One day in the middle of the 19th century, Richard Hale, a middle-aged pastor, left his warm hometown south of London with his wife, daughter, and servants, and took a steam train to the northern industrial city of Milton. The family did not fully support the decision, especially his frail wife, Maria Hale, and her devoted servant Dixon, but Mr. Hale, a well-mannered man, believed that he had become a saviour of the increasingly rigid church system and teachings. If the content is doubtful, and it is impossible to continue to work in the priesthood, moving is a decision based on personal "conscience" (conscience).
Unfortunately, Mr. Hale's "conscience" is not cherished by the citizens of this modern industrial city. Milton, an important cotton textile industry town, from the bottom workers to the manufacturers are all "slaves" of money and assets. Intellect and morality to them are but impractical diversions. Arranged by Mr. John Thornton, a wealthy local businessman, the Hale family quickly found a place to live, but they found themselves in the process of integrating into the local community. Margaret Hale is in constant conflict with capitalists such as Thornton because of her sympathy for the poor working class. The two protagonists from the south and the north experience and intervene in each other's lives in such a city swallowed by soot and cotton wool.
The play is adapted from the 19th-century British female writer Elizabeth Gaskell's novel of the same name, published by the BBC in 2004. In the play, the love story of the factory owner John and the priest's daughter Margaret, as the main line, runs through the tragic life of the British "Golden Age" workers and is stained with heavy historical colors. Therefore, the play is also jokingly called by many audiences. As "Pride and Prejudice in the Industrial Age", in the author's opinion, this pair of lovers with great disparity in class, identity, cultural taste and even clothing composition (Miltons wear cotton products more, Hairston wears linen products) is precious, but If we use the text of "Pride and Prejudice" to describe the direction of the love of the protagonist of the play, it will hinder our deep understanding of the play, because bridging the interpersonal rift and overcoming each other's differences cannot be just a short-lived biological impulse of love. 's credit. Therefore, it is necessary for us to limit the scenes in which the story takes place, and then substitute ourselves into the identities of the hero and heroine, or even the supporting roles, to think about their actions, perhaps in this way, we can get closer to the truth of the play.
01 Going to the north to "pioneer": a pastor's family in an industrial town
The prelude of the story begins after the Hale family moved to the north, which left the audience with two suspense. One is the reason why the Hale family left their hometown of Hairston; the other is the reason why the Hale family chose to move to the northern city of Milton. . For human beings, a relatively stable life is very important. If we cannot settle down, it is difficult to start an orderly life and work and continue our lives. Relocation is the main reason for triggering the script, and it is also one of the major choices made by the protagonist of the story in the play. Solving these two problems will help us deepen our understanding of the plot.
Regarding the first question, Mr. Hale, the candid Mr. Hale, has told us himself that the bishop of his diocese requires priests to reaffirm their faith in the Book of Common Prayer. But the learned man has been questioning the doctrine for many years. He said, "I cannot publicly swear by a doctrine that is no longer certain..., those of us with conscience must take a stand." How to show it? Mr. Hale chose to resign from the priesthood and leave his parish of New Forest.
No one responded positively to the second question, and even Margaret's cousin Edith questioned it in a letter in the whole play: "I don't understand why my uncle wants to take you to that kind of place?" Perhaps, this It's a self-evident truth for characters other than Edith, and for the BBC's homegrown audience. The accelerated secularization of Christianity in the Victorian era, especially the continuous impact of the rise of new industries and science and technology on the public mind, people no longer believe in Christianity as they used to, not only that, but even the clergy are trying to participate in the secular society. activities, they help the poor and educate the children of the working class, from Mr. Hale's free lectures for workers at Milton Church every Sunday, to the banquet attended by "mean" factory owners. be proven. Through the mouth of Margaret, we learned that although the local people prefer to use the church as a place to plan strike movements rather than worship, although there are few serious audiences in the free lectures, and although in the eyes of the local factory owners, "conscience does not make money", Although Mr. Hale has long ceased to be a clergyman, he is still "in high spirits" and enjoys spreading the gospel of God to the local community in order to attract and cultivate more believers. From this point of view, it cannot be ruled out that Mr. Hale deliberately chose such an acquaintance with a lackluster religious atmosphere and acquaintances who did not know the truth of his workplace frustrations as the place to start a new mission. land.
Moving has become a reality, and integrating into the local area has become the most urgent matter at hand. The Hale family first came into contact with the John Thornton family, a wealthy businessman and justice of the peace, and in the process, the main characters were exposed, and the differences between families from the South and the North were far more than they imagined. Not only The conflict between the tastes of literature and art is also the contradiction between the old society and the new society that coexisted in Britain in the 19th century. The Hale family's hometown is largely a traditional community run and maintained by the local church, where people are self-sufficient and have a close and harmonious relationship with each other. Margaret "was watching back and forth from childhood, visiting my father's parishioners."
Although the people of the South live in the countryside, the spiritual world has reached the heaven of God. Milton, on the other hand, is the epitome of the British Industrial Revolution. There are at least 20 highly mechanized factories in the city. The factory owners' offices and residences are generally built nearby to supervise workers' on-time and serious work. The housing environment of the residents in the city is poor. There is no green space between the buildings, only the chicken feathers left by the poultry traders. The slums with worse living conditions are scattered in the city, and the smoke from the chimneys obscures the sky. Today, cotton wool flutters like snow in the workshop, becoming a hidden danger of workers' lung disease. The developed industry was not used to improve the lives of ordinary people, and the residents in the atomic society had little contact with each other.
Mr. Hale, who is qualified as a coach, found it difficult to make a living there. "People here don't want to study, they don't need books and culture. There's only money and black smoke." Although John Thornton was willing to come to learn about Aristotle occasionally However, he devoted his main energy to operating the factory and making profits. The process of indoctrination was difficult. When the teacher suggested many times that he should "show mercy" to the workers, he would indifferently refuse: "I am not running a charity. mechanism".
The North seems to function well without religion.
02 In Search of Answers: A Religion That Cannot Distribute Social Justice
Several major mills in Milton are cutting wages for workers as cotton costs and buyers owe money. The workers decided to go on a collective strike after repeated negotiations with the factory owners failed. The organizer was Nicholas Higgins, a worker at the Sandton factory and a trade union cadre, who himself hoped to force employers to raise wages through a non-violent strike. However, a movement he planned recently was sabotaged by individual workers with weak personalities. This movement exacerbated the contradiction between the labor and management, and accidentally injured Margaret, who came to be the arbiter. The police called by John finally arrived, and the workers fled everywhere under the pursuit of the mounted police.
This is an intriguing scene. The last time I saw a similar scene on the screen was the German film Metropolis in 1927. In that film, standing between the workers and the capitalists was the capitalist son Frey. Ci, who plays the role of Jesus Christ in the film, holds the hands of the capitalist father and the workers, hoping that they can reconcile and accomplish God's cause together. But Margaret of Hairston was not so lucky. The next second, she was knocked unconscious by a stone thrown by the worker Boucher. The magic of religion seems to have failed.
Misfortunes do not come singly. Nicholas, who had just witnessed the failure of the strike, lost his daughter Beth. Mr. Hale brought Margaret to mourn. He comforted: "She may have had a hard time, but she will find comfort in the next life." Nicholas just smiled wryly, and he began to question Mr. Hale why God created a world with unequal distribution of resources. This dialogue between the two reveals the legitimate means of achieving social justice in the eyes of the church and the working class. It is a classic:
Nicholas: It's not that I don't believe in your God, I just don't believe he purposely made the world this way. The factory owners rule us, and the rest live in the shadows.
Mr. Hale: He gave us the world, the wisdom and the brains to discover the good and the charm of others.
Nicholas: Am I to believe that it was his will that he gave more to some people?
Mr. Hale: We have a responsibility to reconcile with others, what a pity your mind is always around war and conflict, I know there is suffering, I know there are cruel and greedy employers in this world, but I'm sure a better way is, conflict Well-meaning people on both sides can sit down and share their views and discuss how to exercise God's will and live in peace and harmony. Don't you think someone like Thornton would be willing to listen to advice?
Nicholas: Thornton? It was he who brought in the Irish (*referring to the Irish temps who replaced the strikers) and caused that strike-breaking riot, even Hamp waited (the situation developed), but Thornton couldn't even pretend , now we need him to toughen up and find those Bouchers who betrayed us, what did he do? I felt that he said he was a victim and did not make accusations. He said they became famous and could no longer find jobs, and that was enough punishment.
Margaret: Mr. Thornton is right. I know you're mad at Boucher, but you understand that anything more is revenge.
Nicholas: My poor Beth, she said the strike would kill her. It's all the fault of a weak man like Boucher.
Margaret: Not everyone is as strong as you to hold out on strike for so long.
Nicholas: People in the industry have to stick together. Otherwise, those who have the means and wealth...we can expel him (Boucher), then he will not exist. No one will look at him, talk to him....
Margaret: It's the same tyranny as the employer.
Nicholas: ...let me put it this way, being in a union is like fighting a war on the battlefield. War always commits some crimes, but the greater crime is to do nothing.
Mr. Hale and Margaret understood that Nicholas was a man who could not hear the gospel of God. But for his livelihood, the two of them persuaded Nicholas to communicate with John in person and reach a settlement. Perhaps for Margaret's sake, Thornton rehired Nicholas and followed his advice to improve some of the factory facilities. When the believers thought that a miracle had finally come, a new economic crisis was born in this textile factory, but this time, the miracle could not be shown.
03 The advent of a new god: "religion" boosts the development of capitalism
The successive passing of the Hale couple made Margaret disheartened. Accompanied by her father's former friend Mr. Bell, she returned to her hometown to find the courage to live. The "paradise" in her own memory: the intellectualism and rational criticism pursued by her father are no longer respected, and "keep it simple" is a more popular way of thinking. Even when she questioned this, the local residents thought she and her father The advocated habit of independent thinking originates from northern cities and is therefore "more wild " . Margaret lost both the North and the South, but found her anchor in the process. She left the South just as her father had left the South.
The spirit of questioning is deeply embedded in Margaret's genes, which is why the Hale family left Hairston and gradually took root in Milton: Mr. Hale, who was born in Oxford, dared to question the style of the church, and Margaret was tired of the upper class. The red tape of the class, they are devout but pragmatic Christians, they already have the thinking mode and living habits of modern people, so the South cannot keep them. And the mother Maria, who has never been able to integrate into the industrial city, died of illness, which also symbolizes the old social relations, old ideas and systems that have been eliminated in the process of historical development.
Judging from the flow of history, the Hales must also die. The story is now nearing its end, but the author seems to want to make her mind clear: She sets up a new episode - John's textile factory shuts down due to a cash flow crisis, after he misses out on a chance to make a fortune because he doesn't dare to invest.
Although Higgins and John were reconciled by God's will, the fact that the workers lost their jobs because of the bankruptcy of the capitalists once again seemed to deny the ultimate meaning of religion for the relief of human suffering. Religion can boost the development of the capitalist economy, but it cannot close the loopholes God's power is limited.
It was Margaret, the daughter of a former pastor who finally saved John from the dire straits, who, on the advice of a financial adviser, planned to invest the property she had just inherited from Mr. Bell to invest in John's factory. This brand-new business plan and its condensed capital relationship, coming as the god of the new society, contributed to the love affair between Margaret and John. Their love is not only witnessed by God in the church, by the law, but also by this business plan.
Further reading list to help understand the play:
1. "The Origins of British Individualism", by Alan MacFarlane, translated by Guan Keyong, Commercial Press, July 2008
2. "Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism", written by Max Weber, translated by Yan Kewen, Shanghai People's Publishing House, August 2010
3. The Origin of Political Order: From Pre-Human Era to the French Revolution, by Francis Fukuyama, translated by Mao Junjie, Guangxi Normal University Press, September 2014
4. "Historical Research", Arnold Toynbee et al., translated by Guo Xiaoling, Wang Wanqiang, etc., Shanghai People's Publishing House, January 2010
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