Chapter 37
Pride and Desperate Measures
LOOKING SOUTH. “A spade! a rake! a hoe! A pickaxe or a bill! A hook to reap, or a scythe to mow, A flail or what ye will— And here’s a ready hand To ply the needful tool, And skill’d enough, by lessons rough, In Labour’s rugged school.” HOOD. Higgins’s door was locked the next day, when they went to pay their call on the widow Boucher: but they learnt this time from an officious neighbour, that he was really from home. He had, however, been in to see Mrs. Boucher, before starting on his day’s business, whatever that was.…
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Now let's explore the literary elements.
Key Quotes & Analysis
"guilty of it"
The stark two-word self-judgement, undeveloped and unqualified, carries more weight than any extended self-examination could. The fact that Margaret does not immediately argue against the charge or mitigate it shows that she is being rigorously honest with herself at this moment in the chapter.
In Today's Words:
Margaret arrives at the bare fact of her own dishonesty without softening it with context or justification: she was guilty of lying. Gaskell uses the compressed self-judgement to show what honest self-reckoning looks like at its most austere, stripped of the qualifying clauses with which we normally present our failures to ourselves. The two words land with the finality of something that has been genuinely faced rather than processed through narrative.
"She wondered if she should have minded detection half so much from any one else."
Margaret's private question, whether Thornton's knowledge of her lie matters to her more than anyone else's would, is the novel's most direct prompt to her own feelings. She is asking herself why this particular person's opinion of her is the one that costs the most, and the question implies an answer she is not yet ready to name.
In Today's Words:
Margaret is asking herself whether she would have cared as much about being found out if anyone other than Thornton had discovered she had lied about being at the station. The implicit answer is no, she would not have cared half as much, and Gaskell uses this question to signal what Margaret has not yet acknowledged consciously: that Thornton's opinion of her has become the one that matters most, which is itself information about feelings she has been refusing to examine.
"North an’ South have each getten their own troubles."
Higgins's summary observation holds the novel's central argument in its plainest form. It does not say North and South are equivalent or that their troubles cancel out; it says each has its own real difficulty that the other does not fully understand. The acknowledgement is the beginning of the sympathy the novel wants both sides to reach.
In Today's Words:
Higgins is saying, in the dialect that is the language of his knowledge, that the North and the South have each real troubles of their own, and that the capacity to acknowledge this, for a Milton mill worker to admit that the South also has its difficulties, is a form of intellectual honesty that the novel rewards. Gaskell gives this observation to Higgins rather than to any of the educated characters because it is more powerful coming from someone whose own side has the most to gain from dismissing the other.
"If it were only for her sake, I wish he would come, and then at least I should know how much I was abased in his eyes."
Margaret's complex sentence holds two incompatible wishes: she wants Thornton to come because she wants to know the full extent of his low opinion of her, which would allow her to know her position precisely, and she frames this wish in her mother's name. The logic of wanting to know the worst is the logic of someone who cannot bear the uncertainty of not knowing.
In Today's Words:
Margaret is telling herself that she wishes Thornton would visit, partly so that she could honour her dead mother's wish for the connection, and partly so that she could find out exactly how low his opinion of her has fallen after the lie, and having that information would at least release her from the suspense of not knowing. In plain terms, she prefers the definite knowledge of his contempt to the ongoing uncertainty of imagining it, which is itself a sign of how much his opinion has come to matter to her.
Thematic Threads
Deception
In This Chapter
Margaret's lie about Frederick haunts her, creating internal torment about her integrity
Development
Evolved from her earlier criticism of trade dishonesty to personal moral compromise
In Your Life:
You might recognize this when a necessary lie to protect someone you love makes you question your entire character.
Class
In This Chapter
Higgins faces rejection everywhere due to his reputation as a strike leader, forcing him to consider leaving
Development
Deepened from abstract class conflict to personal consequences of taking a stand
In Your Life:
You see this when speaking up at work labels you a troublemaker, limiting future opportunities.
Pride
In This Chapter
Higgins must swallow his pride to ask Thornton for work, despite their bitter history
Development
Transformed from destructive pride that fueled conflict to pride that must bend for survival
In Your Life:
You face this when you need help from someone you've had conflict with, but people depend on you.
Responsibility
In This Chapter
Higgins takes on supporting Boucher's family out of guilt, while Mrs. Boucher avoids her responsibilities
Development
Introduced here as contrast between taking on burdens and shirking them
In Your Life:
You might see this when someone's crisis becomes your responsibility because they won't handle it themselves.
Identity
In This Chapter
Margaret realizes her southern perspective helps her see the reality of agricultural life that Higgins romanticizes
Development
Built from her ongoing reconciliation of northern and southern experiences
In Your Life:
You recognize this when your background gives you insight others lack, making you responsible for sharing hard truths.
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
This is not a test. Five prompts guide you through the chapter, from how it opens to how it closes, so you notice context and rhythm rather than facts to memorize. Sit with each question in your own words. When you see "One way to read it," treat it as a starting point, not the only answer.
- 1
Margaret sits with the verdict 'guilty of it' without immediately reaching for mitigating context. Why might Gaskell have her hold the bare self-judgement without qualification at this moment?
One way to read it
The bare self-judgement is the honest version of moral reckoning, the thing before the explanations arrive. Margaret knows why she lied and understands the justification, but she makes herself confront the fact of the lie itself first, without the protection of context. Gaskell is showing that genuine moral seriousness requires facing the action in itself before assessing whether the reasons were sufficient, and that most people tend to skip directly to the reasons.
- 2
Margaret wonders whether she would have cared as much about Thornton's knowledge of her lie if it had been anyone else. What is Gaskell signalling through this question about the state of her feelings?
One way to read it
The question implies its answer: no, she would not have cared as much from anyone else. Gaskell is using Margaret's private wondering to point at something Margaret cannot yet say directly: that Thornton's opinion of her has become the one that carries the most weight, which is itself evidence of feelings that go beyond the social and the principled. The reader understands this before Margaret is prepared to.
- 3
Higgins's observation that 'North an' South have each getten their own troubles' is placed near the end of a chapter of social, moral, and personal crisis. Why might Gaskell have chosen this particular position for the novel's central reconciling thesis?
One way to read it
By placing the reconciling observation after a day that has included a suicide, a widow's breakdown, and Margaret's private moral reckoning, Gaskell is showing that the understanding is hard-won rather than easy. The insight comes out of the specific accumulated experience of the day rather than as an abstract social principle, which is why Gaskell trusts Higgins to voice it: he has earned it, and so has the reader by this point in the novel.
- 4
Margaret's wish for Thornton to visit, 'if only for her mother's sake,' is complicated by her admission that she really wants to know how much she has fallen in his estimation. What does this reveal about her relationship to honesty about herself?
One way to read it
The framing of a selfish or self-regarding wish in the language of duty or devotion to another is a very human form of self-deception, and Margaret is catching herself doing it here. She knows that the 'for her mother's sake' is not the whole truth of why she wants him to come, and the sentence's structure, the admitted second motive following the presented first, shows her being honest with herself about the dishonesty of the frame. It is a moment of double self-knowledge.
- 5
The chapter is titled 'Looking South.' How does the direction of this gaze function symbolically in a novel that has been primarily about the clash between North and South?
One way to read it
Looking south implies nostalgia for Helstone, for the simpler social and moral landscape of Margaret's childhood, but Gaskell makes clear that the south is also a fantasy of resolution: it represents the world Margaret could return to if she left Milton and its complications. But the chapter makes her inability to simply flee southward clear: she is bound by her father, by her guilt, by her feelings for Thornton. The south is both what she misses and what she can no longer simply be.
Critical Thinking Exercise
Map Your Shame Compass
Think of a recent situation where you felt ashamed or guilty. Draw two columns: 'What I Can Control' and 'What I Can't Control.' List everything about that situation in the appropriate column. Then identify one concrete action you could take to address something from the 'Can Control' side.
Consider:
- •Notice if you're spending more mental energy on the 'Can't Control' side
- •Ask yourself: 'Is this shame pointing me toward growth or just punishment?'
- •Consider how your shame response affects others who depend on you
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time when shame motivated you to make a positive change versus a time when shame just made you feel stuck. What was the difference in how you handled each situation?
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 38: When Pride and Misunderstanding Collide
Higgins faces his dreaded confrontation with Thornton, while Margaret anxiously awaits the outcome of this meeting between two proud, principled men who could either destroy or understand each other. The opening of CHAPTER XXXVIII. will force Margaret to act faster than she expected, and the choice she makes there will echo through every relationship still ahead..
