Positive Aspects Of Industrialism In The Novel 'North And South'

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The Industrial Revolution
The novel North and South uses multiple characters such as Bessy Higgins, John Thornton, Nicholas Higgins and Margaret Hale to suggest that different social classes experienced the industrial revolution in various ways.
The negative aspects of industrialism are displayed through Bessy Higgins who is a factory girl and her eventual disease. John Thornton describes his belief to Mr. Hale that all unsuccessful people are suffering because of their own “dishonestly-enjoyed pleasure” (Gaskell 84). His belief may have some legitimacy but it does not apply to the story line of Bessy Higgins. Bessy “began to work in a carding-room” after her mother died, the “fluff” or cotton dust caused her to develop Byssinosis (Gaskell …show more content…

The character Nicholas Higgins is an example of a positive working class person during the industrial revolution. Nicholas Higgins is a strong believer that unlike the people from the north, the southerners are a “pack of spiritless, down-trodden men” (Gaskell 133). The possibility of bettering himself unlike the people from the south who don’t know when they are being “put upon” gives him a sense of strength (Gaskell 133) Nicholas takes pride in the fact that he is able to stand up for the things he believes in through striking. The old class system and its beliefs aren’t followed during the industrial revolution. When Margaret Hale attempts to “come and call upon” Nicholas Higgins’s house, he is at first confused and then allows her to visit as a friend (Gaskell 73). Nicholas’s dislike for people from the south is ignored for Margaret Hale and believes that “north and south has both met and made kind o’ friends in the big smokey place”. (Gaskell 73). The angry mob ruins the strike orchestrated by the union and Nicholas Higgins. The strike and angry mob that occurs in the novel is disastrous for Nicholas Higgins and he is unable to get his job back, instead of giving up he tries everything he can for a different job. Higgins believes that he is “sick o’ Milton” and “Milton is sick o’ [him]” when he is unable to find another job and is also looking after John Bouchers eight children. (Gaskell 306) In the beginning, Nicholas Higgins doesn’t have much respect for the factory owners but his respect for the master’s changes through his eventual friendship with John Thornton. Nicholas Higgins’s friendship with John Thornton led him to work “over-hours [one] night, unknown to anyone, to get a neglected piece of work done” because of the problems Thornton was going through (Gaskell 421).

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