While obviously some external changes have taken place, other things- like the previously mentioned paternalistic attitude- haven't really been altered. In some cases, it is Margaret who has changed and she is regarding her old home with new eyes. We saw some of this when, previously, she was admitting some flaws in the social and economic system of southern England to Nicholas when he was thinking of going there to look for work. Now she is seeing those flaws in person. This is exemplified by her visit to the cottage where Susan and her mother live; Susan isn't there, now being enrolled in school. Margaret is sorry to have missed the girl, but thinks it's a good thing that she's being educated. Mr. Bell, on the other hand, is very much a man of the south. He looks around at the quaint cottage in its rustic setting and thinks that it's a shame that Susan should be taken out of her beautiful simplicity and placed in a schoolroom. He gets a rude awakening when Susan's mother starts telling them how she suspects her neighbour stole her cat to be used for witchcraft. Mr. Bell's default attitude is that the peasants should be kept in their charming, unspoiled, childlike simplicity: child-like being the operative word. But in reality, there is nothing beautiful or charming about ignorance and superstition and Mr. Bell soon admits that Margaret is right.
In this chapter, Margaret realises that you can't go home again, or recapture past happiness. When she and Mr. Bell travel to Helstone, at first glance the village appears to Margaret just the same as she nostalgically remembers it. But once she's actually walking about Helstone and interacting with its denizens, it's obvious that the village has of course, inevitably changed. Structures have been built or destroyed, children she knew have grown and matured over the almost three years she's been gone... Margaret had an idealised vision of Helstone frozen in time in her memory, but life went on in the rural area after the Hales left. The change which she finds hardest to accept is of course that of the new vicar and his family living in the rectory. It's obvious that Rev. Hepworth and his wife are very different in character from Mr and Mrs. Hale and this isn't totally bad. Frankly, Mr. Hale was a nice guy but, with his avoidance of unpleasant confrontation and his tendency to ignore or shy away from painful realities, it strikes me that he would be a rather ineffectual spiritual leader. Nor, I feel, would Mrs. Hale, as querulous, dissatisfied, and self-absorbed as she was while in Helstone, be particularly helpful as a pastor's wife. The Hepworths are obviously very involved in the lives of their flock (Mrs. Hepworth teaches school)... a little too involved, the innkeeper implies as she tells Margaret that the vicar takes it upon himself to go about the fields, examining the labourers' lunch pails to make sure that they're not drinking ginger beer. This lack of respect for boundaries or personal property says a lot about Mr. Hepworth's view of himself and his role in the community, as well as demonstrating his tendency to treat the villagers like children. Even the Hales were not free from this rather paternalistic attitude; when Margaret first meets Nicholas and Bessy in Milton, she proposes to visit them and bring a charitable donation of food. She is shocked when Nicholas objects to both her visiting uninvited and giving them charity, because in Helstone this was just a matter of course. In Milton, there is much more respect- and demand- for independence and personal boundaries; Mr Hepworth felt free to inspect workers' lunches while Mr. Thornton will not even enter the door of the worker's cafeteria at his own mill without being invited by his hands. Margaret is also dismayed by the changes the Hepworths have made to the rectory. They have a large family and have made over some rooms into a nursery, while the once serene garden is now teeming with kids and toys. I must confess that I don't have a lot of sympathy with Margaret on this score. Margaret looks at these changes and only sees that the rectory is not the beautiful place of quiet contemplation it was when the Hales were in residence. But she was living there as an adult with her two older parents: the Hepworths have a young family and frankly, the description of the garden strewn with toys and children makes me like them better. While obviously some external changes have taken place, other things- like the previously mentioned paternalistic attitude- haven't really been altered. In some cases, it is Margaret who has changed and she is regarding her old home with new eyes. We saw some of this when, previously, she was admitting some flaws in the social and economic system of southern England to Nicholas when he was thinking of going there to look for work. Now she is seeing those flaws in person. This is exemplified by her visit to the cottage where Susan and her mother live; Susan isn't there, now being enrolled in school. Margaret is sorry to have missed the girl, but thinks it's a good thing that she's being educated. Mr. Bell, on the other hand, is very much a man of the south. He looks around at the quaint cottage in its rustic setting and thinks that it's a shame that Susan should be taken out of her beautiful simplicity and placed in a schoolroom. He gets a rude awakening when Susan's mother starts telling them how she suspects her neighbour stole her cat to be used for witchcraft. Mr. Bell's default attitude is that the peasants should be kept in their charming, unspoiled, childlike simplicity: child-like being the operative word. But in reality, there is nothing beautiful or charming about ignorance and superstition and Mr. Bell soon admits that Margaret is right. While waiting for the train to go home, Margaret brings up to Mr. Bell the topic which has been preying on her mind: Mr. Thornton's belief that she has behaved immodestly. She relates to Bell everything which happened while Frederick was in Milton and how Thornton knows that she lied and now assumes the worst about her. Her reason for telling Mr. Bell all of this is not to receive absolution or reassurance that she did nothing wrong; Margaret has always admitted to herself that, however necessary they seemed, her actions were dishonest. Rather, she wants Bell to, if the opportunity presents itself, relate what actually occurred to Mr. Thornton. Though she never expects to see him again herself, it haunts her that Thornton now believes her to be immodest, lying to cover up running about with a man. If nothing else, this provides us with a view of Margaret's contrasting attitude towards the two men who have proposed to her. It has never occurred to her for a minute to wonder how Henry Lennox sees her: in fact, he never seems to occur to her at all, except in relation to his handling of Frederick's legal issues. On the other hand, Mr. Thornton preys on Margaret's mind; she wonders what's going on at the mill, listens eagerly for any mention of him by Mr. Bell, and worries about how he now regards her.
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