Abstract
metaphorizes social misunderstanding and the misunderstandings between readers and authors through the issue of reading the body. Also, it will it will discuss the ways she uses the language of the body to equalize the minority factions in her contemporary society. Finally, it will present Gaskell's model of understanding through personal contact, and show how she depends on physical sight to weaken prejudice and create sympathy. It will accomplish this by focusing on Gaskell's fourth novel, North and South. This novel contains all of the communities of interpretation that appear in Gaskell's novels. Each group appears in other novels, as well, and I will draw on those other occurrences to aid and clarify my argument. Also, North and South provides the one character in all of Gaskell's novels who is most successful at reading and interpreting the body across all community boundaries. Margaret Hale comes into contact with characters from all of the groups, and she learns to understand them all. Thus, she is the most complete and successful model of sympathy Gaskell offers in her novels.
McWilliams, Amy Elizabeth (1995). Communities of interpretation: reading the body in the novels of Elizabeth Gaskell. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1995 -THESIS -M3392.