Reading Report two: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Do you remember that Mr. Lennox declared his love to Miss Margaret? Well...

After Mr. Lennox's visit, Margaret was confused. Several months passed and she could not stop thinking yet about what had happened, even though everything was going well until then. She kept thinking about how after she rejected him, he seemed not to give it so much importance whereas it would have taken her a long time to overcome a situation like that. However, he decided to get distracted and forget it. She decided to move on with her life and her daily routine. One afternoon, she was painting at her bedroom,concentrated to clear her mind and get relaxed but it did not last so much.

Mr. Hale asked Margaret to interrupt what she was doing because he needed to talk to her about something very important. Immediately, the girl thought that her father had heard about what happened with Mr. Lennox and that he was very upset. She was already preparing to tell her father that she was not ready to get marry for thousands of reasons, but when she entered to her father's room, she could tell by the expression on his face that something different was happening. His father gave her very sad news; they had to leave Helstone. Very upset, she asked her father the reason but he was just going around the matter, which of course frightened her even more. He did not want to tell her much, he just mentioned that they had to leave the town as soon as possible, since he could not continue being a church cleric.

Therefore, the family would have to move to North Milton, an industrial city of Darkshire. Mr. Hale did not want to give specific reasons and he did not want to be the one to tell his wife, so he convinced his daughter to do it. It was really hard for Margaret to give her mother the news. Her mother helped the poorest parishioners of Helstone and now she would have to leave them. What will happen with them? She thought. She decided to tell her as soon as possible and of course, Mrs. Hale reacted in the worst way and even got sick from so much stress. Seeing that, she felt very bad for her mother and she decided to take care of everything. She asked herself at what moment of her life this sudden change occurred; from making everyday simple decisions to having to take care of a situation like that. Having to move will represent a total change in their lives and they will have to start from scratch.

Personally, I understand Margaret's situation and also her position regarding the attitude of her father, who up to this point, had never seemed so insensitive, although surely it was not intentionally. I must admit that Margaret's behavior was surprising to me, since despite being a very intelligent girl, during the novel she showed that she often preferred to run away from certain responsibilities and situations to avoid stress. However, this time she did the other way round and took the responsibility of almost everything.

Regarding making big changes in our life, it is true that it could be difficult, especially if it happens from one moment to another and you do not have time to assimilate it. I also feel somehow identified with Mrs. Maria Hale because being so excited about making plans somewhere and have to leave them halfway, must be very frustrating. I have never found myself in a situation where I have to move and start from scratch, as is. But I have been in situations where I had to make big changes in my life and leave many plans.

I hope you have enjoyed the novel so far! We will see how this story continues and how they are doing in their new life in North Milton.