Both Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South" and Charles Dickens' "Hard Times" employ the use of relationships between the characters to dramatize the issues that confront an individual in society. Margaret Hale and Louisa Gradgrind, the female protagonists in the two novels, although they have very different personalities, their similar experiences in coming into contact with the poorer working classes highlights the conflicting views of society, both across different classes and within. Margaret and Louisa's interaction …showed first 75 words of 1998 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1998 total…their individualism, turning into machines even as they exploit machinery in industry. Qualities such as compassion, moral purity and emotional sensitivity are cast aside and taken over by the monotone of life in the factory business. Through the relationships between Louisa and other characters, and Margaret with the people from the North and the South, Dickens and Gaskell encourages readers to question the plight of the individual in the face of unchecked capitalism and economics.