Research One - Opium Addiction in Mary Barton

 This first section of research will analyse Elizabeth Gaskell's representation of opium and alcohol addiction within the novel Mary Barton. The protagonist's father John Barton, a chartist factory worker, becomes addicted to opium as he declines into poverty. The research will detail Gaskell's sympathy to opium addiction and compare to the social and economic context of opium addiction in the mid-19th century.  It will then research this visually through opium dens and descriptions from the novel.