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Margaret
Mr. Carson, husband to Mrs. Carson and father to Harry Carson, Sophy Carson, and other daughters, is a mill owner in Manchester. Though Mr. Carson comes from a working-class background, he is hard and unempathetic with his employees. When his mill burns down in an accident, he decides to keep the mill closed while he modernizes the equipment, leaving his former employees out of work in a bad economy. During a strike protesting extremely low wages the mill and factory owners have offered their workers to fulfill a big manufacturing order, Mr. Carson decides he won’t be “bullied” into accepting any of the worker’s demands—ignoring that the workers’ demands come from the workers’ real material suffering. After his only son Harry Carson is murdered, he becomes obsessed with revenge and nearly succeeds in pressuring the courts to speedily arrest, try, and execute the (innocent) Jem Wilson. When a dying John Barton confesses that he murdered Harry to Mr. Carson and begs Mr. Carson’s forgiveness, Mr. Carson at first wants revenge and a public execution, but after reading the Christian Gospels, he ends up allowing John to die at home. After John’s death, Mr. Carson has a long conversation with Jem Wilson and Job Legh about John’s motives for the murder. After Job convinces Mr. Carson that the employers’ lack of empathy for the working class drove John violently insane, Mr. Carson becomes devoted to improving working conditions and class relations in Manchester.
Mr. Carson Quotes in Mary Barton
The Mary Barton quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Carson or refer to Mr. Carson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
The weekly drain of wages given for labour, useless in the present state of the market, was stopped. The partners had more leisure than they had known for years[.]
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The coffee steamed upon the fire, and altogether the odours were so mixed and appetising that Wilson began to yearn for food to break his fast, which had lasted since dinner the day before. If the servants had known this, they would have willingly given him meat and bread in abundance; but they were like the rest of us, and not feeling hunger themselves, forgot it was possible another might.
Chapter 18
Quotes
To avenge his child’s death, the old man lived on; with the single purpose in his heart of vengeance on the murderer. True, his vengeance was sanctioned by law, but was it the less revenge?
Are ye worshippers of Christ? or of Alecto?
Chapter 32
Quotes
I don’t know that he exactly used the term vengeance in his thoughts; he spoke of justice, and probably thought of his desired end as such[.]
Chapter 35
Quotes
The eyes of John Barton grew dim with tears. Rich and poor, masters and men, were then brothers in the deep suffering of the heart; for was not this the very anguish he had felt for little Tom, in years so long gone by that they seemed like another life!
“Let my trespasses be unforgiven, so that I may have vengeance for my son’s murder.”
Chapter 37
Quotes
“You say our talk has done no good. I say it has. I see the view you take of things from the place where you stand.”
To those who have large capability of loving and suffering, united with great power of firm endurance, there comes a time in their woe when they are lifted out of the contemplation of their individual case into a searching inquiry into the nature of their calamity, and the remedy (if remedy there be) which may prevent its recurrence to others as well as themselves.
Get the entire Mary Barton LitChart as a printable PDF.
Mr. Carson Quotes in Mary Barton
The Mary Barton quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Carson or refer to Mr. Carson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
The weekly drain of wages given for labour, useless in the present state of the market, was stopped. The partners had more leisure than they had known for years[.]
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The coffee steamed upon the fire, and altogether the odours were so mixed and appetising that Wilson began to yearn for food to break his fast, which had lasted since dinner the day before. If the servants had known this, they would have willingly given him meat and bread in abundance; but they were like the rest of us, and not feeling hunger themselves, forgot it was possible another might.
Chapter 18
Quotes
To avenge his child’s death, the old man lived on; with the single purpose in his heart of vengeance on the murderer. True, his vengeance was sanctioned by law, but was it the less revenge?
Are ye worshippers of Christ? or of Alecto?
Chapter 32
Quotes
I don’t know that he exactly used the term vengeance in his thoughts; he spoke of justice, and probably thought of his desired end as such[.]
Chapter 35
Quotes
The eyes of John Barton grew dim with tears. Rich and poor, masters and men, were then brothers in the deep suffering of the heart; for was not this the very anguish he had felt for little Tom, in years so long gone by that they seemed like another life!
“Let my trespasses be unforgiven, so that I may have vengeance for my son’s murder.”
Chapter 37
Quotes
“You say our talk has done no good. I say it has. I see the view you take of things from the place where you stand.”
To those who have large capability of loving and suffering, united with great power of firm endurance, there comes a time in their woe when they are lifted out of the contemplation of their individual case into a searching inquiry into the nature of their calamity, and the remedy (if remedy there be) which may prevent its recurrence to others as well as themselves.
