Elizabeth Gaskell had an eventful upbringing. The youngest of eight children, she and her older brother were the only children to survive their infancy. Her mother died not long after her birth and so Elizabeth was sent to be raised by her aunt, Hannah Lamb, in Knutsford, Cheshire. Elizabeth had been born into a Unitarian family and eventually married a Unitarian minister; William Gaskell. The Gaskells travelled extensively, with German literature bearing particular influence on Elizabeth’s writing. Her own experiences of motherhood and loss were also a catalyst for the emotional realism evident in her novels.
How Did Gaskell Champion Social Issues?
Elizabeth Gaskell championed social issues in Victorian society by highlighting the injustices faced by women and the working class, particularly factory workers. In Mary Barton (1848), she depicted the harsh realities of industrial Manchester, providing insight into the poverty and struggles of mill workers. Her knowledge of the area and charity work with her husband informed her compassionate portrayal of these characters. Gaskell expanded on these themes in North and South (1854), detailing factory conditions, union formation, and societal limitations on women. In Ruth (1854), she approached the taboo subject of fallen women with dignity and compassion, advocating for those facing scorn and alienation.
Gaskell’s deep empathy for the working class is evident in her vivid descriptions of factory conditions, cramped living quarters, and the workforce’s struggle to unionize in Mary Barton and North and South. She further explored these themes by researching seafaring communities in Whitby for Sylvia’s Lovers (1863). The novel portrayed whaling voyages and naval conscription as harsh realities for coastal communities. Even in her gentler works: Cranford (1853) and Wives and Daughters (1865), Gaskell highlighted the challenges of financial stability and independence in both rural and urban communities.
What Settings Did Gaskell Use?
Elizabeth drew inspiration from her own experiences in depicting rich and varied settings. Her affection for her own childhood home in Knutsford is immortalized in the fictional Cranford. Her subtle critique of rigid social norms takes place amongst the tight night community and quaint streets of the small, rural town. This setting is contrasted in North & South and Mary Barton, both depicting the industrial north of England in unflinching detail.
She journeyed to Whitby to make thorough notes for Sylvia’s Lovers, once again giving the town a pseudonym: Monshaven. For her tragic novel Ruth, 1853, Gaskell uses the stark landscape of the Welsh countryside to emphasize her heroine’s social isolation. For each setting, Gaskell is noted as having paid particular attention to capturing authentic local dialect and colloquialisms in her dialogue.
How Did Gaskell Explore Gender Roles and Relationships?
Gaskell’s novels were radical at the time of her writing due to her compassionate depiction of women from all parts of society. She depicts middle class expectations of women as restrictive, calling for greater autonomy for women such as Molly Gibson in Wives & Daughters, as well as the need for greater financial independence in Cranford. Perhaps inspired by the charitable work she and her husband took part in; she depicts the lives of working-class women with equal tenderness. In Mary Barton, Esther’s ‘fall’ into prostitution is portrayed as the direct consequence of the hypocrisy in society and limited opportunities available to women without support.
She revisited this theme in the more explicit and controversial, Ruth. In this novel Gaskell directly challenges Victorian stereotypes of fallen women and advocates for redemption. Unsurprisingly, the novel was met with outrage by some critics including friends of Gaskell’s who reportedly burnt their copies. However, in Gaskell’s characterization readers can see a precursor to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s A Scarlet Letter and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
Did Gaskell Have a Wide Literary Circle?
Elizabeth Gaskell moved to Plymouth House, Manchester, in 1850 (along with her husband, children and her cow!) The home became a beacon to other notable literary figures such as Charles Dickens, Charles Kingsley and Charlotte Bronte. She also entertained public figures with an interest in social issues such as John Ruskin and Florence Nightingale. Gaskell’s work even attracted overseas visitors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Gaskell developed a particularly strong professional relationship with Dickens, writing articles and stories for his journals as well as asking him for advice about charitable cases. The most significant of her connections is arguably her friendship with Charlotte Bronte which was recognized when Bronte’s father requested Gaskell be Charlotte’s biographer. The resulting work: The Life of Charlotte Bronte (1857) was hailed a triumph.
What Is Gaskell’s Legacy?
After Gaskell’s untimely death of a heart attack aged 55, her reputation as an author suffered. Contemporary (often male) reviewers regarded her as too feminine and ill-informed to write seriously about industrial life. From the 1950s and through the 1960s literary critics and socialist writers began to reestablish Gaskell’s reputation as an author with a unique insight into industrial life and the plight of women – going so far as to suggest her works could be hailed as early feminist texts.
Her realism and complex depictions of social issues can be seen as a template for later Victorian novelists such as George Eliot and Thomas Hardy. Furthermore, her works have been adapted for stage and screen and many contemporary authors, such as Sarah Waters, cite Elizabeth Gaskell as an influential figure in their own careers.
