AN ACADEMIC VIEW OF NORTH & SOUTH - PART I

Any excuse is good to watch again and read again Gaskell's North and South. This time it was my good friend K/V's fault, ehm... merit. She sent me two essays written by two different university scholars saying: "See if they can help you with your lessons". 

Titles: 

1. Taking bearings: Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South televised by Margaret Harris (discussed in this post)

2. A View of North and South by David Kelly (very soon, in a second post)

Sigh. Did she really want to help me with my lessons? 

Mmm...maybe. Fact is, she knows me too well and I couldn't resist. Result is, I GOT DISTRACTED from my duties and start reading them.  Practical evidence of the fact, here's my post about them.
Jokes apart, these essays are interesting. Why didn't we study period drama when I was at university,  I wonder?




Taking bearings: Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South televised by Margaret Harris

Where can I start telling you about my very academic, informative readings?  Let's try from the very beginning. Essay 1, page 1. OK? Don't worry! I'm  not going to give you a lesson , promise. I'd only like to share with you the key points of this essay. Moreover,  you'll "see" lots of ... Mr Thornton!

In the introduction, Margaret Harris, praises Elizabeth Gaskell's boldness and transgressiveness to publish novels like Mary Barton (1848) and North and South (1855). Then she relates data about the huge success of BBC North and South television adaptation (2004):

It is the transgressive and confronting Gaskell that viewers encounter in Sandy Welch's script and Brian Percival's direction of the 2004 BBC-TV version of North and South, her fourth novel.(...) This production was hugely successful, topping the BBC's poll of viewers to determine Best Drama of the year with a decisive 49.43% of the vote. (pp. 1-2)

Going beyond the initial statement referring  to the series as a visual fullfilment of Gaskell's boldness and trasgressiveness, Margaret Harris's academic analysis of the TV series is based on a rather traditional comparison adaptation/novel which aims at answering two questions: How is North and South to be read in the 21st century? And, in particular, what kind of a reading of North and South is this BBC adaptation? (p. 4)

Anyhow, let me first quote something she says , which reminded me of my own approach to BBC North and South:

Having read and taught N&S many times over the years, I awaited the mini-series with some apprehension, fearful that it would be at odds with my way of seeing the novel, on a scale ranging from gratingly to infuriatingly. Almost immediately, this N&S not only reassured but won me. The moment came early in the first episode when Margaret opens the door onto the factory floor, to reveal the vista of machines clattering away and scraps of cotton whirling like snowflakes. (...) In a letter to her cousin at the end of the episode, Margaret is to comment "I believe I have seen hell-it's white. It's snow white" (p. 5)

You have surely noticed the way Mrs Gaskell always shows or tells - usually both - what her characters are feeling or how she pushes on the emotional development and change variously and continuously . Chapter 10 can be taken as an example. Margaret Hale compares "the difference of outward appearance between her father and Mr Thornton, as betokening such distinctly opposite natures" (N&S, p. 80). John Thornton observes the graceful comfort of the Hales' dining room and  Margaret pouring tea. What of this scene in the series? 

The camera emulates Gaskell's account of his fascinated watching of Margaret's bracelet slipping down her arm ...The sequence plays out the irresistible physical attraction Thornton feels for Margaret and to a lesser extent the interest she feels in him, alongside their explicit difference of opinion on issues of social organisation, articulated in dialogue appropriately condensed for the screen. That Thornton, though serious and committed, is not deadly earnest is nicely registered by his wry turning aside of Mr Hale's excessive insistence on the classics as providing a model of heroic simplicity (Not a bit! , exclaimed Mr Thornton laughing , N&S p. 85) by which to live. Margaret's ideas are independent, formed by her experience of the circumstances in which she finds herself, and progressively modified by

closer contact. For instance, in this scene Welch has Mr Hale reprimand Margaret for not shaking hands with Thornton, saying that she has given offence: a good instance of the adaptation's needing to spell out a point differently from the interiorized reaction provided in the closing paragraphs of the chapter (pp.85-86). Again when Margaret does shake hands, at the Thorntons' dinner, she comments as she offers her hand "See how I'm learning Milton ways", where the novel has Thornton think "He knew it was the first time their hands had met, though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact"(N & S, p.161)

Welch's script displays consistent responsiveness to and respect for Gaskell's text in these small and effective modifications. Indeed there is a kind of empathy evident throughout, though she does not always work so closely to her source.  (pp. 6-7)

Now let's see what Margaret Harris thinks of two of the most controversial additions Welch provided to her script respect to the original text by Gaskell: 1. the scene in the mill, that is , Margaret  first meeting with Thornton inside his factory and her seeing him violently beating one of his workers (see picture below) 2. the meeting between Margaret and Thornton at the Great Exhibition in London.

She admits:

...It would be easy to say, as some did, that the addition is gratuitous and needessly violent. I took it that Welch was wanting to show that Thornton is not to be taken at buttoned-up face value, that passion lurks beneath his well-controlled demeanour... Thornton's restraint and discipline are hard won, and this early scene helps explain the tensions brought about by his attraction to Margaret Hale. It is not a vulgarizing addition, though it is certainly discomfiting, demonstrating a significant aspect of the character that is intimately connected with his being a businessman and of the North. (pp. 7-8)

Harris also considers the Great Exhibition scenes  "an important addition" ,  especially because in them, the development of understanding in Thornton and Margaret can be grasped - and graphed- in their interventions. She tends to verbalize her responses more than he does. Action is sometimes necessary for him to demonstrate his sensitivity and thoughtfulness, as in the wallpapering of the Hales'rented house, his gifts of fruit for Mrs Hale, or his sentimental visit to Helstone. (p. 11)
And again, as for the Crystal Palace Exhibition scenes,  she says: It was an inspiration to add this sequence in the adaptation, invoking significant Victorian iconography. It provides an opportunity for the characters from the South to experience manufactures at first hand...It also provides an opportunity for Thornton of the North to take his place in the society of the South and to preach his gospel... It is notable that many contemporaries saw great social significance in the way the Exhibition brought the lower orders into contact with the upper and middle classes, all gazing in wonder at various exotica. (p.12)

After analysing the presence of the railway system in Gaskell's novel and its adaptation, as well as recognizing some Brontesque features in  Richard Armitage's brooding Thornton (she compares him to Mr Rochester), Harris focuses on the closing sequence, which she considers Welch's most radical and most disconcerting change. Finally,  she honestly adds, 

...it makes sense in terms of the adaptation but violated my sense of Victorian propriety... There is something brilliantly Victorian about hero and heroine almost heading off in opposite directions, and a particular appropriateness that they should meet on what is in a sense neutral ground. But some suspension of disbelief is required. Pedantic though it is to say so,  no gentleman would travel with his shirt open at the neck (any more than women would attend funerals, as happens in the series). And for so passionate an embrace in public ...
Such pedantry is misplaced. Both Daniela Denby-Ashe and Richard Armitage deliver extraordinary performances, each character taken unawares by their chance encounter, each struggling to abandon the codes of self-control that constrain them and happily yielding. The performances altogether showcase yet again the depth of English character acting. (pp.13-14)

The only change she seems not to appreciate is the rewriting of the character of Mr Bell. There you find her strictest criticism.
But, going back to the improbable finale, would you renounce to those thrilling emotions  for a faithful, truthful, appropriately Victorian prudish embrace? Margaret Harris wouldn't. Me neither. What about you?

Part II about A View of North and South by David Harris will be on FLY HIGH! soon