Wednesday, September 11, 2013
John or Mary Barton, That is the Question.
Rosemarie Bodenheimer sets up her critique by first suggesting that Mary Barton "has been assumed that the [...] novel is the portrait of John Barton, and that the story of Mary relies directly on romantic patterns and is designed to entertain the reading public" (511). In other words, Bodenheimer is implying that Mary Barton is more so about John Barton over his daughter. While I see where she gets this idea, I would have to disagree with her. The novel seems to be more about the Barton family, and how their lives are played out once the mother dies, and factories drastically change. Mary’s life is shaped based upon what happens within her family and how they are affected by the industrial revolution. I do see how Mary is shaped largely by her father, for example she does not go work in a factory because of her father’s influences. Mary’s romantic life is influenced by her father as well. After her mother’s death and the factory changes their lives start to drastically change. The family becomes poorer and find themselves struggling more. It is after these events that we see Mary flirting with the Carson boy. While she does not really love him she wants to get out of the situation that her family has found themselves in. The novel as a whole would not work without the family influencing one another. Therefore, I think it is not realistic to suggest that the novel is about one character or the other.
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I agree with you. The novel would not be the same if the characters did not work with each other. Even family to family, the influence and life style that each has on the others is the whole of the novel. I feel like it would be easier to say that without a certain character the story would not work rather than the whole story works off of one character.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the characters are reflections of both each other and of the times. Like many children, I feel as though Mary wants to escape the shadow that her father has cast upon her and feels as though they only way to escape a devastatingly similar fate is to marry up in the class system. John is a perfect example of the times in the sense that tragedy was abundant and for the lower and working class the unexpected was to be expected. John is an example of how many in similar circumstances would do anything to better their fate and provide for their families as seen when John decides to murder Harry Carson.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about this topic and about the idea that Mary was not as important as John and I agree with you that the story would not work the same without her. The story would be told in a completely different tone if they took Mary out of it and it would not only be because the "entertaining" aspect was gone.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, Mary's story is the more interesting because of the drama of the crime and the romance. John's is really important as well, though, because that's where Gaskell is making her strongest arguments about reform,
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