2004B FRQ #1
Post date: Jan 24, 2014 8:2:2 PM
(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)
The following passage comes from Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton (1848), a novel about mill workers living in Manchester, England, in the 1840’s. In this scene, George Wilson, one of the workers, goes to the house of Mr. Carson, the mill owner, to request care for a fellow worker dying of typhus. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how Gaskell uses elements such as point of view, selection of detail, dialogue, and characterization to make a social commentary.
Wilson had about two miles to walk before he
reached Mr Carson’s house, which was almost in the
country. The streets were not yet bustling and busy.
The shop-men were lazily taking down the shutters,
5 although it was near eight o’clock; for the day was
long enough for the purchases people made in that
quarter of the town, while trade was so flat. One or
two miserable-looking women were setting off on
their day’s begging expedition. But there were few
10 people abroad. Mr Carson’s was a good house, and
furnished with disregard to expense. But in addition to
lavish expenditure, there was much taste shown, and
many articles chosen for their beauty and elegance
adorned his rooms. As Wilson passed a window
15 which a housemaid had thrown open, he saw pictures
and gilding, at which he was tempted to stop and
look; but then he thought it would not be respectful.
So he hastened on to the kitchen door. The servants
seemed very busy with preparations for breakfast; but
20 good-naturedly, though hastily, told him to step in,
and they could soon let Mr Carson know he was there.
So he was ushered into a kitchen hung round with
glittering tins, where a roaring fire burnt merrily, and
where numbers of utensils hung round, at whose
25 nature and use Wilson amused himself by guessing.
Meanwhile, the servants bustled to and fro; an out-
door man-servant came in for orders, and sat down
near Wilson; the cook broiled steaks, and the kitchen-
maid toasted bread, and boiled eggs.
30 The coffee steamed upon the fire, and altogether
the odours were so mixed and appetizing, that Wilson
began to yearn for food to break his fast, which had
lasted since dinner1 the day before. If the servants had
known this, they would have willingly given him
35 meat and bread in abundance; but they were like the
rest of us, and not feeling hunger themselves, forgot it
was possible another might. So Wilson’s craving
turned to sickness, while they chattered on, making
the kitchen’s free and keen remarks upon the parlour.
40 ‘How late you were last night, Thomas!’
‘Yes, I was right weary of waiting; they told
me to be at the rooms by twelve; and there I was. But
it was two o’clock before they called me.’
‘And did you wait all that time in the street?’
45 asked the housemaid who had done her work for the
present, and come into the kitchen for a bit of gossip.
‘My eye as like! you don’t think I’m such a fool
as to catch my death of cold, and let the horses catch
their death too, as we should ha’ done if we’d stopped
50 there. No! I put th’ horses up in th’ stables at th’
Spread Eagle, and went mysel’, and got a glass or two
by th’ fire. They’re driving a good custom, them, wi’
coachmen. There were five on us, and we’d many a
quart o’ ale, and gin wi’ it, to keep out cold.’
55 ‘Mercy on us, Thomas; you’ll get a drunkard at
last!’