I realized recently that I’ve never given much thought to Higgins’ past life with his wife. Were they a reasonably happy family? There’s no indication that they weren’t. And yet, Nicholas Higgins never speaks about his wife. Is it too painful to mention? Does he keep his emotions private, not wanting pity?
It’s only through Bessy’s words that we learn anything at all about her mother.
to Margaret:
I think I was well when mother died, but I have never been rightly strong sin’ somewhere about that time. I began to work in a carding-room soon after, and the fluff got into my lungs. and poisoned me.
….Mary’s schooling were to be kept up, mother said, and father he were always liking to buy books, and go to lectures o’ one kind or another — all which took money, so I just worked on….
and to Nicholas:
O, father, what have ye gained by striking? Think of the first strike when mother died—how we all had to clem [starve]….
There is, of course, a practical reason that Gaskell made Higgins is a widower. She needed Bessy to be motherless so that Margaret would become an important mothering presence in their house. Bessy wouldn’t have been as hungry for attention from Margaret if she’d had a caring mother at home.
The fact that Nicholas Higgins is a widower also makes his decision to adopt Boucher’s children that much more heroic. He takes on the responsibility of raising a handful of young children without a wife to help him. That’s an impressive moral commitment!
The absence of a wife and mother in the family also changes the depth of the relationship between Bessy and Nicholas. We see that without a wife to turn to, Nicholas has grown very close to his oldest daughter, Bessy. A strong bond between father and daughter has developed since the death of his wife.
Of course, the most significant missing spouse in North and South is Hannah’s husband, George Thornton. The entire development of John Thornton’s character—the trajectory of his life—hinges upon his father’s suicide and the ensuing long struggle to rise from the debt and social censure George Thornton left his young family. Without his father’s death, it’s not likely John would have risen to the role of cotton mill master.
The determination to maintain their honor and integrity by paying back the debt while living in the shadow of society’s abandonment, drew mother and son together in a powerful bond of trust and reliance. The relationship that forms with his strong-minded mother in the wake of his father’s death remains the pillar of John Thornton’s life until he falls for Margaret Hale.
Although his absent role in the novel is vital, we know precious little about Hannah’s husband. She never speaks about him, except to tell Aunt Shaw that her husband is dead.
John speaks of his father only once, in telling his early history to the Hales at tea. Mr. Hale fills in the more sordid details of the senior Mr. Thornton’s death to his family—details which he obtained from Mr. Bell, an outside source.
Although George Thornton left his young family to suffer the consequences of his great mistake, neither Hannah nor John ever speak ill of him. Hannah continues to wear mourning black all her life, indicating that she still loves her husband.
There is one other instance in which it may be assumed that John is speaking of his father. On the dreadful night that John realizes that he cannot afford to continue running his factory, he tells his mother of the dire financial situation he is in and speculation offer that was presented to him:
“... how do you stand? Shall you—will it be a failure?” her steady voice trembling in an unwonted manner.
“Not a failure. I must give up business, but I pay all men. I might redeem myself - I am sorely tempted…”
“How? Oh, John! keep up your name—try all risks for that. How redeem it?”
“By a speculation offered to me, full of risk; but, if successful, placing high above the water-mark, so that no one need ever know the strait I am in. Still if it fails…”
“And if it fails,” said she, advancing, and laying her hand on his arm, her eyes full of eager light. She held her breath to hear the end of his speech.”
“Honest men are ruined by a rogue,” said he gloomily.
“Honest men are ruined by a rogue” he says. Is John referring to his father? Was George Thornton deceived into investing in some risky venture? It’s very likely that John and his mother believe that their father was preyed upon by unscrupulous men. This conviction allows them to continue to honor the memory of their father/husband with a degree of respect instead of resentment.
The history of his father’s tragic experience with financial speculations creates John’s strict moral stance about investing. He refuses to put himself in any danger of disaster like his father fell into. His father’s tragic death has impacted his life in almost every way.
Gaskell uses single parent situations in her other novels as well, and it so happens that it’s the development of the father-daughter relationship that she uses most. In Wives and Daughters there’s a precious relationship between Molly Gibson and her widowed father. The fact that Molly is missing a mother is integral to the unfolding plot. A father-daughter relationship is also vital to Gaskell’s very first novel, Mary Barton, in which Mary Barton tries to help her widowed father.
The loss of a spouse or parent was fairly common in Gaskell’s time. Through her stories we can see how these absences change the patterns and courses of life for those who continue on.
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