North and South, Irony, "Pride and Prejudice" and the Class System

"North and South" by Elizabeth Gaskell is a Victorian novel. It presents readers to issues of class, religion, society, industrial, rural and aristocratic life and exposes them to the truths of hard work and survival. Elizabeth Gaskell does this through travelling to each of these different places in her book, using the key character Margaret. Not only do we see their ways of life through Margaret but she also interprets it and who has her own set of strong beliefs and prejudices. Gaskell inter-relates the industrial and the female issues of the novel because the exploration is as much about the condition of women as the condition of workers. Margaret comes across all these and from her opinions, behavior and interaction we get a very strong distinction of her character.…