Gaskell's North and South
Mar. 26th, 2025 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pretty_plantI recently finished reading North and South and while I was absorbed in its for three fourths of the novel, I am afraid it lost my interest in the later half.
Gaskell dwelled too much on the whole romantic mess that the book started losing its charm for me, especially because Arthur Higgins started appearing less in the novel. So for the last one fourth of the novel, I tried to read it as quickly as possible for completion's sake because I was just not interested in the whole romance plot and its resolution.
(Spoilers below)
The appearance of Mr. Bell at the end of the novel was also not something I enjoyed. I did not dislike the character himself but the fact that he conveniently showed up at the end, got absolutely charmed by Margaret, died, and left her all his property. I am not overly fond of Victorian books' tendency to have a childless relative or godfather conveniently dying right at the end of the book to give our protagonist her due.
Regarding Margaret as a protagonist, I am afraid because of her many insensitive thoughts about Irish people and because of the excessive adoration the narrator and all male characters have for her, I was not entirely charmed by her. She had many admirable traits and I liked her well enough in many sections. However, I did not like the fact whenever she meets a new male character, whether it is a doctor, the main love interest, or her godfather, the perspective would be changed to the perspective of that male character. Said male characters would then keep thinking about how impressed by her proud look, her elegant manner, her extreme handsomeness despite her not being unconventionally attractive. Then they would think they would love to impress her, have her as a wife, a daughter, etc...
I was especially irked by the fact that the Gaskell seemed to go out of her way to make all younger female characters inferior to better emphasize our heroine's virtues by describing in details the indolence and weakness of them. Edith and Fanny, two young female characters of roughly the same class as Margaret, were both described repeatedly to be weak, spoilt, lazy, fond of indulging and thinking excessively on such foolish things as muslin, gowns, etc... and did not like to will themselves to even travel a little bit. Both Mrs Shaw and Mrs Hale were excessively weak women and only Mrs Thornton, besides Margaret, was described as strong-minded.
Overall, while the topic discussed in the book is interesting, I find the quality of the characters to be inferior to Gaskell's Daughters and Wives, which have more varied and complex characters. I did enjoy this book a lot but I just want to vent lol. When I was reading it, my mind kept being like: how will the events of North and South will be if it is set in JSAMN-universe?
Gaskell dwelled too much on the whole romantic mess that the book started losing its charm for me, especially because Arthur Higgins started appearing less in the novel. So for the last one fourth of the novel, I tried to read it as quickly as possible for completion's sake because I was just not interested in the whole romance plot and its resolution.
(Spoilers below)
The appearance of Mr. Bell at the end of the novel was also not something I enjoyed. I did not dislike the character himself but the fact that he conveniently showed up at the end, got absolutely charmed by Margaret, died, and left her all his property. I am not overly fond of Victorian books' tendency to have a childless relative or godfather conveniently dying right at the end of the book to give our protagonist her due.
Regarding Margaret as a protagonist, I am afraid because of her many insensitive thoughts about Irish people and because of the excessive adoration the narrator and all male characters have for her, I was not entirely charmed by her. She had many admirable traits and I liked her well enough in many sections. However, I did not like the fact whenever she meets a new male character, whether it is a doctor, the main love interest, or her godfather, the perspective would be changed to the perspective of that male character. Said male characters would then keep thinking about how impressed by her proud look, her elegant manner, her extreme handsomeness despite her not being unconventionally attractive. Then they would think they would love to impress her, have her as a wife, a daughter, etc...
I was especially irked by the fact that the Gaskell seemed to go out of her way to make all younger female characters inferior to better emphasize our heroine's virtues by describing in details the indolence and weakness of them. Edith and Fanny, two young female characters of roughly the same class as Margaret, were both described repeatedly to be weak, spoilt, lazy, fond of indulging and thinking excessively on such foolish things as muslin, gowns, etc... and did not like to will themselves to even travel a little bit. Both Mrs Shaw and Mrs Hale were excessively weak women and only Mrs Thornton, besides Margaret, was described as strong-minded.
Overall, while the topic discussed in the book is interesting, I find the quality of the characters to be inferior to Gaskell's Daughters and Wives, which have more varied and complex characters. I did enjoy this book a lot but I just want to vent lol. When I was reading it, my mind kept being like: how will the events of North and South will be if it is set in JSAMN-universe?
