Abstract
Ludlow argues that in Sylvia’s Lovers (1863) and A Dark Night’s Work (1863) Gaskell includes scenes of reconciliation that exemplify the wider theological and cultural move away from doctrines of vicarious and retributive punishment and towards a celebration of compassion and co-operation. In detailing how these scenes of reconciliation engage with the Incarnation-inflected teleology that was gaining momentum in the early 1860s, the chapter foregrounds Gaskell’s critique of the type of extraordinary heroism that is performed by the individual and considers her emphasis on the way in which the Christ-like compassion of a parent, spouse, child, or neighbour brings gradual renewal and transformation to the self and to society. Ludlow suggests that, like George Eliot, Gaskell recognises the power of public confession in restoring the interpersonal fictional community and in bringing an individual to a recognition of his or her own fragility and the consequent ongoing need for forgiveness.
‘You must forgive him—there is great need for forgiveness in this world.’
(Elizabeth Gaskell, A Dark Night’s Work, 175)
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Works Cited
Billington, Josie. ‘Watching a Writer Write: Manuscript Revisions in Mrs Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters and Why They Matter.’ Real Voices on Reading. Ed. Philip Davis. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997. 224–35.
Colòn, Susan E. Victorian Parables. London; New York: Continuum, 2012.
D’Albertis, Deirdre. Dissembling Fictions: Elizabeth Gaskell and the Victorian Social Text. London: Macmillan, 1997.
Eliot, George. The George Eliot Letters, vol 3 (1859–1861). Ed. Gordon S. Haight. London: Oxford University Press; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954.
Gaskell, Elizabeth. A Dark Night’s Work. London: Smith, Elder. 1863. Online. Internet Archive. Accessed 19 Feb 2018.
———. ‘French Life’ [iii]. Fraser’s Magazine 69 (June 1864): 739–52. Online. ProQuest. Accessed 19 Feb 2018.
———. Further Letters of Mrs Gaskell. Ed. J.A.V Chapple and Arthur Pollard. Manchester: Manchester, 2003.
———. The Letters of Mrs. Gaskell. Ed. J.A.V. Chapple and Arthur Pollard. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996.
———. ‘Lois the Witch.’ 1859. Elizabeth Gaskell: Gothic Tales. Ed. Laura Kranzler. London: Penguin, 2000. 139–226.
———. Sylvia’s Lovers. 1863. Ed. Andrew Sanders. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Gaskell, William. The Person of Christ: A Lecture. London: H Brace. 1860.
Gibson, Richard Hughes. Forgiveness in Victorian Literature: Grammar, Narrative, and Community. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
Handley, Graham. ‘“A Dark Night’s Work” Reconsidered.’ The Gaskell Journal 21 (2007): 65–72.
Hilton, Boyd. The Age of Atonement: The Influence of Evangelicalism on Social and Economic Thought, 1785–1865. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.
Hughes, Linda K. ‘Cousin Phillis, Wives and Daughters, and Modernity.’ The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell. Ed. Jill L. Matus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 90–107.
———. ‘Gaskell the Worker.’ The Gaskell Society Journal 20 (2006): 28–46.
Hughes, Winifred. The Maniac in the Cellar: Sensation Novels of the 1860s. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
Larsen, Timothy. A People of One Book: The Bible and the Victorians. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Sanders, Andrew. Introduction. Sylvia’s Lovers. By Elizabeth Gaskell. 1863. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. vii–xvi.
Schor, Hilary M. Scheherazade in the Marketplace: Elizabeth Gaskell and the Victorian Novel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Shaw, Marion. ‘Sylvia’s Lovers and Other Historical Fiction.’ In Matus, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell. 75–89.
Uglow, Jennifer. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. London: Faber and Faber, 1993.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ludlow, E. (2020). ‘There is great need for forgiveness in this world’: The Call for Reconciliation in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Sylvia’s Lovers and A Dark Night’s Work. In: Gavin, A., de la L. Oulton, C. (eds) British Women's Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, Volume 2. British Women’s Writing from Brontë to Bloomsbury, 1840-1940, vol 2. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38528-6_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38528-6_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-38527-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-38528-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)