Mary Barton

Mary Barton had preceded North and South in both publication and the interest it gave to the social conditions of England. This first novel is a true masterpiece in social realism and a faithful depiction of the sordid circumstances which characterized life and reality of the less fortunate social groups at the time.The book thus follows the progress of individuals and families from the working class during the years of trade depression which had ravaged industry in the early 1840s. By the same token, it focuses on the alienation which pervaded between masters and employees.The murder of Harry Carson, as a case in point, can be read as Gaskell's attempt to convey the meaninglessness of the fatal struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. No party had benefitted from such an obstinate altercation. On the one hand, the master had lost his only son and heir. On the other, John had lost his self-respect, peace of mind, and in just few days his own life.The novel's ending which makes of the Canadian soil the only conceivable source of happiness to Mary and her family suggests that immigration was the only immediate way out of capitalist oppression and starvation, and that England was facing a number of very serious conditions that had endangered the very foundation of its social and economical structure.