THE SURVIVAL OF THE WHITEST: SPOKEN AND UNSPOKEN IN NORTH AND SOUTH

Abstract

The novel North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, stimulates the reader at the beginning to be ready for binary oppositions with the title, suggesting that the reader will come across contradictions, differences, otherness and various elements that will give away the traces of unbalanced power gained by economic, political, cultural differences, which can be opportunities for some while curse for others. This paper aims at exploring the elements what drives North and South to differentiate from each other and what North and South stand for the time it was written. The struggle of the working class to survive under harsh living conditions and clear depiction of their poverty and hunger suggest that the novel does not only epitomize the agony behind the stage of industrialization but also gives realistic representation of the daily reality of England. North and South is not only a love story across a socially divided couple but also a panoramic view of a period reflected through social constructions structured through working class and ruling class. Her realistic representation foresees the construction of Englishness for the time period given, in terms of business, imperial trade and gender roles. North and South reveal the direction of business in the 19th century and forewarns the racing thoughts of white man in order to survive in the business for the sake of “the home”, who is trying to understand the world and ready to set out for the divine journey to the East.