#I think that Margaret and Higgins would have had very different attitudes towards Thornton

[jordisstigander]

I can't remember specifically what the book says on that topic, but it is explicitly addressed in the mini series.

Margaret learns that Bessy has fluff on her lungs, and she asks if it happened at Malborough Mills. Bessy says no: she had previously worked elsewhere (perhaps Hampers?) before they learned the danger that inhaling the cotton fluff could bring. When Higgins learned about it, he immediately moved Bessie to Malborough Mills because they had the wheel/fan and it was safer.

But it was already too late.

The series also includes a dinner scene where Thornton is explicitly stated to have wheels installed in all of his factories. Once again, I do not remember if there is an equivalent passage in the book.

"(Since Bessy works in Thornton's mill and 'the fluff got into [her] lungs and poisoned' her [NSy I, ch. 13, p. 102], Thornton is clearly not one of the few masters who have installed a fan to 'carry off th' dust'.)"

mmm... No? It's never said that she did work at Marlborough? Thornton produces cotton fabric (that's Higgins speciality, working with looms), Bessy worked at a carding room. Maybe factories had the whole process and not just a part of it? But doesn't seem so to me. There's even a certain implication that the place might have been women-only (Higgins didn't want Bessy to work on a place he didn't know, because she was a pretty girl).

But most importantly, if Bessy's death had been caused by the poor working conditions at Marlborough... Don't you think that would have been... a significant thing to be addressed... When Higgins seeks employment there? Or are we supposed to assume he wouldn't have strong personal feelings about... the man who owns the factory that killed Bessy?

I can't even blame the miniseries (though of course no one should be writing academic papers on something if their point of reference is a tv adaptation), because I don't think that's said there? and if I recall correctly the series makes it so that Thornton IS installing the wheels in Marlborough?