The Heaven and Hell of Bessy Higgins. Unitarian and Universalist Concepts of Afterlife in Elisabeth Gaskell's "North and South"

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Heidelberg (Neuphilologisches Institut), course: Proseminar (In)Justice and Social Abysses in the Victorian Novel, language: English, abstract: Social injustices and human suffering are topics of the Victorian social problem novel. Following the rapid changes of society due to the industrialisation, the English working class became a victim of its circumstances. In Elisabeth Gaskell's novel "North and South" the character of Bessy Higgins embodies the type of the suffering innocent. In this figure, both social criticism and religious concepts and contemporary ideologies come together to form an understanding of afterlife that makes it possible to live with the Hell on Earth of the industrial period. This text studies the religious teachings of Unitarianism and Universalism of the Victorian period and applies them to the understanding of afterlife depicted by Gaskell. In this paper, the term universalism is restricted to Christian universalism in the sense of an apocatastasis (i.e. 'reconstitution' or 'restoration') with focus on the aspect of reconciliation (which is what Bessy repeatedly mentions when she talks of afterlife). The research question is whether the ideas and concepts the character of Bessy Higgins states about life after death are closer to the Unitarian or Universalist belief. This paper will analyse the character's comments and how Heaven and Hell in Bessy's understanding work. The statements will be compared to both religious persuasions and thereby draw the close relation between these two beliefs but also point out their differences.