Point of View

Margaret is the main character of the novel, but the point of view is in the third person objective. However, Gaskell's point of view is not always reliable. North and South is written as a social novel, but Gaskell only represents the feelings of either the strong characters or the characters who hold a good position in society. Even Nicholas Higgins is a union representative, who at one stage Margaret says has a reputation for one of the best workers in the country. In fact, Gaskell hardly mentions the genuinely poor people. She does talk about the Boucher's, yet they are minor characters that she represents through people such as Nicholas, who actually holds a low opinion of them. Gaskell reinforces this negative point of view towards the workers at the strike. In this part of the novel, the workers gather like a mob outside John...