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

Half Brothers - How far can you read with Helen, Gregory, William Preston and the teller of the tale? How does Elizabeth Gaskell guide your response? HALF BROTHERSHow far can you sympathise with Helen, Gregory, William Preston andthe narrator of the tale? How does Elizabeth Gaskell guide yourresponse?Out of all of the characters in the story, I think that Helen andGregory are the two that are easiest to sympathise with. WilliamPreston is a harder character to sympathise with. The way thatElizabeth Gaskell portrays these characters in the tale, is a greatinfluence on these thoughts.From beginning to end, Helen seems to have led a very tragic life. Thestart of the story consists of a very depressing amount of death andpoverty and this could trigger a sympathetic reaction from the reader.After three years with her first husband, he dies of tuberculosis andleaves her with a young child, barely able to walk and many burdenssuch as a lease on their farm that she is stuck with for anothe r fouryears. As if that wasnt enough, half of the stock on the farm wasdead and the rest had to be sold to deal with more pressing debts. each(prenominal) this made her life very delicate as there was no immediate sourceof income. The way all of this information is provided to the readeris also a reason for the quantity of sympathy generated for Helen. Allof these tragic events in Helens life are included in one singlesentence. This gives the reader the impression that all these eventshappened within a very short-circuit time of each other. This would generateeven more sympathy for Helen.Immediately after this one, massive sentence full of tragedy, andfinancial problems, Elizabeth Gaskell reveals that Helen is expectinganother child. Here, a atomic pile of emotive language is used, like sad andsorry that trigger sympathy. Terms like lonesome dwelling are alsoincluded. This suggests that Helen leads a very lonely, sad life. Withwinter approaching, Helens future asks very bleak. A t this point,Helens sister Fanny goes to stay at the farm to keep her companyand help out. They planned ways to make money and for a short time,Helens life began to look up. However, soon, Helens daughter tookill of scarlet fever and within a week, she died. At this point, Helenwas described as stunned by this blow. The fact that Helen did not cry close gave the impression that Helen was so used to death that shehad been hardened by past experiences.