John Thornton's treatment of women — More Than Thornton

Tags

Top Highlights

• Thornton has had the strong guidance and support of his mother through the harsh years of poverty and social exclusion following his father's suicide. For years, Thornton had only his mother and his sister for his companions through the defining trials of his young life.

• John knows firsthand both the amazing capabilities and more traditional failings of womanhood.

• there's much to be said by carefully observing how a man treats his mother.

• he makes it quite clear that he admires and respects the foundational moral guidance his mother gave him.

• Mrs. Hale's condition from Dr. Donaldson. He hand-selects the finest fruit he can find to help ease her suffering. Despite being rejected the day before, he can't help wanting to offer a token of kindness and sympathy to his tutor's wife.

• is his respectful interest in her as a moral thinker. Although it's clear he's attracted to her physically from the very first, his interest in her mind is evident in the way he eagerly listens to her.

• But he wants to know what she is thinking

• We know his intentions toward the vicar's daughter are honorable. He wants to make her his wife, but she won't have him. At least not at first...

• Thornton thinks more deeply about individual human value.

• a man is to me a higher and completer being than a gentleman" and implies that the highest indicator of a man's character and worth is not found in a comparison to others, but in the proof of his own endurance, strength and faith.

• He's simply not the type to 'dally' with servants as his heart,soul and body belong to none other than to Margaret.....the only woman who ever succeeded in piercing the veneer, the only woman who he has ever perceived as a lady,who cast aside the business mask, revealing the heart of a full blooded man underneath.

• John Thornton was such a moral and decent man that any woman within his sphere,socially or work wise,would have no reason to fear him.