Nice Work and North and South

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Appropriating a Text Invites us to Consider How Context Affects Values” Write an Essay in which you explain how the values of the original text are preserved or changed in its appropriated form. In your response you should discuss TWO themes and relate them to each novel. Nice Work by David Lodge, an appropriation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, challenges and preserves the values of the original text. The two texts are set in extremely different periods in England, Gaskell’s in Milton in the 1850’s at the height of the Industrial Revolution, Lodge’s in Rummidge in 1986. Many values are supported in Lodge’s appropriation such as the value of change and hard work, although they are altered slightly in order to fit into the context of the appropriated novel. Gaskell highly values the necessity for change in order for progress to occur in her novel, North and South. The Industrial Revolution was a time of changing values and ideas about society. The upper and middle classes did not approve of the change, preferring their social status to remain and the Victorian Era to continue unchanged. The move from Helstone to Milton in North and South allows Gaskell to express the value of change. Margaret changes significantly throughout the course of the novel – beginning as highly judgmental of all northerners and becoming more accepting and friendly as the novel progresses. Living in Milton allows Margaret to change her perspective of life and her views on the two different towns. She comes to realise that in comparison to Milton, Helstone is stagnant and boring and tries to convince Higgins of this, saying “you would be bored there.” When Margaret returns to Helstone she no longer feels so obsessed with her old home town; the time spent away has allowed her to realise the issues in the south. This is seen when she hears of a cat being stolen and killed to cover
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