\u201cSo I naturally wished her to know what a sacrifice of prejudice, of \u2013 of myself, in short, I was willing to make for her sake; yet I don\u2019t think she was aware of it after all. I believe I might have any lady in Manchester if I liked, and yet I was willing and ready to marry a poor dressmaker. Don\u2019t you understand me now? And don\u2019t you see what a sacrifice I was making to humour her?\u201d (138).<\/p>\n
In this dialogue passage, Mr. Carson is talking to Sally about his relationship with Mary Barton after she rejects him. The repetitions of \u201cwilling\u201d and \u201csacrifice\u201d not only stress the \u201chardship\u201d he has gone through for Mary, but also make his courtship a favour for her rather than a part of a mutual relationship. Moreover, the phrases \u201csacrifice of prejudice\u201d and \u201cpoor dressmaker\u201d indicate that he is well aware of the differences in class and status between him and Mary, making it more seem like Mary owes him for liking and wanting to marry her. His awareness of his status is also shown when he says he could marry anyone in Manchester if he wants to, further establishing his ego and pride in his wealth. Additionally, the repetitions of \u201cI\u201d with active verbs and adjectives indicate his belief that it is him that put all the work and face all the \u201chardship\u201d for the relationship. Thus, what I am really trying to say here is that I think these lines show Mr. Carson has great pride in his status, leading to him feeling entitled to Mary, who is poorer than him, and her affection.<\/p>\n
Comparing Mr. Carson and Jem Wilson, we can see the differences in their reactions to Mary\u2019s rejections. As the novel points out, while Jem accepts the rejection as final, Mr. Carson simply views it as Mary having a \u201ccaprice\u201d (139-140). The novel attributes Jem\u2019s acceptance as his genuine love and respect for Mary. However, I believe that wealth is also a factor in this acceptance. As I analyze earlier, Mr. Carson\u2019s wealth makes him think that he is doing Mary a favour by loving her, thus, her rejection is something unthinkable. Meanwhile, Jem is in the same social class as Mary. He has no promise of wealth or stable life to offer her like Mr. Carson does. He also has his widow mother to take care of. Why would a beautiful lady like Mary agree to marry someone like him when she could do much better? Hence, in his mind, and possibly some other working-class men as well, rejection from a pretty lady, even when she is in the same class as them, is a final. This connection is shown more clearly when Mary talks to Will Wilson about Margaret. He states that since she is more well off than he is (as she is a singer), he wants to be second mate on a ship to have something to offer her when he asks for marriage (193).<\/p>\n
Therefore, in the larger context of this novel and Victorian society (as well as our society overall), Mr. Carson\u2019s dialogue shows how wealth influences decisions, perceptions, and marriage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cSo I naturally wished her to know what a sacrifice of prejudice, of \u2013 of myself, in short, I was willing to make for her sake; yet I don\u2019t think she was aware of it after all. I believe I might have any lady in Manchester if I liked, and yet I was willing and … Continue reading The Scandalous Sacrifice of Mr. Harry Carson<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4978,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4978"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}