Norte y sur

Through the story of Margaret Hale, a young woman from the South of England who, due to family circumstances, is forced to move north to the industrial city of Milton -a barely disguised transcript of Manchester-, Elizabeth Gaskell masterfully portrays the conflicts social and political derivatives of the Industrial Revolution in England in the mid-nineteenth century. For the heroine, the South where she was born symbolizes the rural idyll, the triumph of social harmony and decorum; in front of him, the North is dirty, rude and violent. However, as he penetrates this new world and its different strata -from Bessy, the sick young worker and her father, a union leader, to John Thornton, owner of a textile factory, for whom he feels a growing attraction-, he will have to correct their prejudices; and, in the same way, her condition as a subordinate woman will evolve towards a mature acceptance of herself and her feelings.