The
exquisite comparison of Mary Barton written by Elizabeth Gaskell and
its stage counterpart Boucicault was truly interesting and new to my
knowledge of Victorian literature. While reading through the reviews
of Altick, I found tasteful differences between the play and novel,
making both works hold something unique to bring forth to those who
indulge in such a dark and fascinating era. Through Altick's review,
my opinion on the novel so far agreed closely on the lines in which
he spoke of. In the basic summary of the play and novel, the
comparisons between the two followed closely, but the play lacked in
the meaningful focus Gaskell painted so well. The characters were
quite important to her, but the message of social protest held a top
priority for her. "Her dominant concern was to convey her
message of social protest" (493).
Comparing
the novel and play side by side, Altick explained that Esther did not
appear in the play and that the mill owner and his son were combined
into one (Radley). Aside from my dolefulness from the absence of one
character, I could understand that it couldn't be exactly like the
novel due to time constraints of the play and the different writing
style of the play writer whom focused more on character development
than the social protest. The differences from the play makes the
story unique from the novel. Though the general plot was the same,
the play introduced different twists. Without Esther, the the full
retribution is not expressed through her character. When combining
the Carsons into one being however was fairly interesting, giving our
villain both issues with being a seducer and a labor-oppressing mill
owner.
Not only Esther and the Carsons, but other characters were also cut
from the play, most of them being a character who caused more trouble
or died early on enough for them to not be deemed important, even
though their deaths express the tragedy that impressively tore the
ground right from under the poor and hungry. With these various
characters cut from the book, the aspect of poverty is not fully
appreciated.
I also was unaware until reading your summary that there was a play of "Mary Barton." If Carson and his father were combined, who died and who was alive at the end to repent? And I agree with the thought that characters and the destitution being cut from the play change the piece's work inherently. A review that I read credits Esther to be the most important character so it is interesting what the text means without her involvement.
ReplyDeleteIt's very hard for me to imagine any sort of staging of Mary Barton as a commercial success in the 21st century, but I can see how it might have translated better during the 19th century, when readers/the audience would have had more invested in the Industrial Revolution.
ReplyDelete