Essay Questions

Who would you consider to be the main character in the novel?

There are three main contenders for the title of Main Character in "Cranford"; as the novel begins, it seems that Deborah Jenkyns is the main character, because she is the most influential member of the Cranford community. She is the town's matriarch; social acceptability and etiquette are dictated by her, and she is so overpowering that her sister has really not been able to make any decisions for herself at all during her life, since Deborah has made them all for her. The townsfolk tend to look to her for leadership although they don't entirely seem to like her very much; they are afraid of her and also afraid that she will ostracize them from the social events of the town.

Matty Jenkyns becomes more of a central character in the novel as it progresses. Almost every event that is related by the narrator is related in terms of how she might react to it. She plays a role in almost all of the happening and it is clear that she is Mary's closest friend in Cranford. She is a far more sympathetic character than her bossy older sister, and she also seems genuinely popular amongst the other members of the Cranford community.

Although she is the Narrator, and because of her frequent absences from Cranford and therefore from the actual "action" of the story, Mary Smith is not considered to be a character per se, but she is in fact the character most pivotal to the "happy ending" had by all. Mary is also the person who has reached out to the "missing" Peter Jenkyns to tell him about his sister's financial downfall, which prompts his return home to Cranford, and the revelation that although he has been assumed dead all this time, he has in fact been alive and well and living in India.

How are the women of Cranford examples of strong, powerful women?

The nineteenth century is not typically considered to be a time of great emancipation for women, yet the town of Cranford seems to be run almost entirely by the women, who set the tone and dictate the way in which things are done. Deborah Jenkyns is at the helm of the social structure of the town. She is an example of a woman with power over the men in the community because although Captain Brown is male, he is unable to function within Cranford without her social blessing.

There are also examples of women with an entrepreneurial streak; for example, Mary herself starts a tea selling operation out of her living room, and there is even the story of a maid who saves up her meager salary until she is able to purchase her own business. These business-oriented women are not typical examples of the characters seen in nineteenth century novels and this is another way in which they have more power than the average female of their time.