Mary Barton: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

That night, Mrs. Barton goes into labor. John runs for a doctor. By the time he returns, Mrs. Barton has died. After examining the corpse, the doctor tells John that some “shock to the system” caused her death. The doctor leaves. John bursts into bitter tears, knowing that he’ll have to return to work soon and thinking that the “shock” that killed her must have been Esther’s disappearance. He feels new hatred for Esther.

In the years after Mrs. Barton’s death, John becomes very tender and trusting toward Mary, who handles their domestic arrangements—but he is taciturn and cold toward most other people. He becomes involved in labor organizing—and little wonder, as employees, who think of themselves as creating their employers’ wealth, must question why the workers suffer so much in hard times while employers seem to live richly no matter what. John’s mother died from privation, and in one trade downturn when John was unemployed, his sick, starving baby Tom died too. These experiences made John want “vengeance” against employers as a class. He becomes a Chartist.

When Mary is 16, John decides that she must “do something.” He doesn’t want her to work in factories, and she doesn’t want to become a domestic servant—in part because she knows she’s pretty and, influenced by her lost-lost Aunt Esther, whom she believes became a lady, she hopes to marry up, which she thinks working as a servant will prevent her from doing. Instead, she becomes a dressmaker’s apprentice to a woman named Miss Simmonds, who agrees to train her in exchange for two years of unpaid work. After two years, Mary will receive a tiny weekly salary.