ELIZABETH GASKELL

The Manchester Marriage (1858)

Victorian literature.
Female novelist that does not only talk about domestic life. The Brontë's and Austen
used to talk mostly about families, and love, and domestic lives. Gaskell talks about all
these things but she’s concerned with labor and economic conditions. She can be
placed along with Dickens because of the preoccupations they share.

This story was published in a magazine called “Household words”. “The Manchester
Marriage” is a mainstream text, not a groundbreaking one. It reinforced the direction
in which Victorian Literature was going.
Her most recognized industrial novels are “Mary Barton: A tale of Manchester Life”
(1848), “North and South” (1854-5), and “Wives and Daughters” (1864-6). These works
tend to take a point of view from the working class. They try to show the struggle
working classes are going through.

She lived in Manchester, one of the cities in England with most social unrest and most
strikes at that moment regarding the labor conditions and the working classes.

The Victorian Novel

Affiliations with romance, teaching uplifting moral lessons, educate curious readers
about a rapidly changing society, aim for a narrative singularity that would provide
aesthetic correlation for the domestic realism that ruled the form for most of the
period.

The House
This is where everything happens. A house is very important in literature during this
age. In the homes there is a lot to talk about. It’s considered a public space. It became
a very productive space in which a lot of things happened.

Sex
Repressed though it’s strongly symbolized and suggested/implied in many passages.
Sex is not as it was written or discussed before in fiction. Individuals are seen as
restrained, stiff, with a public projection which is refrained and logical and reasonable,
and that needs all the good manners of a good education and is never driven by
passion. The image of someone cold, that doesn’t show their emotions. “It’s not good
to cry; why would you cry?” It is important to understand this kind of behavior
because it was the Victorian model of behavior.

Family, social relationships

People were supposed to have an organized life and have everything in order. This has
to do with the attitudes and values that were being shaped in that moment and that
will lead to a controlled society; a society that doesn’t explode. The problem with this
was that it created a distressed society.
With all the unrest and distress of the working classes, the upper society was forced to
start acting with sympathy and trying to be comprehensive; trying to understand what
was the reason for this unsettlement and how it could be put to rest. They thought
they could negotiate, solve the problem calmly and following order.

The role of women

The novels
Huge stories, big books.
Many characters (a lot of population growth). Intention to show how differently
people used to live depending on their social class, where they lived, etc.
Notably ambitious. Eager to show it knows everything and everyone. It develops a
pervasive omniscience. They take us everywhere.
The problem with an omniscient narrator that works on many characters is that the
writer might not be that attached to the characters so the narration of feelings and
emotions is not that detailed, not that deep.
Victorian literature develops an interest in how other people act, speak, live.

Little England
Some people were against the Empire because they believed a lot of money that could
go to the poor people was being wasted.
The problem of the two nations: one of the industrial class, and the other one is the
business-middle class.

The emergence of serialization and periodicals

The English nationalism is developed through novels and newspapers. They provide
entertainment and news. In the same magazine you would get news, essays, and
fiction. Novels would be published through installments. One week two chapters
would be published, and the next one the following chapters, and so on.

THE MANCHESTER MARRIAGE

The Victorian Gentleman

The idea of this type of man is broken at the end of the story when the main male
character shows his emotions by shedding tears. The way in which he behaves
throughout the whole story is a representation of male behavior in the Victorian Era,
which corresponds to the “stiff upper lip”; a utilitarian man, mechanical (straight to
the point). An example of a utilitarian man would be the moment in which he asks
Alice for marriage.

Norah’s role – The housemaid

Her role is not that important at the beginning of the story but it gains weight when
she comes back to work for Alice and Mr. Openshaw. Her intentions are to protect the
family and take care of them. When she finds out that Alice’s first husband is alive, she
makes the decision of not sharing it with anyone to avoid family trouble.

Alice’s feelings & emotions

Her nature is not really shown in the story, so, the reader doesn’t get to know clearly if
she’s in love with Openshaw or not or what her emotions and intentions are. They are
not transparent. The most open affection form that the reader gets to experience in
the story is Alice’s love for her daughter.

Alice’s daughter disability & the role of illnesses

This is related to the social status of a family, how much emotion they show, how open
they are. An example would be that if the patient receives love from his/her family
members, he/she would feel a bit better while in bed. Every aspect in the family
(economic, emotional...) is important to health. This is something that was not
understood that much back then. It was not that common or believed in, especially if
we go back to the topic of how men were supposed to behave (not showing emotions,
etc).