The novel called Christmas Storms and Sunshine written by Elizabeth Gaskell is what this essay is going to be about. Before beginning with our main topic of the essay, it is important to have a background on who the author is. Gaskell was a Victorian novelist, also notable for her biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë.
Elizabeth Stevenson was born in London on 29 September 1810, the daughter of a Unitarian minister. After her mother's early death, she was raised by an aunt who lived in Knutsford in Cheshire. In 1832, she married William Gaskell, also a Unitarian minister. However, the death of her only son inspired her to write her first novel, 'Mary Barton', which was published anonymously in 1848. It was an immediate success. Her story Mary Barton is somehow, in my opinion, related to Christmas storms and sunshine since in both we have a character named
Mary and in real life her son was sick and dies as well as in the story, mary hodgsons son gets very ill and is in the point of death.
Gaskell died on 12 November 1865, leaving her longest work, 'Wives and Daughters' incomplete.
Im going to continue with the essay by defining the values of citizenship and commitment. Citizenship is carrying out the duties and responsibilities of a member of a particular society. Commitment is when you put your mind to do something. It is the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity etc.
In this story we could see how two political families fight for a great position in the english newspaper. They are enemies because of their disagreements with politics and between the wives. The men are so commited to their job that it brings conflicts and a lot of other problems too. They both were envious families and that makes us realize that at the beginning of the story there’s no citizenship. But as the story continues, there’s a part where the son of mrs hodgson gets very ill that she has to go to her neighbours house ( the jenkins) and ask for help and advice on what to do. For an instant she did not want to help in any way but then she rethought it and decided to help mrs hodgson out with her kid. I thought to myself at that very exact moment that mrs jenkins would not help her nor her son out since she was always complaining about how the hodgsons had a son and they didn’t, how they only had a cat. She used to always show envy and jealousy towers the success of the other family, as a family and as workers. It was a bit surprising seeing an act if kindness coming from her part but it was a good thing as well. Mrs jenkins cat enters the hodgsons apartment and eats mr hodgsons plate of food that was on the table in their kitchen. At the beginning it was a mess because they got very mad about it but then the Jenkins visit the hodgsons with some food to show that they are sorry about what their cat did. It was an act to make the other family forgive them for what their baby cat had done and it also showed empathy to the readers.
This part of the story shows citizenship, as them being neighbours to help each other out and forgive. They were being kind and nice to each other for a change and the story ends with them having a peaceful Christmas dinner together and enjoying their moments as two completely different families but with pure positivity.
