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Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) is highly commented by Karl Marx as “one of modern British and great novelists” (Marx, 1998: 686). Her works can be classified as the industrial novels and the pastoral ones. Especially her industrial novels lead another literary trend during the period when the Gothic novels are still prevailing. Gaskell’s industrial novels are abundant in realistic criticism which draws a wide range of echoes from literary critics. Today, in order to interpret Mary Barton better, let’s explore the female novelist’s experiences firstly to discover the inner relationship between the author and her novel.

Elizabeth Gaskell was born on September 29th, 1810 in Linsay Street in Chelsea, in London, but she spent her formative years in Cheshire, Startford, upon-Avon and the north of England. Her father was William Stevenson who was the Unitarian Minister and a writer. Her mother was Elizabeth Holland who was a lady from the grand family in the Midlands. As the eighth child of the couple, Elizabeth Gaskell didn’t feel too much love from her mother, because when she was just a baby, her mother died in 1811. Then she began to live with her aunt in Knutsford. Her aunt’s family had great influence on Elizabeth Gaskell, counting her character, values, knowledge and culture. In Knutsford little Elizabeth Gaskell was able to approach the nature and to feel the calm rural life. To some extent, the experience of rural life in Knutsford had such a profound effect on the rest of her life that she once expressed her deeply affection for the nature in her many works. It was the precious years in Knutsford that shaped her early ecological consciousness. In Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell can’t help praising the peaceful rural life for many times.

1.2 An Introduction to Mary Barton

Mary Barton, as Gaskell’s first novel, is a typical industrial novel with the strong social concern. Different from the Gothic novels prevailing at that times, it presents us another perspective of observing and considering the world, which still has the realistic significance today. The whole plot of the novel unfolds around the tough life of the Bartons under the background of industrialized Victorian Age. Gaskell honestly exposes the workers’ plight and the women’s sufferings, and imparts her deeply sympathy to the lower-class people. Elizabeth Gaskell even declares in public that “I had always felt a deep sympathy with the care-worn men……A little manifestation of this sympathy and a little attention to the expression of feelings on the part of some of the work-people” (Gaskell, 2006: 3). However, as a realistic writer, Gaskell must reflect on the social conflicts from the sensible perspective. To set a harmonious model of society, she transforms all the social problems into the exploration of the relationship between nature and humans and questions anthropocentrism which is based on androcentrism.

The novel describes the emerging city, Manchester, during the period from the 1830s to the1850s. It is a crucial phase in Britain history. The Parliamentary Reform is implemented in 1832. And the industria本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。