ESSAY ON: Elizabeth Gaskell/Mary Barton

Number of Pages 5

This research paper: A 5 page essay that examines Gaskell's novel Mary Barton (1848), which was certainly not unique in pointing out the miserable conditions that characterized the life of nineteenth century English working classes. Like Dickens' Oliver Twist and others, Gaskell describes scenes of wretched squalor, but she does so in a manner that makes it clear that the middle-class ideal of domesticity and cleanliness, which was equated in Victorian society with concepts of decency, failed to perceive the realities of working class life. Gaskell's characterization of the industrial working classes negates the popular Victorian perceptions regarding the 'lower' classes and shows not only the details of their lives, but also how those details fit into the context of the lives of her characters. No additional sources cited.


File: D0_khgasamb.rtf


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