Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life

John Barton and George Wilson, two mill workers and neighbors, spend a summer day with their families in the country just outside of Manchester. Barton’s wife, Mary, is pregnant. She is distressed as her sister Esther has recently gone missing. Just before her disappearance, Esther hinted that one day she would come for the Bartons’ daughter, Mary, and make her a lady. Mrs. Barton has been especially nervous since the death of her young son, Tom. The Bartons’ teenage daughter Mary has tried to cheer them up since Tom died. John Barton tells George Wilson about his disdain for the upper classes and how he only trusts other poor men. George’s son, Jem, flirts with young Mary, who slaps him after he kisses her. George Wilson suggests his sister Alice would be good company for Mrs. Barton.

The Bartons invite the Wilsons over for tea, and Mary runs out to fetch dinner. At the same time, she invites Alice Wilson, who lives nearby. At dinner, Alice makes an unintentional reference to Esther, which dampens the mood of the party significantly. She apologizes to Mrs. Barton when she leaves, and Mrs. Barton is kind and forgiving, though Alice continues to think about her blunder.

That night, Mrs. Barton goes into an early and difficult labor. John Barton fetches the doctor, but the two arrive too late. Mrs. Barton has already died and the doctor declares that nothing could have been done. Barton is angry, and Mary cries alone at her mother’s bedside. Barton blames Esther for his wife’s death, as the doctor had said a shock had caused the onset of labor.

In the years after Mrs. Barton’s death, father and daughter depend on one another and grow close. John Barton joins political clubs and trade unions, and his hatred toward the upper classes increases as he becomes a Chartist. A downturn in the cotton trade causes Barton to be laid off for weeks. During this time, Mary’s younger brother catches scarlet fever. The family’s poverty means they cannot afford to care for him, and he dies.

Barton finds work for Mary as a dressmaker as he does not want his daughter to work in a mill or as a servant for an upper-class family. Mary is 16 and has become aware of her beauty. Occasionally she wishes for a different life and thinks about her aunt Esther’s promise to make her a lady. Mary becomes an apprentice to a dressmaker named Miss Simmonds and enjoys her work despite the tiny earnings she receives.

Another year passes, and John Barton becomes more involved with the Chartist movement. His best friend George Wilson cautions John about getting too involved in radical politics. Jem Wilson has become a mechanical engineer. Mary is annoyed by the praise he gets from his parents and others. One day, Mary runs into Alice Wilson, who invites her to tea with her neighbor, Margaret Jennings. Margaret is a seamstress around Mary’s age, in poor health. Alice speaks about the death of her mother and how she often plans to return to her home further north, but she always has things to do in Manchester and little money so she cannot. She has raised her nephew Will, who is now a sailor. Alice asks Margaret, a great singer, to sing an old Lancashire song for them and Mary is astounded by her singing. The young women leave Alice shortly after and go to see Margaret’s grandfather, a man Mary knows as old Job Legh.

The narrator describes Job Legh as one of a class of Manchester working men who are unsuspecting geniuses. Job is exceedingly kind to Margaret, whom he has raised. Mary finds both Margaret and Job extraordinary people whose modest outward appearances conceal their true value. By the end of that year, she has become good friends with both. One night when they are both sewing a mourning dress, Margaret admits to Mary that she fears she is going blind. She does not know what she and her grandfather will do for money if she does.

Mary and Margaret see people running through the street who tell them that Carson’s Mill—one of the biggest cotton mills—is on fire. Mary draws Margaret away from her distress by taking her to see the fire—something Mary has always wanted to see. A crowd comes to watch the fire but does not do anything to help, even when they see two people still inside the building.

Mary hears that one of the men inside is George Wilson. She tries to leave but is prevented by the crowd. A fire engine finally arrives, and Jem Wilson brings a ladder to help the men. The crowd watches as Jem climbs the ladder to save his unconscious father and the other man. Mary faints as she watches Jem nearly collapse with his efforts. Later that night, when Margaret tells John Barton what happened, he jokes that Jem can have Mary for any price, making Mary angry.

Hearing of the fire, John Barton predicts that mill owner, John Carson, will not be too disappointed as they were well insured and their machinery was outdated. Barton’s prediction proves true, and the Carsons use the downturn in the cotton trade to close the mill and rebuild it. While the Carsons use this free time for leisure, the workers and their families starve. George Wilson and John Barton now both rely on the work of their children to keep them afloat. Other factories begin to close and reduce hours. One day George Wilson asks John Barton if he has any money for a co-worker, Davenport, who is dying of a fever and can’t support his family. Though he has no money, John Barton takes his own dinner to the man and his family.

John Barton pawns much of what he has for five shillings, which he gives to Davenport. He and George Wilson nurse the man and his family. Wilson goes to John Carson to ask for help with Davenport, where he sees the contrast between the splendor the upper classes live in and the Davenports’ home. Carson does not know who Davenport is and offers insufficient help. His son, Harry, who has listened to Wilson’s pleas, gives him the five shillings of loose change from his pocket. Davenport dies shortly after Wilson returns to his house. Mary comes to the Davenports’ and comforts the widow. She is consumed by this duty, forgetting her errands for Miss Simmonds and her meeting with her secret lover, Harry Carson.

George Wilson’s twin sons become ill, and news of this spreads through the town. Mary goes to visit the Wilsons one night and finds that one of the children has died and the other is near death. Mary and Alice prepare the dead bodies after the second child dies, and Alice tells Mary how Jem is currently out working to help pay for his brothers’ medical care. He is overwhelmed with grief when he returns and hears the news and is comforted by Mary. He confesses his love for Mary, who is repulsed that he would do so at such a time. At home, Mary cannot fall asleep as she thinks of how she cannot stop Jem from loving her despite everything she does to put him off. She imagines what it will be like when she marries Harry.

One morning, Jem visits the Bartons, ostensibly to see John Barton, but really to see Mary. John Barton tells Jem that most mill accidents happen during the last few hours of work when the men are exhausted from their hours of laboring. The narrator discusses the commercial depression of 1839-1841 and the great divide between employers and employees during this time. John Barton is one of many across British industrial cities who is invited to speak to Parliament about the destitution he has seen and faced, and he invites his neighbors over to discuss their complaints.

Before leaving for London, John Barton tells Mary that George Wilson’s wife Jane seems ill. Mary is determined not to see Harry while her father is away, for propriety’s sake, although both Harry and their go-between Sally try to persuade her otherwise. George Wilson suddenly dies, and Mary wants to comfort Jane but is determined not to see Jem. Margaret visits Mary, and her eyesight has worsened. She tells Mary that she was invited to sing in public the previous night and that she had told her grandfather about her worsening eyesight that morning.