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Chapter 14
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mary Barton, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Employers vs. Workers
Sexuality and Danger
Christianity
Poverty and Morality
Empathy vs. Ignorance
Summary
Analysis
Meanwhile, John Barton has suffered first the shock of his petition’s failure in London and then a stretch of semi-starvation, which he used opium to cope with. In these trials, he has become obsessed with the gulf between the rich and the poor. He does not believe God intends this gulf, and so he wants to know whose fault it is. Eventually, he comes to hate the rich. The narrator compares the poor with Frankenstein’s monster: the rich have created them but deprived them of “inner means for peace and happiness.”
Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein tells the story of a scientist who arrogantly creates a self-conscious, suffering, lonely monster. Here, the novel analogizes the rich to the scientist and the poor to the monster, thereby arguing that the employer class negligently creates the conditions for workers’ suffering. John’s religious confusion over income inequality shows the ways that worldly injustice and the problem of evil can impede people’s belief in Christian tenets like universal brotherhood and the necessity of loving one’s enemies.
Themes
A recent event has disturbed the workers. The mills have received an order from a foreign market, but the owners fear that the market sent the same order to mills on the continent and will buy from whichever manufacturer produces the order more cheaply. As such, they plan to reduce workers’ wages so that both workers and employers may ultimately benefit. But the employers don’t explain the circumstances to the workers, only expect them to accept reduced wages. The workers, angered that the employers would use their starvation to exploit them, go on strike.
This passage suggests that employers’ and workers’ interests are entwined: if the workers accept lowered wages, both employers and workers get something; otherwise, no one gets anything. Yet the employers’ arrogant refusal to explain the situation to the workers ultimately causes a strike, suggesting that employers’ personal flaws and ego—rather than structural phenomena like differing class interests—lead to conflict between employers and workers.
Themes
John is elected to a committee organizing the strike. The mill owners, in turn, meet to bolster one another’s decision not to yield to the workers’ demands. Mr. Carson and Harry Carson are among the harshest of the owners, Mr. Carson with the passion of a “convert” because he used to be a worker himself, and Harry because he enjoys the idea of a fight. Rural workers and workers from neighboring counties come in to answer the owners’ advertisements—and many are beaten by the striking workers for interfering with the strike.
Usually, the novel suggests that understanding and shared experience lead to empathy. Yet Mr. Carson’s behavior is a counterexample: he seems motivated to bully the workers either to distance himself from his own working-class background or to bolster his own belief that if he escaped poverty through hard work, anyone theoretically can.
Themes
The workers write to the owners asking for a meeting at which they will communicate terms for ending the strike. The masters agree, though they aren’t sure how much to concede. Some with “sympathy” want to concede; others, including Harry, want to refuse everything. Yet despite how busy Harry is with the strike, he still finds time to pester Mary, insisting that he will possess her one way or another. Meanwhile, Mary never runs into Jem.
The employers able to feel “sympathy” for the workers want to agree to some of the workers’ demands, underscoring the idea that sympathy and empathy lead to cooperation and mutual aid. This passage juxtaposes Harry’s lack of sympathy for the workers with his sexual harassment of working-class Mary, perhaps suggesting that his class-based entitlement fuels both behaviors.
Themes
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If it weren’t for Mary’s troubles, she would be amused that Will has fallen in love with Margaret. Afraid to approach Margaret, Will nervously gives gifts to Job. Meanwhile, Jem has been looking for an opportunity to speak to Harry but hasn’t found it—until, five days after Jem’s meeting with Esther, the two young men meet by chance in the street during the workman’s lunch hour. Jem politely waylays Harry and asks whether he knows Mary. Harry is momentarily suspicious that Mary jilted him for Jem, though he can’t imagine her choosing a dirty worker over him. He says he knows Mary as a pretty “hussy.”
Will, a positively represented character, is too shy to approach Margaret and tries to indirectly court her through her male guardian—showing how the novel believes sexual and romantic feelings can be appropriately expressed, in contrast with Mary and Harry’s former unsupervised flirtation. When Harry calls Mary a “hussy” (a derogatory term for a bold, flirtatious girl) it shows him weaponizing Victorian conservatism and sexism against her, even though it is precisely her sexual conservatism that has thwarted Harry’s desire to see her.
Themes
When Harry tries to walk off, Jem puts his hand on Harry’s arm. Harry shakes him off and ostentatiously brushes his sleeve, rousing Jem’s temper. Jem says outright that he has heard Harry is courting Mary and he wants to know whether Harry intends marriage. If not, Harry needs to leave her alone. Harry, trying to understand Jem’s motives, speculates that perhaps Jem is a friend of Mary’s that she using to “bully” him into marrying her. He asks what right Jem has to interfere in his and Mary’s affairs. Jem announces that he loves Mary more than a father or brother could, which gives him the right.
Harry and Jem’s respective class statuses heavily influence their interaction: when Harry brushes his sleeve after Jem touches his arm, he is implying that Jem is dirty—and, by implication, lower-class and unworthy of Harry’s time. Moreover, Harry’s guess that Jem is trying to “bully” him into marrying Mary indicates that Harry sees himself as an advantageous match for Mary due to his class status, one that her whole working-class family would want her to pursue—even though, in fact, Mary doesn’t want Harry and her family would hate him. Jem’s declaration that he has a right to interfere in Mary’s romantic life because he loves her—even believing that she doesn’t love him back—shows his arguably disturbing possessiveness of her.
Themes
Having decided that Jem is a spurned admirer of Mary’s, Harry is no longer interested in him and tries to leave. Jem refuses to let him until he announces his intentions regarding Mary. Harry strikes Jem across the face with his walking cane—and in response, Jem punches Harry flat. A policeman, having spied the two young men, runs up, restrains Jem, and asks Harry whether Jem should be taken to jail. Harry says no, since he hit Jem first—but before he leaves, he tells Jem that things may go worse for Mary because of Jem’s actions. Jem snaps back that if Harry hurts Mary, policemen won’t prevent Jem from holding Harry to account. The policeman leads Jem away.
Though Harry hit Jem first, the policeman takes Harry’s side in the fight, implicitly because Harry is obviously the richer and more socially influential of the two young men—indicating how the criminal legal system unfairly privileges the rich in the world of the novel. Meanwhile, Harry’s threat to harm Mary due to Jem’s actions insists yet again on the dangers of flirtation and sexuality: Mary is in peril from Harry solely because she engaged in mild flirtation with him and because another man took it upon himself to intervene.
Themes
