Gaskell also elicits our admiration for Helen to show her as a sympathetic character. She made an extremely big self-sacrifice, which was basically giving her life to a man she did not love to ensure her son had all the support he needed as “a boy was a great charge to a widowed mother”. She always looked out for Gregory and “he always had enough, whoever went short.” This shows how well looked after he was. She was full of stoicism and was prepared to get through the troubles; she always endured them with a quiet dignity and even mourned the death of her husband and daughter quietly. She looked at her daughters face “without so much as shedding a tear.” For this we should give her a great deal of admiration, as it is an extremely difficult thing to do. She did not complain about her sufferings but instead pushed on with her life.
Gregory has many of the qualities of his mother. He also is a sympathetic character whom we feel pity and admiration for. Preston is characterised as “The Wicked Stepfather.” He constantly is nasty towards Gregory who is just a child. This is therefore going to increase our sympathy towards Gregory. Gregory was an orphan- and just by presenting him as this we feel pity for him straight away as an orphan is usually seen as a sorry character. Aunt Fanny is his only blood relation but still favours the narrator, as do the farm workers who mistreat him. The only friend he has around the farm is Old Adam. Old Adam always talks about him in a good way and therefore Preston should realise that if someone as wise as Old Adam says he is good then it should be believed. When Gaskell writes of Gregory getting in to trouble it is immediately followed by ‘as children will”- to show that this behaviour is perfectly natural for children of his age. However, he is also made out to be quite hapless for example it says he was ‘lumpish and loutish, awkward and ungainly.’ The narrator shows that he is genuinely sorry and ashamed of how he treated his stepbrother by saying ‘my poor orphan, step brother.’ He is encouraging us as readers to feel sorry for Gregory. Aunt Fanny and Preston interpret his ‘silent and quiet’ behaviour as being ‘sulky’ and ‘stupid’. Gregory was made into a ‘kind of shepherd’ and was demoted to the care of farm hands. This again shows Preston’s favouritism to the narrator. Preston said the death of Helen was ‘all Gregory’s fault.’ He is being extremely unjust with this accusation and even more so when he ‘owed him an additional grudge for having hastened my [the narrator’s] birth.’ However the main way the gains our pity is through Gregory’s death- which could have been saved if it were not for his forgiving. The regard that Gregory is given from Preston after his death can do no good for him now, as Gregory has already sacrificed himself for Preston’s own son.
Elizabeth Gaskell also describes Gregory in an admirable way, just as she did with Helen. He is a very forgiving person and will respond to cruelty with kindness. We can see an example of this when it says he would “try to do a good turn for anyone, even if they had been scolding him or cuffing him not a minute before.” Adam had a lot to praise Gregory for and therefore there is obviously something to admire about him. We should also admire him for these properties. In the Episode on the Fells Gregory “recognised the peculiar phase of suffering”. This shows his sensitivity, that he can empathise with his half brother’s suffering. Gregory is looking out for his half brother and ‘tenderly covered [him] up’. This shows the extent of his fraternal love despite how badly the narrator had treated Gregory. There is a strong contrast that we can see between the narrator’s selfishness and Gregory’s selflessness. He does not even make a fuss about the sacrifice he knows he is going to make. This self-sacrifice Gregory makes for his half-brother despite how badly he has treated him is one of the most admirable things that could possibly be done. A lasting impression of what Gregory did is shown by the phrase “he was strangely in our thoughts” but was never spoken off. This also shows that even though people usually disregarded him, he had actually made a big impression on everyone.
William Preston is a much more complicated, but perhaps more interesting than either Helen or Gregory. He first off seems to be a stereotypical “evil villain” but when we look at the text more deeply we can see that he is humanised. When we first meet him he is shown to be the saviour of the family, which is a strong positive side to him. However, he and Helen are so wrongly suited for each other. Gaskell has already manipulated our feelings towards Helen in such a way that we want her second marriage to work. Preston seems socially inept- for example he ‘sat down, and began to twirl his hat by way of being agreeable’ he also ‘said very little.’ Many adjectives such as ‘sour’ and ‘envious’ are used to describe his jealousy of Helens love towards her son Gregory. He constantly throughout most of the story curses and swears at Gregory. This author is clearly trying to persuade us to take sides with Gregory. Preston also holds a strong grudge against Gregory for “killing” Helen and uses this as an excuse to treat him in such a bad way. The contrast between Preston and Gregory emphasises how immature and unreasonable Preston is. He is humanised through the care and affection he shows to Helen, and the fact he would do anything for her. The tableau at Helen’s deathbed scene is very significant in his humanisation. He ‘bent tenderly’, ‘gazed’ and showed ‘kindliness’. Al these words seem to show a true positive side to him. We can clearly see he has a lot of remorse and guilt about the way in which he treated Gregory. ‘Lassie came and went with never a word of blame’ we can obviously see his clear alteration in the treatment of lassie because of now what has happened to Gregory. Here it is hard to see him as totally heartless. Lassie ‘shrank away’ showing that he has not approved of his new reformed character. Perhaps this is a hint to us as readers not to approve of it either. The next paragraph is full of irony. Preston was still being nasty towards Gregory saying ‘his services were good for nothing’- when infact at that very time Gregory was making the ultimate sacrifice. This makes us feel all the more dislike towards him. On his deathbed he is still seeking repentance and forgiveness. Character’s last words are often very significant and his were ‘God forgive me my hardness of heart towards the fatherless child.” Most significantly, he asked to be placed at the foot of Helen’s grave and placing Gregory beside her. He is giving up his place in death and this again reinforces how extremely sorry he was.
As well as manipulating our feelings towards the characters Gaskell also adds a large scene containing suspense. Old Adam predicts a downfall of snow. This starts of creating suspense by making us wonder if he is correct, as he was correct previously about Gregory. The narrator did not return home as he was told to. The sentence ‘but night came on quicker’ is extremely short and quick. It is also a contrast to the extremely long lines used earlier to describe the problems building up. This time the problems are appearing quickly. There are usually objects to follow his way home in the daytime. However now they are quite invisible and this creates suspense and panic in the characters and for Gaskell’s readers. The ‘wild boggy moor’ makes it seem like a very desolate place. If anything was to happen it is too far from civilisation to do anything all he could hear were the ‘unfeeling echoes.’ There is also an eerie type background. The narrator is trying to reassure himself but this just creates more suspense for us and makes us wonder why he is trying to reassure himself and what is going to happen to him. The ‘noiseless expanse of black darkness’ shows for definite that he is lost. The darkness is emphasised by the tautology ‘black darkness.’ The “air was filled thick” emphasises his loss and the fat that he is trapped. It also suggests claustrophobia and asphyxiation. We realise this is starting to get dangerous and life threatening and that he will not be able to get out easily or call for help. The repetition of ‘thicker, thicker’ emphasises how surrounded he is, and also adds some suspense and panic. The snow is personified as ‘pitiless snow.’ The snow is not showing him any pity and the personification has the effect of making it seem as if it is being deliberately malicious and therefore dangerous. The long sentence structure forces us to wait for the outcome and therefore adds more suspense. Gaskell then leaves the writing on the Fells suspended for a while making us have to wait in suspense for the outcome, to see if the bark did belong to lassie. However, the suspense is not resolved with finding Gregory, as he is not certain of how to get home. Many exclamation marks are used and the phrase ‘now or never’ makes us realise that if they are not saved now they never will be. This makes suspense, as we want to know if both will be saved. There is also no swift solution and they have to make very slow progress even though they are quickly getting trapped. The idea earlier about claustrophobia is again reinforced by the “thick closing pressing darkness.” It is now becoming a threat to their lives and is a life or death situation. They must ‘walk for dear life’ or will be ‘frozen to death.’ A ‘deadly fatal sleep’ is described. He may slip into unconsciousness and will be a danger to his life if sleep does successfully ‘steal’ over him. A tautology ‘deadly fatal’ is once again used to emphasise how grave the situation has become. They have run out of ideas of how to be saved their ‘only’ chance is in Lassie. The suspense then ends at what seems to be a blackout. We find out about Gregory’s death a few lines later with “a look passed from one to another.”
I felt Elizabeth Gaskell manipulated my feelings very well in a wide variety of ways. I thought Helen and Gregory were the type of people who we would like to aspire to. I had a lot of mixed feelings towards Preston, as he was very a complicated character. I thought his character was described very well but also very originally. However, I cannot come to a conclusion on how I feel towards him. I thought the fells episode was quite exciting and suspense was built up very well in it.