Half Brothers - How far can you sympathise with Helen, Gregory, William :: English Literature

Half Brothers - How far can you sympathise with Helen, Gregory, William Preston and the narrator of the tale? How does Elizabeth Gaskell guide your response? HALF BROTHERS How far can you sympathise with Helen, Gregory, William Preston and the narrator of the tale? How does Elizabeth Gaskell guide your response? Out of all of the characters in the story, I think that Helen and Gregory are the two that are easiest to sympathise with. William Preston is a harder character to sympathise with. The way that Elizabeth Gaskell portrays these characters in the tale, is a great influence on these thoughts. From beginning to end, Helen seems to have led a very tragic life. The start of the story consists of a very depressing amount of death and poverty and this could trigger a sympathetic reaction from the reader. After three years with her first husband, he dies of tuberculosis and leaves her with a young child, barely able to walk and many burdens such as a lease on their farm that she is stuck with for another four years. As if that wasn't enough, half of the stock on the farm was dead and the rest had to be sold to deal with 'more pressing debts'. All this made her life very difficult as there was no immediate source of income. The way all of this information is provided to the reader is also a reason for the quantity of sympathy generated for Helen. All of these tragic events in Helen's life are included in one single sentence. This gives the reader the impression that all these events happened within a very short time of each other. This would generate even more sympathy for Helen. Immediately after this one, massive sentence full of tragedy, and financial problems, Elizabeth Gaskell reveals that Helen is expecting another child. Here, a lot of emotive language is used, like 'sad and sorry' that trigger sympathy. Terms like 'lonesome dwelling' are also included. This suggests that Helen leads a very lonely, sad life. With winter approaching, Helen's future looks very bleak. At this point, Helen's sister 'Fanny' goes to stay at the farm to keep her company and help out. They planned ways to make money and for a short time, Helen's life began to look up. However, soon, Helen's daughter took ill of scarlet fever and within a week, she died. At this point, Helen was described as stunned by this blow. The fact that Helen did not cry almost gave the impression that Helen was so used to death that she had been 'hardened' by past experiences.