Manchester in Jeanette Winterson
and Alexis the Toqueville

Jeanette Winterson describes Manchester in the second
chapter of her memoir "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal": the description
is based on what she used to see when she was young(she was born in this city in
1959). At the beginning of the text there is a contradiction in the geographic
location when she told "Manchester was in the south of north of England":
according to the author there is a contradiction also it thinking the Industrial
Revolution because it has brought wealth but not wellbeing. Another contrast is
in the fact that Manchester was shared by two earldoms: Lancashire and
Cheshire. In the second part of the essay she examines the features of
Manchester during the Industrial Revolution quoting Hard Times(Dickens) and "the
Condition of the English Working Class in England"(Engels). The city was also
influenced by the Peterloo Massacres and the Corn Laws.

In 1835 Alexis the Toqueville describes Manchester in
the diary of his journey to England and Ireland. The description of the city is
completely different to J. Winterson's one. He analyses the landscape of Manchester
during the I. R., focusing on the consequences on poor people and workers. A.
Toqueville begins his description giving geographic details of the city but he
mostly considers the effects and consequences of the period: he used phrases as
"the regular beat of looms", "the heavy rumble of carts "(that also J.
Winterson used) to make real the description and to make the reader able to
image the place. Also the use of onomatopoeic words help the reader to
understand what happened during the 19^th century.

In conclusion Alexis the Toqueville describes in a
more realistic way the city because he gives lots of details to explain better
the situation of the time. J. Winterson, instead, describes Manchester using
her feelings and so her one is not the best to understand the real condition of
poor people.