ABSTRACT
One of Elizabeth Gaskell's earliest critics, Henry Fothergill Chorley, compared Gaskell's regional writing to that of Maria Edgeworth, praising both authors, along with Sir Walter Scott. It is no wonder that Gaskell often found herself at sixes and sevens about the best use of her time and talents. On the one hand, she was an independent woman and a successful writer who viewed herself as the intellectual equal of any man. On the other hand, she was a wife and mother in an era that fetishized passive femininity. Both Edgeworth and Gaskell often sought out the traditional values of a hierarchical structure in the face of social upheaval, but they were in fact ardently drawn to change. In her two 'Condition of England' novels, Mary Barton and North and South, Gaskell explores her attraction to both points of view, and she struggles to define what she sees as the most equitable relationship between industrial workers and their employees.
