Portrait of struggles,suffering of working class in Gaskell's world

Gaskell leaves no secret close which side of the class struggle she is on. She gives anger and passion to the workings people as they fight not only against their oppressors but merely to survive. As John, the protagonist's bitter and deteriorating father says, referring to those with the power, wealth and attribute:

"Don't think to come over me with the old tale, that the flush recognise nothing of the trials of the pitiable. I say, if they don't know, they ought to know. We be their slaves as long as we poop work; we pile up their fortunes with the sweat of our brows; and all the same we are to live as separate as if we were in two worlds; ay, as separate as Dives and Lazarus, with a cracking gulf betwixt us" (Barton, 1970, 45).

This gulf is the heart of the book. It is, in Gaskell's view, as she portrays it in this book, a gulf which will not easily be bridged, if ever. Accordingly, the suffering created by that gulf can be brought to an end only by extreme measures, if at all. Although the book moves toward suggestions of radicalism, the reader must wonder to what lengths the author would go to right socioeconomic wrongs. Nevertheless, the Bartons' lives are shaped and ruined by the abuses of power exercised by the rich and powerful, just as those lives are given whatever hope they have by their fellows in the working class

John specially despises the wealthy and powerful Carsons for the wrongs done him and family. Un as luck would have it for him, but fortunately for the plot of the book, his daughter Mary is wooed by the Carson son, and Mary is candid to such wooing, not because she loves Harry Carson, but because she sees his money as a means out of poverty for her and her father. Mary's long-time friend Jem as well loves Mary, but she spurns him, blind to his love in her desire to range poverty's terrible grip. John becomes involved in a workers group, which leads him to bulge Harry, a crime for which Jem is blamed.

John finds a sort of death-bed redemption, so that his deterioration and bitterness culminate in the reach, which in persuade causes him such suffering of conscience that he is driven to adopt with and find resolution with the family of the murdered man.

Gaskell, Elizabeth. (1970). Mary Barton. New York: Penguin.

"And what nifty have they ever done me that I should like them? . . . If I am sick, do they come and nurse me? If my barbarian lies dying, . . . does the rich man bring the wine or brother that strength save his life. . . . No, I tell you, it's the poor, and the poor only, as does such things for the poor" (Gaskell, 1970, 45).

It is not surprising, then, to find, in John Barton, especially with his child and wife dying, "hoards of vengeance in his heart against the employers" (Gaskell, 1970, 61). Still, although John does murder Harry, as an expression of both his personal rage and his governmental motivation, he does suffer mightily as a government issue of that crime, and ultimately repents of it. The latter suggests that the author does not advocate a violent revolution, although, again, she does understand the rage and despair, the very hopelessness of the poor and working which would lead to such violence.

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