According to The Satirist; Or the Censor of the Times, the Chartist folly quickly ended. What does the article represent as the greatest folly of the Chartists? Why? What type of person would hold such views about the Chartists? Do you think John Barton succumbs to such folly? Does Gaskell represent him and the other Chartists as foolish or naive in any way?
According to the author of the article, the Chartists' main folly is that they believe they have more power over the government and the country than they are actually entitled to. The article states that this is because the Chartists believe they are above all other groups of people in the country--including the agricultural sector, merchants, and middle class, among others--in terms of importance to society.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, John Barton and the other Chartists in Mary Barton do succumb to such folly, as they believe they hold substantial importance in society and believe that Parliament will heed to their demands and tales of the suffering factory workers. However, they are crushed when their expectations fail to happen.
Though this inherently does make them seomwhat foolish or naive, I read the tone of this part of the reading as more noble than foolish--that though the Chartists had important ideas, they were defeated by the larger, unfair governing body. I saw this is more of a situation reminiscent of David and Goliath than of foolish workers trying to gain unfair rights. As this seems to be the goal of the novel, it would make sense that this is how Gaskell would choose to portray the situation.
As Rachel said, the article seems to indicate that the greatest folly of the Chartists is their belief that they have influence over the whole of England. This belief causes them to disregard all of the other classes such as the merchants, the middle class, etc. and in doing so, causes the Chartists to forget their own place in society. Furthermore, the author criticizes the methods by which the Chartists attempt to lord control over England, which is through ungainly, mob-like violence. In the excerpt about the man and his ticking watch, the author alludes that by using violence as their means, the Chartists destroy the very goal that they are trying to achieve. By using violence, the very infrastructure of commerce is destroyed and the gap between the working and upper middle class is further widened.
ReplyDeleteThese views would mostly be held by any class that has financial stability and a consistent source of income or work, such as non industrialized workers and the middle classes. The author is like to be from the upper middle class as he doubts the deficiency of jobs. However, it is hard to place the author's voice as he removes himself from "folks with property" and thus is it hard to tell whether or not the author is inclusive to that group. Regardless, there is a tone of command and knowledge in the author's writing which leads me to believe he is part of the upper middle class.
According to the author, the greatest folly of the chartists is that they believe they have any influence or power over the state of trade. They believe that by striking and appealing to the government, they will be able to make positive changes for their situation - in other words, they have not yet dispelled the idea of a justice that applies not only to their "masters", but to their own class. It seems as though John Barton believes this at the start of his career as a union leader - he travels to London still hoping to appeal to parliament. His belief in such notions of justice is quickly squandered when he travels to the city with his comrades and fails to even gain an audience of parliament. At that point, he has still not given up the belief in his the influence of the working class, and helps to organize the strike - again appealing to the factory owners for increased salary and rights. He is ultimately forced to recognize that such a strike fails to acknowledge the existence of other poor men who are willing to work for such meager wages rather than watch their family starve. In the end, the unions are "forced" to turn to violence. However, when Mr. Carson's son is killed the town misinterprets the motive of the murder, thinking it the doing of a rejected lover. As a result, the message of the union is never recognized, and even the murder of the factory owners son fails to accomplish anything for the workers. Even the most desperate measures of the working class are ignored - they fail to recognize their own powerlessness and are therefore represented as foolish and naive.
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