North and South: Chapter 50 Summary & Analysis

Things are gloomy in Milton. Due to speculative financial ventures, some Milton businesses face the prospect of failure. Even Thornton is “hard pressed.” He has aspired to make a name for himself internationally, but like many who do so, he is “alive to distant, and dead to near things.”

Until Thornton got to know Higgins, he and his fellow townsmen and factory workers have led parallel lives, “very close, but never touching.” But “once brought face to face, man to man, with an individual of the masses around him, and…out of the character of master and workman…they had each begun to recognize” their shared humanity. He has begun to value his position as manufacturer because of the contact it affords him with his people.

Thornton’s business has been damaged by the strike and by the fact that much of his capital is in new, expensive machinery. Thornton at first is inclined to resent Higgins for his role in the strike, but the more they, along with Thornton’s other men, get to know one another, the more they’re able “to look upon each other with far more charity and sympathy.” Soon Thornton is in real trouble, as his stocks fall to nearly half their value, and no new orders come in, and he has to borrow at high interest.

One day Higgins asks Thornton whether he’s heard anything of Margaret recently and notices how Thornton’s face lights up at the mention of her. Then, with a confidential air, Higgins asks whether Frederick’s name has been cleared, having heard the details from Mary while she was working temporarily in the Hale house. Thornton is relieved to know the truth of the young man’s identity.

One morning, after a sleepless night poring over his books, Thornton unburdens himself to Mrs. Thornton, explaining that he no longer dreads any outcome for his struggling business, because he now knows “that no man will suffer by me.” He must give up his business, but he will be able to pay everyone what they are owed. A risky speculation has been offered to him by Fanny’s husband, Watson, which could make him rich but would destroy his conscience. Mrs. Thornton is grieved at the thought that her son might lose his name, but he explains that he will “be always the same John Thornton in whatever circumstances; endeavoring to do right,” though it is hard to have discovered “new powers…too late.” He tries to help Mrs. Thornton reconcile herself to his failure and the loss of his “rightful place.”

Thornton at last has to give up his business. His brother-in-law Watson’s speculation succeeds spectacularly, and Watson is widely admired for his foresight.