Giving Utterance: Mary Barton

Abstract

The gradual development of the Unitarians from a persecuted group, strongly associated with radical politics, to a socially powerful one, many of whose members were rich capitalists in growing industrial centres like Manchester, opened up gaps between theory and practice; and it is these gaps to which Gaskell’s first novel calls attention.¹ It has been shown that her descriptions of working-class conditions and attitudes depend a great deal (to the extent of verbatim quotation of a number of paragraphs) on the Unitarian publications, The Reports of the Ministry to the Poor, for the years covered in her novel (1839–42).² These reports were themselves fuelled by the desire to confront rich Unitarians not only with the poverty but with the feelings of their employees. Gaskell shared that desire, and wrote to recall the prosperous to a sense of Christian charity. Her targets were her own friends, members of her husband’s congregation, the leading figures in Manchester society; and while readers like Carlyle and Dickens were deeply impressed by her novel, the reaction closer to home was much less favourable. The Edinburgh Review article on Mary Barton, for example, which criticised Gaskell for dwelling on the workers’ difficulties and ignoring the sufferings of unsuccessful manufacturers, was written by William Greg, a manufacturer, Unitarian and friend.³