Anyone who is worth their salt will know of Mrs. Bennett and her chest pangs and poor nerves. She's a right hypochondriac and whiner well known for her terribly loud suffering. Margaret Hale's mother Mrs. Hale of North and South plays no
second fiddle to Mrs. Bennet, though her suffering is not so fictional. I find them another excellent example of the single stereotype Austen
begins with and the more explicit humanity inherent in Gaskell's
characters.
Mrs. Bennet is an industrious orator of her own imagined
suffering. She throws the household into an uproar so that she is sure
to be heard and included in whatever is afoot. Life must revolve around
her; she is insecure and needs the constant validation of attention.
She gets it however she can, blowing twinges and situations alike out
of proportion. She has no restraint herself and has probably never been
shown restraint as an example.
In contrast Mrs. Hale
is a clergyman's wife: tiny, pretty, soft spoken, living a quiet life.
And yet she becomes very similar when faced with adversity. After her
husband's surprising upheaval of their life, her docile characteristics
slowly fade into more self centric vocalizations. The smog and dour air of Milton prey upon her mild constitution, which, left to a quiet country life of small indulgences, is kept so perfectly in check that her family did not even realize she had a tendency toward being an invalid. She was thought of as pretty and fair and mild. But put to the riggers of an industrial town, she simply wilts like an uprooted perennial. Contrary to Mrs. Bennet's bombasting, Mrs. Hale's family tiptoes around her, afraid to upset her, not wanting to admit to each other the possibility of her illness, decline and eventual death. The housekeeper realizes the gravity of the situation first but keeps it from Margaret and Mr. Hale.
Mrs. Bennett has all the pomp; Mrs. Hale has all the circumstance.
Even in this, Gaskell still maintains the stereotype of a soft, Southern, warm-climate-acclimated woman who can't hack an industrial town but does not allow the stereotype to draw the boundaries of the character. Mrs. Bennett is not ever seen to have gravity. She has no other motive, no past except as forwards her motive, and no other relationship than is related to marrying her daughters. Her one-dimensional character is intact. Mrs. Hale is shown to try to understand her new fellows, though pouting about it all the while; gives in to a fit of outrage over her disagreement with her husband when he finally reveals his dilemma; and even appeals to her adversary Mrs. Thornton on her deathbed to be a good friend to Margaret. She evolves. Even Mrs. Thornton begrudgingly admits that she might grow accustomed to someone who could love her son. She realizes the virtue in what is otherwise a completely unworthy companion for her son. So too does Mrs. Hale come to see the virtue in having Mrs.Thornton for a friend for her daughter, someone to guide her in the foreign sub-culture of Milton. Indeed she appeals to Mrs. Thornton's sense of propriety on Margaret's behalf, a great concession for one who had previously felt shunned by the same woman with her willful misunderstanding of a proper and kind, Southern compliment about her lace.
As before, I cannot say that I prefer Gaskell to Austen for I discovered Austen first and appreciate her short style better than Gaskell's more explanatory prose, which can sometimes be a bit too much. But, I find the characters and situations to be consistently more layered, and I can always appreciate that.
