Elizabeth Gaskell's Use of Color in Her Industrial Novels and Short Stories

by Wildt, Katherine Ann

• ISBN13: 9780761813453
• ISBN10: 0761813454
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-05-13
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

Elizabeth Gaskell's Use of Color in Her Industrial Novels and Short Stories presents Gaskell's incorporation of Ruskin's moral theory of color to set the tone in her tales as she illustrates the dreary, monotonous existence of nineteenth century industrial workers. Wildt demonstrates the use of various shades, tints, and hues of color to set moral tone, express character feelings, and to foreshadow events as Gaskell establishes and sustains mood in her short stories, and to a greater extent, in her industrial novels. She points out the use of color for foreshadowing events, expressing character's feelings in defining character in Mary Barton, North and South, and Ruth. Focusing on Gaskell's repeated use of the storm cloud motif, Wildt notes its presence on physical and emotional levels to illustrate the bleakness of the trapped condition of working women in the mid-nineteenth century, and that it anticipates Ruskin's future use of "The Storm Cloud."

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. v
Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xi
The Importance of Color	p. 1
The Short Stories: Hints of What Is to Come	p. 21
Mary Barton: Colors of Alienation and Harmony	p. 49
North and South: Fewer Colors, More Balance	p. 75
Ruth: A Study in Colors and Contrasts of Seasons	p. 103
Assessment	p. 135
Appendix	p. 141
Bibliography	p. 147
Index	p. 153
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