Page 173 - DENG402_HISTORY_OF_ENGLISH_LITERATURE

History of English Literature

Notes which social reform tended to contribute more to the incorporation of the merchant class into the
governance of the country than to the improvement of the quality of life of the working class. For
example, in 1832, the old electoral system was altered in Britain in such a way that depopulated
boroughs were purged from the system, with new, industrial towns taking their places. An
implication of this was increased power for the merchant class and recognition of the fact that such
a cleansing process of the electoral system was in fact necessary because of the increasing influence
of the merchant class. In short, government officially recognized the shift in the British way of life
that signs such as the introduction of the railroad had already heralded to the rest of society.
However, such early reforms did not help the ever worsening situation of the new urban working
class, so that until the 1850s many felt that revolution was imminent.
Many groups in society were confused by this change, notably those ones which did not benefit
ostensibly from the rewards of the new economy, those who were not what Gaskell called the
“masters” of the merchant class. Those among the less inclined t o deal easily with the transition
included the working class, who suffered immensely in the factories, and the old aristocratic
ruling class. There was, at least in this context, a source of rapport between the old ruling class and
the working class, much of the latter group being one generation descended from the farm labor
stock of before 1800. This common area became factor in the relationships that would evolve
between the old guard and their servants, as both struggled to define their roles while resisting the
undermining impulse to cling to each other as familiar comforts of a yearned for era of safety and
comprehension of the environment.

The theme suggested by this, that the imposition of one type of society onto another which was
perhaps unwilling to trade for it the benefits of an existing one would challenge social relationships
at many levels, including that of master and servant , is forwarded in both Gaskell’s North and
South and Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers. This theme is strengthened in both texts by imagery that
uses weather to symbolize the “gathering storm of social change” and equate that storm to the
tempests that would transpire between servants and their employers as both groups came to terms
with conflicting feelings of fraternity and need for a more formal, traditional relationship based
on respect for social position. North and South is set in the middle part of the Victorian era, when the
“Time of Troubles” of the 1840s was still fresh in the minds of many, but when a series of Factory
Acts were, among other actions, in the process of improving conditions of the working class and
promising a return to stability. The Pickwick Papers was written before many of these problems had
begun to be resolved and when there was less call for optimism. However, it was set in a time
before the Industrial Age, when social stability still reigned. Clearly, historical context plays a
role in the creation of the theme forwarded by both of these examples.
In the following quotation from North and South, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell writes from the
perspective of one who has seen the difficulties of a people coming to terms with the social change
of the first part of the nineteenth century:
“Dixon,” she said, in the low tone she always used when much excited, which had a sound as of
some distant turmoil, or threatening storm breaking far away. “Dixon you forget to whom you
are speaking.” She stood upright and firm on her feet now, confronting the waiting-maid, and
fixing her with her steady, discerning eye. “I am Mr. Hale’s daughter. Go You have made a strange
mistake, and one that I am sure your own good feeling will make you sorry for when you think
about it.”
Margaret’s parents cease to command respect from their servant because they rely on the superficial
social significator of status, the mere retention of a servant, so much that they are afraid to do what
is necessary to perpetuate the dynamic that makes this relationship possible, a control over the
lower classes. Accustomed to the softer treatment of older employers, who have come to rely on
the sense of security that their rapport with Dixon has afforded them, Dixon fails to maintain the
traditional respect for Margaret. If this were to continue for another generation, the aristocratic
structure would be lost, and with it all of the securities of the earlier society.

166 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY