“Such a fine, close weave”:

Gender, Community and the Body in Cranford (2007)

Abstract

Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels have become a popular choice for adaptation for the small screen in recent years. This essay explores the most recent, the 2007 BBC production of Cranford, which was critically and popularly acclaimed. Cranford is intriguing because it represents a movement away from the romance plot, which is usually at the centre of such Sunday night costume dramas, focusing instead on the lives of a group of middle aged, unmarried and unglamorous women. This article interrogates the political agenda behind this adaptation, which I suggest is influenced by the writings of feminist critics on Gaskell, and which is epitomised by what Nina Auerbach calls the Utopian “community of women” that is offered as a criticism of, and resistance to, patriarchal society. Via an examination of the workings of this community, and in particular of its representation of health, illness, and the pathologised male body, this essay discusses Cranford's view of Victorian gender politics, its struggle with gender stereotypes and viewer expectations, and its attempt to give voice to a different kind of heroine.