『남과 북』: 변화의 불가피성과 수용 (North and South: The Ineluctable Mutability and Accepting of It)

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초록

This paper attempts to analyze Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South in the light of its protagonist’s confrontation with modern industrial society which looks dominated by “everlasting uncertainty and agitation” and her final acceptance of it as a structural condition of modern bourgeois society. In order to analyze the novel in the sense of the effects of the underlying force of bourgeois capitalism, this paper compares three major places depicted: Milton Northern, Helstone, and London. London, differing from the usual depiction as a place of calamities, poverty, abuse of children, and more in Charles Dickens’ novels, is represented as the place of power, luxury, and “the smooth sea,” free from struggles and efforts for survival. Returning to London after spending a couple of years in Milton, Margaret feels “uncanny” about her almost home-like place. This feeling was an effect of her sojourn in Milton, in which she could have witnessed the activities of “everlasting uncertainty and agitation.” She also felt unhomely even in Helstone, which has been idealized as a Home(Heimat) in her mind when she visits there with Mr. Bell. Instead of getting solace of her spirit and recovering her belief in the unchanging Nature, she gets assured that everything changes and one needs to accept the fact. As a result of the argument of this paper, the novel will be proved to have preempted the later intellectual and philosophical ideas such as Nietzsche’s ‘nihilism’ and Joyce’s “ineluctable modality.” Also, Gaskell’s suggestions on the problems of modern industrial society would be recognized progressive from the 21st century viewpoint, even though they were considered conservative in her days.

영어초록

This paper attempts to analyze Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South in the light of its protagonist’s confrontation with modern industrial society which looks dominated by “everlasting uncertainty and agitation” and her final acceptance of it as a structural condition of modern bourgeois society. In order to analyze the novel in the sense of the effects of the underlying force of bourgeois capitalism, this paper compares three major places depicted: Milton Northern, Helstone, and London. London, differing from the usual depiction as a place of calamities, poverty, abuse of children, and more in Charles Dickens’ novels, is represented as the place of power, luxury, and “the smooth sea,” free from struggles and efforts for survival. Returning to London after spending a couple of years in Milton, Margaret feels “uncanny” about her almost home-like place. This feeling was an effect of her sojourn in Milton, in which she could have witnessed the activities of “everlasting uncertainty and agitation.” She also felt unhomely even in Helstone, which has been idealized as a Home(Heimat) in her mind when she visits there with Mr. Bell. Instead of getting solace of her spirit and recovering her belief in the unchanging Nature, she gets assured that everything changes and one needs to accept the fact. As a result of the argument of this paper, the novel will be proved to have preempted the later intellectual and philosophical ideas such as Nietzsche’s ‘nihilism’ and Joyce’s “ineluctable modality.” Also, Gaskell’s suggestions on the problems of modern industrial society would be recognized progressive from the 21st century viewpoint, even though they were considered conservative in her days.

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