Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Kingsley: The creative artist's interpretation of a working class world

Abstract

The dissertation examines the particular skills of Charles Kingsley and Elizabeth Gaskell as writers of fiction in their attempts to present a view of the working classes in Yeast, Alton Locke, Mary Barton and North and South.

The introduction provides a short account of the social back-ground and examines the concepts and methods used in this study.

The first chapter briefly shows a selection of alternative approaches to fictional representation of the working class in other contemporary minor novelists.

Chapter two considers those aspects of Charles Kingsley's intellectual development which were most significant in the formation of his views of the working class.

Chapter three provides a detailed examination of Yeast and considers the way in which Charles Kingsley first attempted to incorporate working class figures in his novels.

Chapter four discusses the development of Charles Kingsley's writing on the subject and analyses the treatment of the working class milieu of Alton Locke.

Chapter five examines Mrs Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, which also presents a working class environment.

Chapter six shows the further development of Mrs Gaskell as a writer in this area, by an examination of the way in which the working class is seen in relation to other social groups in North and South.

Chapter seven analyses a particular aspect of Mrs Gaskell's treatment of the working class by a consideration of her use of dialogue in the two novels. The conclusion briefly compares and contrasts the individual approaches of the two authors to the writing of novels about the working class.