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?
This song appeared in John Bull in August 1839, the period in which Mary Barton is set. What type of language is being used? Who do you imagine wrote this piece, and to whom it was addressed? Can you imagine John Barton subscribing to the rhetoric used here? Think about the representation of Chartism in this poem as compared to its representation in Mary Barton.
