#gaskill's decision to write the higgins' dialogue in dialect is a personal affront to me and possibly god

[notbecauseofvictories]

I started reading North and South, and while I think the adaptation did a good job of demonstrating how Margaret is quiet and stilted and yes, a little bit haughty, it did not adequately communicate how deeply and immediately into it Thornton is.

#from the bookshelf #they meet when margaret and her father are looking for rooms and the scene proceeds thusly #MARGARET: Oh this is the man my father is meant to tutor. He is very large and rough-looking but that's right for a man in trade. #I will make small talk with him until father returns because I am a genteel lady and that is what is expected of me. #THORNTON: what is this VISION OF WOMANLINESS why is she so COLD and ALOOF I am ashamed just sitting here listening to her talk #and also unexpectedly I am into that? I am angry about being into that and also ashamed and oh god it's suddenly very warm in this room. #he then spends the ENTIRE REST OF THE BOOK convinced he is not good enough for her and progressively ashamed/aroused by this #this is a man who wants to be dommed very badly #(not that margaret's much better; she is most attracted to thornton when he's at the party wordlessly confident and self-assured #among the other manufacturers #she genuinely thinks ''whenever he's at our place he seems so jittery and uncertain and plaintive it's unappealing'' #like. meg. maggie. margaret. do you think.....there might be a reason for that? hmm? maybe?) #also the proposal scene is more satisfying in the bbc adaptation #even though in the book thornton's response to margaret's refusal of him is to announce that's all well and good #but he's going to continue to be in love with her #which incidentally OUTRAGES margaret; after he's gone she tells herself that a gentleman has never threatened her like that #as a final note #gaskill's decision to write the higgins' dialogue in dialect is a personal affront to me and possibly god #north and south