The Pace of Change as Established Early in Gaskell's 'Cranford' Narrative Leah Katz College

In Elizabeth Gaskell’s “Our Society at Cranford,” the residing women are a group heavily opposed to change. The men in this story exist as instigators of change, and as such, rarely last long in Cranford. The most adamant opposition to these figures of change is Miss Jenkyns. But, through the presence and subsequent death of Captain Brown, Miss Jenkyns becomes the character that undergoes the most significant change throughout the story.

In Miss Jenkyns’ first extended interaction with Captain Brown, she immediately writes him off as a foolish man due to his enjoyment of Dickens’ works. She argues that, “Still, perhaps, the author is young. Let him persevere, and who knows what he may become if he will take the great Doctor as his model?” (Longman 1438). Saying this highlights Miss Jenkyns’ reverence for the past and the old way of doing things. She seems to believe progress is rooted in the replication of the great works of the past, almost emphasizing the type of slow pace she wants progress to take. If artists must always look to the past and base their works on the greatness that came before them, progress will be slow, if existent. But this is what Miss Jenkyns seems to want from her society. She likes the way life is in...