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52 pages 1 hour read

Elizabeth Gaskell

Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1848

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Chapters 16-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 16 Summary: “Meeting Between Masters and Workmen”

Delegations of the mill owners and workers meet at a local hotel to discuss the strike, but they cannot agree. Harry Carson is especially vocal against conceding to the workers. Harry draws a derogatory caricature of the workers once they are gone and tosses it toward the fire but misses, leading a worker to take it and bring it to a union meeting later that day. This angers Barton. The men plot together and draw lots to determine who will murder one of the mill owners.

Chapter 17 Summary: “Barton’s Night-Errand”

Two days later, Will comes to see Mary and tells her that his ship is sailing in a few days. He is leaving Manchester that night. He hopes to be promoted at his next sailing and wants to propose to Margaret when he returns. John Barton comes home and is abrupt with Will, who bids them goodbye. Mary is confused at her father’s coldness, and she cannot coax him to eat before he goes to Glasgow to speak to their trades’ unions. Job visits and Barton is rude to him too. John leaves, but when he reaches the end of the road, he returns to hug Mary and say goodbye. Barton finds a lost child on the journey, who he reunites with its mother, and thinks of his dead children as he walks to Glasgow. Margaret comes to tell Mary and Job that Alice has had a stroke.

Chapter 18 Summary: “Murder”

John Carson’s three daughters sit idly in the drawing room and discuss their brother’s vanities. Their old nurse tells them that Harry has been shot while coming home and is dead. The oldest daughter, Sophy, breaks the news to their father. Mr. Carson offers a large reward for information about his son’s murder, and a superintendent tells him that Harry was fighting with Jem a few days earlier.

Chapter 19 Summary: “Jem Wilson Arrested on Suspicion”

Mary goes to see Alice the next morning, but she is told that Alice may not recognize her. Alice speaks to her dead sister as if they are still children, and Mary and Margaret believe she is happy. At work, Mary sees Sally and learns that Harry has been murdered. Mary is shocked and cries as Sally speaks ill of Mary. Everyone Mary meets that day mentions the murder. Carson is determined to convict and execute Jem Wilson, and later that night a disguised policeman comes to Jane’s house and asks after the gun that was found near the murder scene, which she identifies as Jem’s. Jem is arrested at his workplace and another worker goes to tell Jane.

Chapter 20 Summary: “Mary’s Dream—and the Awakening”

Mary visits the Wilsons’ house and learns what has happened. Jane reproaches her for what she has done to Jem, blaming her for the fight between him and Harry. Mary is surprised to learn what has happened, but she remembers the way Jem blamed her for rejecting him. Jane turns Mary out of her house, and though Mary blames herself, she thinks Jem might be guilty. She falls asleep but is woken by someone at the door. Half dreaming of her dead mother, she thinks her mother is at the door when she opens it. It is Esther.

Chapter 21 Summary: “Esther’s Motive in Seeking Mary”

Esther heard of the murder and visited the scene of the crime. There she found a piece of paper used as wadding for the gun. On it was Mary’s name and address in what she believes is Jem’s handwriting. Esther watches as Jem is arrested and feels she is to blame for the conflict between Jem and Harry. Esther wants to prove Jem’s innocence.

Esther arrives at Mary’s house dressed in smart clothes. She pretends she is married to a wealthy man, leading Mary to be angry with her for not helping her family. Esther shows Mary the paper, and Mary asks Esther to not tell anyone what she saw. Ester leaves the paper with Mary.

Chapter 22 Summary: “Mary’s Efforts to Prove an Alibi”

Mary had recognized the paper Esther gave her: It came from a sheet, first written on by Jem, on which she had later copied a poem. She had given this poem to her father. She goes to his room and finds the rest of the paper along with a gun case and bullets. Mary is horrified that her father is the murderer and feels she must prove Jem’s innocence. Mary burns the paper and hides the other evidence. She goes to Job and Margaret and asks about finding an alibi. Both are cold toward Mary: Job is convinced Jem is guilty and was driven to murder by Mary. Margaret tells Mary that she heard about Jem being with Will on the night of the murder, and Mary goes to Jane’s to confirm this.

Chapter 23 Summary: “The Sub-Poena”

Mary is subpoenaed to answer questions about the murder, and Job tells her to tell the truth when she answers. Mary knows that she must find Will, but Job does not think she can do so in time. Job leaves to find a lawyer for Jem, and Mary apologizes for her behavior. Mary sees that Margaret is not convinced of Jem’s innocence. However, Margaret loans money to Mary to help Jem’s case, and Job comes back having found a lawyer who will speak to Mary and Will in a few days at the trial in Liverpool.

Chapter 24 Summary: “With the Dying”

Mary, longing to help, goes to see Jane, who has received the same subpoena as Mary. Alice is close to death, and Mary fears for Jane’s health as well. A doctor warns Mary against taking Jane to Liverpool to meet with the lawyer, but Job thinks it will look strange if she is absent.

Chapters 16-24 Analysis

The novel focuses much of this section on the radicalization of John Barton and the degradation of his character as he becomes increasingly desperate and hopeless. As before, John’s character arc is essential to the theme of Personal Morality Amidst Societal Struggles. In earlier chapters, the characters in the Chartist movement and unions attempt to enact change peacefully, something the narrator supports. The narrator’s tone takes a turn as their actions become more extreme. Despite understanding the nature of the Chartists’ disappointment and the justice of their cause, the narrator speaks more harshly of the workers when they turn to violence and plot the murder of Harry Carson. Gaskell describes the plotters’ “clenched fists, their set teeth, their livid looks, all told the suffering their minds were voluntarily undergoing in the contemplation of crime,” emphasizing the moral damage done to these men through their transgression (220). This damage is personified by the changes in Barton’s character overall. In Chapter 17, Mary hardly recognizes this cold man as her father, who seems to have lost all humanity and kindness. Barton’s personal disintegration goes together with his moral descent, each exacerbating the other.

The theme of Personal Morality Amidst Societal Struggles is further developed through Mary’s navigation of events. The novel shows Mary as deeply concerned with the ideas of blame and responsibility throughout these chapters as she discovers more details about the murder of Harry Carson. The narrative follows the turns of her reactions and judgments as she tries to identify and follow the correct moral course. To start with, Mary internalizes a sense of guilt pressed on her by society, as a woman who has “caused” aggression between two men. Mary initially feels she is to blame for Harry’s death as Jem said she would be held responsible for any of his actions after her rejection. This guilt is magnified by Jane Wilson, who blames Jem’s fight with Harry on Mary, though she does not believe her son is guilty. Mary must live under the weight of this judgment, and she feels guilty. Her guilt dissipates once she discovers that her father is the murderer. She describes her feelings of horror, but she also feels hope and relief that Jem is innocent. Her father’s culpability releases her from the sense of guilt that she felt over the murder, even though her past actions and decisions have remained the same. In this way, Gaskell explores how women like Mary are held morally responsible for the actions of men when there is a sexual motive.

Much of this section of the novel revolves around concealing and revealing the truth, particularly regarding the truth about Harry’s murder, part of the novel’s theme of Different Perspectives: The Need for Empathy. Esther conceals her true identity when coming to Mary, pretending to be a wealthy woman to protect Mary from knowing the truth of Esther’s life. At the time, this form of knowledge would have contaminated the innocence considered necessary for a young unmarried woman. Esther thus protects Mary, even though this causes Mary to accuse her of selfishness. John Barton also conceals the truth, hiding after the murder so Jem can take the blame. Mary wants the truth to be revealed, which is why she decides she must seek out Will to give Jem an alibi, yet she struggles with whether to tell the full truth about her father, something that would save one of the men she loves most but condemn the other. Mary is especially concerned about the subpoena she receives and the legal idea of truth and justice versus her ideas of familial duty, love, and compassion. Mary struggles with the truth about her father finding it hard to come to terms with the fact that he is capable of murder and not the person she always thought he was. Significantly, the novel shows her overcoming this sense of disappointment and betrayal, something that the men in her life have been consistently unable to do.

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