Helstone

Ahhhh, Helstone. Where the birds always sing and the brooks always babble. According to Margaret Hale, "Helstone is like a village in a poem—in one of Tennyson's poems" (1.1.38). And for those who haven't read Alfred Lord Tennyson, all you need to know here is that the dude was super sentimental when it came to describing the beauty of nature, like in his famous poem "The Lady of Shalott." So yeah, Helstone is kind of a utopia in this book. Of course the story has to force Margaret to leave this place if there is going to be conflict.

Whenever Margaret is not in Helstone, she spends her time thinking about how much she misses Helstone. When she's living in the dirty northern city of Milton, for example, she finds that "[Letters] had come, making her dwell on the thoughts of home with all the longing of love. Helstone, itself, was in the dim past" (1.21.36). Helstone is like a symbolic Garden of Eden for Margaret. Leaving the place is like falling from a perfect world into the dim, dark world of factories and greed. The majority of this book, in fact, focuses on how difficult it is for Margaret to make the transition.

And what is this transition but the classic loss of innocence. Yep. That thing, that growing-up thing that plagues 99.99% of literary characters under the age of forty. Helstone is so freaking perfect that it—like innocence—ain't built to last. By leaving Helstone not only do the wheels of plot start a-rolling, but Margaret starts growing up.

Helstone also has the honor of symbolizing not only innocence, but also the rural South of England. No wonder Margaret dislikes the North so much: anything compared to the picture-perfect landscape of Helstone is going to seem awful.

But let's recall the problems with Helstone, even as we talk about just how pretty and full of flowers it is. When everyone is in Helstone, they don't think of it as all that dandy. Mr. Hale doesn't like it, because he doesn't like his position there as a pastor. Mrs. Hale doesn't like it because it reminds her that she married for love and not for money. Sure, Margaret never had a problem with it, but that's because she never really lived there. She was in London for ten years and really only saw Helstone as a vacation house.

How each member of the Hale family reacts to Helstone is symbolic of major aspects of their character. The fact that Margaret lurves Helstone—despite the fact that it's been a glorified vacation home for her for the past ten years—is symbolic of her initial tendency to make snap judgments based on very little. Snap judgments like: "Thornton is bad, even though I don't know him that well."

That Mrs. Hale is resentful of Helstone until she leaves it is symbolic of her tendency to regret her decisions and to be really terrible at living in the moment. Mrs. Hale is all "Why did I marry for love? Poor me. Why do I live in Helstone? Poor me." And then, when she's gone from Helstone, and about to die and leave her husband, she remembers how awesomesauce Helstone was and sits holding her hubby's hand for hours.

The only one whose relationship to Helstone is symbolic of something good in their character is Mr. Hale. He thinks carefully and realizes he needs to leave Helstone, and he ultimately does not regret that decision. You know, the way he carefully thinks over everything and doesn't have many regrets in general.