69 pages • 2-hour read
North and South
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Symbols & Motifs
Helstone
Nostalgia is defined as the “a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition” (“Nostalgia.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster). For Margaret, Helstone recalls a time that is irrevocably lost. Her home village, an Eden-like bower, protects her from the horrors of the changing world outside. But, like the biblical Adam and Eve, once Margaret’s eyes are opened to the truth, the spell is broken. When she visits Helstone later in the novel, she returns not to the welcoming embrace of home but to an alien land she no longer recognizes. Leaving Helston represents leaving behind her childhood: “I have passed out of childhood into old age” (439). Once she is exposed to the realities of the caste system in which she lives, she recognizes that Helstone is not a utopia. The bucolic splendor of Helstone is created by workers in the field, just as Milton’s wealth is built by workers in the factory.
Helstone emblemizes Margaret’s idealized, naïve identity. She prides herself on being a peacemaker and helping others find unity and contentment. This role is easy to maintain in the pastoral peace of Helstone. As the vicar’s daughter, she moves about the village with ease as she is well-respected and revered for her charitable visits and congenial conversations: “She took pride in her forest. Its people were her people” (24). The move to Milton forces Margaret to reevaluate all she knows about herself, and she must completely disconnect from the fantasy of Helstone to embrace her harsh new life in Milton. Helstone, however, will always remain a part of her history. Thornton understands the significance of Helstone to Margaret’s character after his secret visit to her former village. He collects roses and saves them for her, symbolic preservation of her past and a loving gesture recognizing her affection for her first home.
Milton
Though there are brief interludes in Helstone and London, Milton is the main setting. It is based on the real town of Manchester, where Gaskell lived most of her life. This setting allows Gaskell to depict a cross section of society and present a clear view of the era’s new social class system. When the Hales first arrive in Milton, the hulking factories, smoke-filled air, and gruff citizenry feel threatening and intimidating to the family: “The mill loomed high on the left-hand side of the windows, casting a shadow down from its many stories, which darkened the summer evening before its time” (218). They quickly realize the industrial town exemplifies the opposite of everything they left behind in Helstone. In their country village, preserved from the modernity of industry, they coexisted with their neighbors in drowsy propinquity. Misunderstanding simple social cues, like how to properly greet others, Margaret struggles to find her footing in her new home as she longs for the comfort, protection, and familiarity of Helston.
Margaret’s view of Milton begins to change with her introduction to the Higgins family. Margaret attempts to map her experience from Helston onto Milton’s culture by offering charity to Higgins. He declines, but Bessy offers something far more valuable in friendship. Milton comes to symbolize the landscape of Margaret’s transition to adulthood. Every walk down the street, every interaction, and every conversation offer an opportunity for her to expand her worldview and mature as a human. Milton symbolizes the future of business and Victorian England’s growing capitalistic society. It also symbolizes Margaret’s future. She becomes entranced by the power, energy, and forthrightness of the people and becomes instinctively allied to the concepts of independence represented in the north as the sentiment mirrors her quest for autonomy. Gaskell uses the novel’s landscape to trace Margaret’s development. Helstone and Harley Street mark significant geographic locations in her formative years, but Milton is the seat of her greatest sorrows and sacrifices, and it is where she matures from an adolescent to an adult.
Light and Dark
Gaskell uses the interplay of light and dark to signify the emotional shifts in the narrative. Weather that mirrors the characters’ emotions and inner conflicts is a common trope in 19th-century Romantic literature. Margaret experiences profound emotional trauma from all the upheaval and catastrophe in her life, which is marked by changing geographical locations and the different atmospheric details each contains. Gaskell uses sunlight, shadows, fog, and other meteorological events to manipulate the light, mimicking Margaret’s mood: “[S]o that a gray grim light, reflected from the pavement below, threw all the shadows wrong, and combined with the green-tinged upper light to make even Margaret’s own face, as she caught it in the mirrors, look ghastly and wan” (236).
Light is particularly important in Margaret’s memories as she remembers Helstone only as a sunny, bright hamlet. This nostalgic image mirrors her perception of her happy youth, a vision that her return as an adult will shatter. In her mind’s eye, Helstone is a place that appears untouched by darkness. Contrastingly, shadows and fog shroud Milton, casting an ominous pall over the city. The disorienting, gloomy weather symbolizes the chaos and confusion Margaret feels after moving to the foreign town: “[B]ut the October morning of Milton, whose silvery mists were heavy fogs, and where the sun could only show long dusky streets when he did break through and shine” (341). It also symbolizes the ominous changes the Industrial Revolution brings to England, a reminder that progress comes at a price. The fog parts for the sun only long enough to illuminate the path in front of Margaret. She learns she must live moment by moment, forgetting the past and ceasing to worry about the future: Her life has become as unpredictable as the mercurial weather.
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