement amongst its characters. The novel’s working-class characters hold firm opinions and considered principles; many are self-taught. The novel highlights that, for those without access to formal education, conversation and debate were the main ways to test ideas and increase understanding. It shows an explicit interest in multiple perspectives and the open exchange of views, reserving disapproval for people who make assumptions or disregard the values and perspectives of their fellow humans. In general, it is notable that this lack of intellectual curiosity is displayed by the privileged characters, in contrast to the hunger for knowledge and meaning expressed by the disadvantaged.

The novel comments strongly on the dangers of closed-mindedness based on external appearances of difference. Job, in many ways the novel’s moral arbiter, explains to Carson what angered Barton the most:

[It] was that those who wore finer clothes, and eat better food, and had more money in their pockets, kept him at arm’s length, and cared not whether his heart was sorry or glad; whether he lived or died,—whether he was bound for heaven or hell (435).

As Barton and Carson are personifications of the division between classes, Job here is characterized by his empathy and willingness to see both sides of the argument. He is capable of mediating between the two opposing views. Job suggests that if people of different classes cared about one another, they could work together toward a better future. Barton sees this just before his death when he recognizes that he and Carson have things in common, seeing him as “no longer the enemy, the oppressor, but a very poor and desolate old man” (415). It is too late for Barton’s newfound empathy to take effect in the world, but the novel raises the hope that Carson’s “pity […] for the smitten creature” indicates an altered attitude on the part of the mill owner that will benefit the community (419).

The coming together of these two perspectives is indicative of the novel’s use of conflicting or hidden perspectives to show the importance of shared experience in revealing truths. The tension between Jem and Mary—and the delay of their romance—is prolonged by their misunderstanding of one another’s feelings and intentions, although both of their perspectives are known to the reader. This dramatic irony sets up the resolution of the plot but also dramatizes the importance of truly understanding others. The novel creates a similar parallel between the experiences of Mary and Esther, as Mary’s ignorance about the true nature of Esther’s experience leads her to follow a naïve daydream and misconstrue Harry Carson’s intentions towards her.

Personal Morality Amidst Societal Struggles

Gaskell’s novel combines two common subgenres of Victorian fiction: social commentary and domestic realism. The characters of Mary Barton often face both personal and social issues within the novel, and often these struggles intertwine with one another, forcing the characters to examine both facets of their lives and to consider the tensions between them. The striking workers must weigh social and moral goods with one another. During the strike, Job tells Mary:

‘I would work for low wages rather than sit idle and starve. But, comes the Trades’ Union, and says, ‘Well, if you take the half-loaf, we’ll worry you out of your life. Will you be clemmed, or will you be worried?’ Now clemming is a quiet death, and worrying isn’t, so I choose clemming, and come into th’ Union. But I wish they’d leave me free, if I am a fool’ (229).

In dealing with the struggles of groups of people on a larger level, characters like Job must determine how to best deal with their personal issues in the context of larger social problems.

John Barton is most overtly motivated by politics and the struggles he and his neighbors face from societal structures. Gaskell shows how Barton becomes obsessed with this focus on radical politics, particularly after his failed journey to London, leading him to lose a sense of himself and his moral compass in the process. Although Gaskell’s narrator treats Barton and other working men with sympathy and is largely supportive of their political course, the novel warns against bitterness and hopelessness as opposites to moral compassion and love. Mary hardly recognizes her father after he has resolved to murder Harry Carson, showing how much his own personality is overshadowed by his sense of a fight for justice. Barton is confronted by his morals again when he meets with Carson and learns about the mill owner’s feelings about his son’s death. This moment comes as a shock to Barton, who finally understands he has not weighed his moral and social obligations properly.

Carson’s act of being with and forgiving Barton just before his death is highly symbolic. It ties his feelings of empathy to the religious undercurrent of the novel. Morals were synonymous with Christian values in the Victorian period, and the scenes of deathbed confession and forgiveness between Barton and Carson draw directly on Christian images and beliefs on sin and absolution.

Similarly, Mary must weigh her moral and social obligations as she struggles with what to do about Harry’s murder. Mary feels compelled to prove that Jem is innocent once she learns that he could not have committed the murder, yet she seeks to avoid incriminating her father. Upon discovering her father is Harry’s murderer, Mary is distraught but also feels “a little spring of comfort was gushing up at her feet, unnoticed at first, but soon to give her strength and hope” (281). The novel shows that Mary’s feelings are a guide for where her duty lies, mirroring the inner emotional revelation she previously felt when divided between Jem and Harry. Her social duty to Jem is clear, but it also aligns with her love for him, and it is this love that leads her to such arduous lengths to acquit him. The novel balances love and justice through Mary’s treatment of her father: although in Jem’s case, her love and justice are aligned, in her father’s case they are opposite forces. The narrator does not judge Mary for trying to hide her father’s guilt, presenting this as a natural feeling and part of the novel’s exploration of compassion and forgiveness. Carson struggles with these ideas once he discovers Barton’s guilt, believing he has a duty to bring his son’s murderer to justice but also conflicted by his understanding of the importance of forgiveness.