I noticed that this is a little late but I wanted to just htorw some ideas your way to see if this will help you for your paper. Mary Barton's main themes are definitely class-the difference between the life of the poor along with the life of the rich. John Barton, the father of Mary is so fed up with how he gets treated at work and so he then goes to murder Mr. carson's son. Throughout the trial you see significance of the differences throughout and why or why not people accuse Jen Wilson to be the one that does it. Mr. carson thoguh does not care about anything else but himself and since he is part of the high class he doesn't care what happens as long as the killer is part to justice.
             I have not read Wuthering Heights for awhile but maybe you could tak about the correlation between the main owmen in th estory and how they struggle to get by but are able to become individuals. Hope this helps
             It's been a while since I've read it but I'll see what I can remember... OK, the main themes are Religion, Gender, and Class... that's typical for Victorian Lit. Gaskell is a big fan of equality among classes... much like Dickens. Things only work out in the book when there is communication between the classes. Also, as something that sort of ties in with both Religion and Gender, women in Mary Barton are portrayed as being best when they are peacemakers. Gaskell's ideal seems to be that women should do what they can where they are and on peaceful terms...
             noticed that this is a little late but I wanted to just htorw some ideas your way to see if this will help you for your paper. Mary Barton's main themes are definitely class-the difference between the life of the poor along with the life of the rich. John Barton, the father of Mary is so fed up with how he gets treated at work and so he then goes to murder Mr. carson's son. Throughout the trial you see significance of the differences throughout and why or why not people accuse Jen Wils...