ABSTRACT
Like her literary predecessor Maria Edgeworth, who publicly denied having an interest in politics even while she actively discussed and debated political issues. Elizabeth Gaskell was wary of coming across as too opinionated. Ironically, the connections between the public and private dominions were becoming increasingly clear in the Victorian age just as the cultural zeitgeist emphasized the importance of keeping these spheres separate. While authors such as Coventry Patmore and John Ruskin were glorifying the Victorian home as a haven from the horrors of the working world. Elizabeth Langland's study on Victorian middle-class women further deconstructs the notion of separate realms of home and business: Running the middle-class household, which by definition became 'middle-class' in its possession of at least one servant, was an exercise in class management, a process both inscribed and exposed in the Victorian novel. 'The Old Nurse's Tale' is a classic example of Gaskell's depiction of servants in a multiplicity of roles.
