North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (Pages referenced refer to the Penguin Classics edition, however the text is also available online through the Project Gutenberg)
Set in England, this powerful Victorian novel explores the Industrial Revolution and the relationship between the master and the hands (those that run the factories and those that labor, sometimes giving their lives to the factory work). The novel also explores issues of class hierarchies and expectations, and gendered roles in society. Elizabeth Gaskell does not point fingers or tend toward bias, as she honestly portrays the varying roles the unions, the factory owners, and the workers play in the machine of society.
What does Thornton believe about capitalism and the opportunities of men? Explain why you may or may not agree with Thornton’s statement that, “a working-man may raise himself into the power and position of a master by his own exertions and behaviors...” What is Margaret’s response to Thornton’s discussions with her father?
Describe Betsy’s ailment and what has caused her sickness? What does this mean figuratively and literally about some of the factory workers?
This three-part writing exercise demands the student answer the same question from the points of view of three different characters.
Read and share the students’ writing and discuss the different perspectives, the changes in tone, diction, and rhetoric. Explore closely how one scene or scenario can be described differently depending on an individual’s (or character’s) point of view.
Discuss and analyze with students how this chapter is a climatic scene for the owners and workers; Margaret and Thornton; and Margaret and Mrs. Thornton.
Paraphrase and restate Higgins’s statement about the unions.
Discuss with students how far Thornton’s ideas on the relationship and independence between the owner and the workers have moved.