Bearing in mind Gaskell's desire to "...give some utterance to the agony which from time to time convulsed this dumb people," how effective is "Mary Barton" in its attempt to move the reader through its depiction of working class struggles.
Elizabeth Gaskell's main purpose of the novel is to bring to light the struggles that are faced by the poor. Gaskell does this through the use of descriptive language and also by presenting a number of themes through certain characters, such as a belief of injustice in the industrial working class. As a female writer, there is much criticism against her for writing a novel so out of depth of her class and gender. However, even with this criticism Gaskell still brings to light key socio-political issues, such as the need for the worker and employer to understand each other.
The era in which "Mary Barton" is written is known as the Time of Troubles. During a period of prosperity from 1832 to 1836 during the industrial revolution, Gaskell's experience of these conditions are sensed strongly in the narrative, in particular her contact with the working class in her home city of Manchester, as she "elbows" the working class everyday on the streets. This historic document therefore brings you closer to the struggles of the working class, as suggested by Gaskell: "The more I reflected on this unhappy state of things...as the employers and employed must be, the more anxious I became to give some utterance to the agony." It can be argued that Gaskell does not achieve this and instead removes you slightly from these struggles, as she in avertedly separates the reader from the working class, as suggested by the Manchester Guardian: "the authoress has sinned gravely against truth, in matters of fact either above her comprehension, or beyond her sphere of knowledge." Gaskell can be argued against further, particularly with the use of her