# John Boucher — North and South character guide

> John Boucher in North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** John Boucher, Boucher, poor Boucher

**First appearance:** 0016-xvii-what-is-a-strike

## Snapshot

A desperate, half-mad mill hand whose starving children and passionate grievances make him the strike's most dangerous and pitiable figure.

## Who they are

Boucher is the striker whose frantic words and wild ways haunt Margaret after she hears him beg Thornton for mercy. He is not a villain but a man pushed past endurance by hungry children and union pressure, and his distress exposes the raw nerve beneath the strike's rhetoric. His fate becomes a test of Thornton's hardness and Margaret's compassion, and a warning of what desperation can drive a father to do.

## Relationships

### [Margaret Hale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se/characters/margaret_hale)

_social_

A brief, pitying acquaintance where Margaret tries to help the desperate, impoverished mill worker Boucher and his family.

### [Margaret Hale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se/characters/margaret_hale)

_social_

A brief, pitying acquaintance where Margaret tries to help the desperate, impoverished mill worker Boucher and his family.

## In the story

### [XVII: What Is a Strike?](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se/chapters/xvii-what-is-a-strike)

Mentioned by Higgins as a neighbor with a sickly wife and eight children, whose cause Higgins claims to champion.

### [XIX: Angel Visits](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se/chapters/xix-angel-visits)

Desperately describes his family's starvation, especially his son Jack, and threatens to throw the strike money back at the masters if his wife dies.

### [XXI: The Dark Night](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se/chapters/xxi-the-dark-night)

Referenced in Margaret and Mr. Hale's conversation about the strike and his desperate state.

### [XXII: A Blow and Its Consequences](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se/chapters/xxii-a-blow-and-its-consequences)

Identified by Margaret as part of the mob, livid with rage and fighting to reach the front.

### [Union Not Always Strength](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se/chapters/xxxvi-union-not-always-strength)

Mentioned as having been a fool and a rioter; his suicide is discovered, and his family is left destitute.

### [XXXVII: Looking South](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se/chapters/xxxvii-looking-south)

His suicide is the central event of the chapter; his widow and children are visited by the Hales.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se/characters/john_boucher
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/north_and_south_se/characters