Tuberculosis as a romantic trope and a narrative device in Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South
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Abstract
A conventional reading of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell has generally established the novel as highly realistic and Gaskell as a keen observer. However, the novel is full of contradictions that make this reading of the novel problematic. Bessy Higgins' death from tuberculosis gives us some insight into relationships in the novel if one considers Bessy Higgins as a "character" developed using a romantic trope associated with having tuberculosis and then sacrificed for the happy ending in this romance, Margaret Hale's marriage to John Thornton. The trope used by Gaskell to describe Bessy ...
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